Justin Baldoni launches $400 million lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds
Justin Baldoni has filed a new $400 million lawsuit against his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds.
Baldoni filed the 179-page document in the Southern District of New York on January 16th. It alleges that Lively and Reynolds committed civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy against him which Baldoni is claiming has cost $400 million in damages.
The lawsuit reads: “At bottom, this is not a case about celebrities sniping at each other in the press. This is a case about two of the most powerful stars in the world deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio… When Plaintiffs have their day in court, the jury will recognize that even the most powerful celebrity cannot bend the truth to her will.”
In a statement, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said of the new lawsuit: “This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.”
Freedman continued: “It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret.”
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Freedman also alleged that Lively “either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth”. The lawyer added: “Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power. Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”
Lively and Reynolds are yet to respond to Baldoni’s latest lawsuit.
On December 31st, Baldoni filed an initial libel lawsuit against the New York Times for its reporting on Lively’s claims that he and his production company, Wayfarer, had embarked on a coordinated smear campaign to discredit her.
Hours later, also on December 31st, Lively filed a federal lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer, and several others, making her allegations about the director’s behaviour on set official. In the suit, she claims that he made repeated comments about her body and the bodies of other women working on the film, referred to his sexual history, and allegedly pressured Lively to share details of her own sexual history.
Lively previously submitted another lawsuit with the California Civil Rights Department against Baldoni on December 21st, accusing the director of sexual harassment while they worked on It Ends With Us.
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