Blake Lively’s Another Simple Favor director Paul Feig gave an update on how she’s coping amid her $161 million federal lawsuit against her It Ends with Us director-leading man Justin Baldoni.
‘Blake is great,’ the 63-year-old filmmaker told Extra at the Oscars on Sunday.
‘She’s great. She’s just, you know, soldiering on…I love her.’
Then without any prompting, Feig went on to call the troubled 38-year-old a ‘wonderful, great mom’ – which is ‘the biggest part of her life.’
The Housemaid director also confirmed ‘she has a happy marriage’ to her husband Ryan Reynolds, whom she’s been spending time in Wales with as he films season five of his FX reality show Welcome to Wrexham.
Lively (born Brown) accused Baldoni of retaliating against her with an online smear campaign after she alleged he sexually harassed her – including unscripted kissing – on the set of their 2024 domestic violence drama.
Blake Lively’s (L, pictured April 29) Another Simple Favor director Paul Feig (R) gave an update on how she’s coping amid her $161 million federal lawsuit against her It Ends with Us director-leading man Justin Baldoni
However, Feig had no problem with the LA-born mother-of-four improvising squeezing her onscreen husband Henry Golding’s crotch while filming A Simple Favor in 2017 and eagerly encouraged her to ‘grab his nuts harder.’
‘That’s always awkward, like, “Hey nice to meet you. Can I grab your nuts really hard? Not because I want to [but] because I feel like she would,”‘ Lively explained on the DVD commentary.
In a legal filing last November, Baldoni released footage of the Secrets of the Penguins narrator improvising an unscripted kiss on himself in a deleted hospital scene, which he had not agreed to.
Lively had never even worked with an intimacy coordinator before It Ends with Us, she only worked 16 days on set and yet successfully scored the coveted PGA credit after masterminding a hostile takeover of the entire production.
The ex-BFF of Taylor Swift – who requires ‘authorship’ on all her films – took over directing, script, wardrobe, score and editing departments by threatening to pull out of promoting the movie with support from distributor Sony Pictures.
But the Lively backlash began after she was cast in the role of a much younger 23-year-old florist and she didn’t help her likeability with her sarcastic answers about DV and floral-filled Barbie-style promotion directly tied to her haircare and booze brands.
The marketing for It Ends with Us was masterminded by Reynolds’ company, Maximum Effort.
The Canadian 49-year-old’s shell company Vanzan was also behind the sham lawsuit that issued the subpoena exposing Wayfarer publicist Jennifer Abel’s text messages, which were published by the New York Times in bad faith in 2024.
‘Blake is great,’ the 63-year-old filmmaker told Extra at the Oscars on Sunday. ‘She’s great. She’s just, you know, soldiering on…I love her’
Then without any prompting, Feig went on to call the troubled 38-year-old a ‘wonderful, great mom’ – which is ‘the biggest part of her life’ (pictured in 2025)
The Housemaid director also confirmed ‘she has a happy marriage’ to her husband Ryan Reynolds (L, pictured Monday), whom she’s been spending time in Wales with as he films season five of his FX reality show Welcome to Wrexham
Lively accused Baldoni (L, pictured in 2024 on set) of retaliating against her with an online smear campaign after she alleged he sexually harassed her – including unscripted kissing – on the set of their 2024 domestic violence drama
However, Feig had no problem with the LA-born mother-of-four improvising squeezing her onscreen husband Henry Golding’s crotch while filming A Simple Favor in 2017 and eagerly encouraged her to ‘grab his nuts harder’ (pictured in 2025)
‘That’s always awkward, like, “Hey nice to meet you. Can I grab your nuts really hard? Not because I want to [but] because I feel like she would,”‘ Lively explained on the DVD commentary
In a legal filing last November, Baldoni released footage of the Secrets of the Penguins narrator improvising an unscripted kiss on himself in a deleted hospital scene (pictured), which he had not agreed to
Lively had never even worked with an intimacy coordinator before It Ends with Us, she only worked 16 days on set and yet successfully scored the coveted PGA credit after masterminding a hostile takeover of the entire production (pictured on set in 2024)
The ex-BFF of Taylor Swift – who requires ‘authorship’ on all her films – took over directing, script, wardrobe, score and editing departments by threatening to pull out of promoting the movie with support from distributor Sony Pictures
Lively (pictured February 11) is set to face off against the 42-year-old filmmaker and his PR team in Manhattan US District Court starting May 18, but the general public have already sided with Baldoni
The Gossip Girl alum – who also issued 107 subpoenas to ordinary content creators – would not have had any case without that Vanzan subpoena.
Lively is set to face off against the 42-year-old filmmaker and his PR team in Manhattan US District Court starting May 18, but the general public have already sided with Baldoni.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants alum signed on to produce and star in Lionsgate action rom-com The Survival List with Marc Platt ‘in talks to produce’ but there’s been no update on the project since August.
Reynolds has two films due out this year – Warner Bros. live-action animated comedy Animal Friends (June 5) and Apple TV comedy Mayday (September 4) – both of which his company Maximum Effort produced.
Meanwhile, Feig is currently in pre-production on the Lionsgate sequel The Housemaid’s Secret, which will shoot this fall with Sydney Sweeney, Michele Morrone and Amanda Seyfried reprising their roles.
The five-time Emmy nominee is set to produce and direct the big-screen adaptation of Freida McFadden’s 2023 erotic thriller novel following the undeniable success of The Housemaid, which amassed $395 million at the global box office last year.
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