A legal showdown is continuing to erupt over misconduct allegations in the filming of It Ends With Us, with Justin Baldoni suing Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynold for orchestrating a campaign to smear him.
Baldoni, in a lawsuit filed in New York federal court on Thursday, alleges extortion, defamation and claims related to breach of contract, among several others. He’s joined by his film studio, Wayfarer and its chief executive Jamey Heath, and their public relations representatives, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel. They seek at least $400 million.
Also named in the lawsuit: Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds and Leslie Sloane, the actresses’ public relations representative of Vision PR who didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s lawyer, said the lawsuit is “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.”
He added, “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.”
The filing of the lawsuit follows Lively following through on suing Baldoni and his public relations team for allegedly marshaling a sophisticated, multi-tiered plan to undermine her reputation in retaliation for speaking up about sexual misconduct on the set of the film. The same day that legal action was initiated last month, Baldoni sued the Times for allegedly conspiring with Lively’s public relations team to advance an “unverified and self-serving narrative” while ignoring evidence that contradicted her claims.
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