Justin Baldoni sues Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for $400 million as “It Ends With Us” dispute deepens

Justin Baldoni filed a counter lawsuit towards “It Ends With Us” co-star Blake Full of life and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, on Thursday, alleging the couple hijacked his movie and sought to destroy his livelihood and profession.

Within the lawsuit’s 179-page criticism filed within the Southern District of New York, Baldoni accuses Full of life and Reynolds of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privateness. 

The lawsuit, which additionally named Full of life’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, and her agency Imaginative and prescient PR Inc., comes shortly after Baldoni filed a separate defamation lawsuit towards The New York Instances, which first reported Full of life’s allegations of sexual harassment towards Baldoni in the course of the movie’s manufacturing.

Baldoni’s manufacturing firm Wayfarer Studios, his enterprise accomplice Jamey Heath and two others are additionally named as plaintiffs within the lawsuit towards Full of life and Reynolds. They’re looking for not less than $400 million in damages.

A spokesperson from Full of life’s authorized workforce mentioned Baldoni’s counterclaim is a typical tactic abusers use to discredit victims by turning the tables on them. The spokesperson mentioned the DARVO declare — deny, assault, reverse sufferer offender — is a well-documented methodology usually mentioned in the course of the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trials.

“They’re attempting to shift the narrative to Ms. Full of life by falsely claiming that she seized artistic management and alienated the solid from Mr. Baldoni,” the spokesperson mentioned in an announcement. “The proof will present that the solid and others had their very own unfavorable experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer. The proof may even present that Sony requested Ms. Full of life to supervise Sony’s minimize of the movie, which they then chosen for distribution and was a powerful success.”

Bryan Freedman, an legal professional representing Baldoni, advised CBS Information in an announcement the lawsuit particulars alleged proof that Full of life disseminated “grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored info to the media.”

“It’s clear primarily based on our personal all out willingness to supply all full textual content messages, emails, video footage and different documentary proof that was shared between the events in actual time, that this can be a battle she won’t win and will definitely remorse,” Freedman mentioned.

Full of life in December got here ahead with allegations of sexual harassment towards Baldoni, who additionally directed and co-financed the movie adaption of the 2016 Colleen Hoover novel that explores home violence and emotional abuse. 

Full of life’s criticism towards Baldoni, Heath and Wayfarer Studios, initially reported by The New York Instances, included accusations that, after a gathering by which she and Reynolds addressed alleged “repeated sexual harassment and different disturbing conduct” by Baldoni and a producer on the film, he and the studio “launched into a ‘multi-tiered plan’ to break her fame following the assembly.”

“The allegations towards The New York Instances on this new lawsuit are meritless and recycled from the equally baseless claims within the go well with that was filed towards The Instances in California,” a spokesperson for The New York Instances mentioned in an announcement.  

Based on The New York Instances, Full of life’s lawsuit additionally included texts allegedly despatched by Baldoni’s publicist, Jennifer Abel, to disaster PR specialist Melissa Nathan, each of whom are named as plaintiffs in Baldoni’s lawsuit, which say the actor “desires to really feel like she may be buried,” and, “We will not write we’ll destroy her.”

In Baldoni’s countersuit, he claimed that his former publicist, Stephanie Jones, was “full of impotent rage” at him and Abel, who left Jones’ firm Jonesworks to type her personal agency and work for Baldoni. 

In flip, Baldoni’s lawsuit alleges, Jones colluded with Full of life, Reynolds and Sloane to grab Abel’s telephone and “mine it for messages that, stripped of context, could possibly be used to concoct a false narrative” to make it seem that Baldoni was behind unfavorable press protection and public reactions to Full of life.

The brand new lawsuit says the plaintiffs didn’t wish to file the go well with, however that Full of life “has unequivocally left them with no selection, not solely to set the report straight in response to Full of life’s accusations, but in addition to place the highlight on the elements of Hollywood that they’ve devoted their careers to being the antithesis of.”

An e-mail looking for remark from Sloane, whose PR firm represents each Full of life and Reynolds, was not instantly answered.

The 2 actors are additionally represented by the WME company, which dropped Baldoni as a consumer after Full of life filed a authorized criticism that was a precursor to her lawsuit, and the Instances revealed its story on the battle surrounding the movie.

The shock hit movie has made main waves in Hollywood and led to discussions of the remedy of feminine actors each on units and in media.

contributed to this report.