Justin Baldoni accuses Blake Lively of not reading ‘It’s Over With Us’

Justin Baldoni blames him It ends with us costar Blake Lively he didn’t put in the work when it came to starring in a book-to-film adaptation.

Baldoni, 40, and his production company Wayfarer Studios filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, 37, her husband Ryan Reynoldsand Lively’s publicist, Leslie Sloaneon Thursday, January 16. In addition to accusing the group of trying to make him “the real villain in (Lally’s) story” during production and promotion It ends with usBaldoni accused Lively of not reading the 2016 bestseller of the same name Colleen Hooveron which the film is based.

“Not only did Lively’s power play cost many people their jobs, but at every turn her flawed creative decisions reflected her fundamental misunderstanding of the book on which the film was based,” Baldoni’s filing, which obtained My Weeklyreads. “It came as no surprise to her worried colleagues, given that Lively hadn’t even read the book, even at the time of production.”

A footnote in the documents states that Lively claimed to have read the book, but cites a text exchange between Baldoni and the producer Jamie Heath she didn’t do it as proof. “While I understand Blake’s reasons for not wanting to read the book, the book does a very good job of getting into Lily’s mind during her interactions with Ryl and setting up the WHY behind her attraction to him, which ultimately helps us understand why she got lost. eventually,” reads a text screenshot from Baldoni to Heath.

It ends with us stars Lively as Lily Bloom, a woman who falls in love with Baldoni’s character, Ryle Kincaid. As their relationship takes a turn for the worse, Lily reconnects with her first love, Atlas Corrigan, whom she plays Brandon Glazier.

Baldoni’s lawsuit further alleges that Lively’s alleged lack of knowledge of the source material caused problems during the film’s production. “At one point, Lively insisted that her character ‘had money’ and could afford $5,000 shoes — despite being an aspiring small business owner,” according to the documentary. “This forced Baldoni to rethink the entire script, which had been in the works for over a year and had been approved by both Sony and Wayfarer (Studios). … The wardrobe budget ballooned.”

In another footnote, the lawsuit claims that “Lively herself has expressed uncertainty about the public perception of her being cast as Lily Bloom” because she is more than 10 years older than Lily as portrayed in the book. “Live asked author Colleen Hoover to clarify in their public casting announcement that they decided to ‘age up’ the book’s characters for the film,” the filing reads. “Hoover did not issue a statement as Lively requested. Lively was not happy.”

Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman he said Our in a statement Thursday: “This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of unaltered evidence detailing a duplicitous attempt by Blake Lively and her team to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by spreading grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and falsified information to the media.”

He continued: “Based on our own willingness to provide all of the complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, it is clear that this is a battle that will not be won and will be. definitely regret it. Blake Lively has either been seriously misled by her team or has deliberately and knowingly misrepresented the truth. Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit real victims of real harassment just to gain her personal reputation at the expense of those without power. Let’s not forget that Ms. Lively and her team tried to destroy their own reputations and livelihoods through dangerous manipulation of the media for hideously selfish reasons before they took any real legal action. We know the truth and now the public knows it too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, the documents don’t lie.”

The publicists Lively touched also said so Our in a statement: “It is devastating that we are being forced to respond to this cruelly selfish ongoing lawsuit filled with documented and demonstrable lies in the midst of a tragedy that has befallen California where we live. Five months ago, Ms. Lively chose to promote a film about domestic violence in a way that generated an immediate negative and organic reaction due to her own highly publicized actions,” the statement read. “Instead of accepting responsibility, she chose to accuse us viciously. This malicious attack on privacy by Ms Lively and her team in which they chose to spoon feed The New York Times with falsified, out-of-context and edited text messages in an attempt to portray themselves as the victim, set off a chain of events that was extremely damaging. To be clear, Ms. Lively and her team launched this smear campaign in the media with the sole intention of garnering undeserved public sympathy for their own misdeeds. Over the past month we have received death threats, vile abuse and vile anti-Semitic slurs hurled at us for her decision to use us as scapegoats for her own decision to promote her multi-million dollar movie. With this submission, we will lift our own curtain on what happens when the privileged weaponize power, fear and money to destroy, intimidate and bully those who get in their way.”

Our reps for Lively and Sloane have reached out for comment.

Baldoni’s lawsuit comes less than a month after Lively filed a trial for sexual harassment against the actor and accuses him of inappropriate behavior It ends with us set up and start a negative smear campaign against her.

Baldoni refuted her accusations and $250 million lawsuit against The New York Timeswhich first reported Lively’s lawsuit later that month. He accused the libel of defamation and cherry-picking, as well as accusing Lively of trying to gain creative control over the film. Both the outlet and Lively denied the claims.

“I hope my legal action will help pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics that harm people who speak up about wrongdoing and help protect others who may be targeted,” Lively said. Our in a December 2024 statement.