Actress Blake Lively and director Justin Baldoni have reached an agreement to resolve their contentious legal fight connected to their 2024 movie “It Ends With Us.”
The settlement was finalized Monday, preventing a scheduled trial concerning Lively’s allegations that Baldoni worked with publicists to deliberately damage her public image after she privately confronted him about sexual harassment during filming.
Both parties issued a joint statement saying: “Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind. … It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.”
Baldoni, who both directed and acted alongside Lively in the film, had rejected allegations of harassment or coordinating any reputation attack. He maintained that Lively fabricated the behavioral complaints as part of a scheme to gain creative authority over the production.
The agreement allows both parties to sidestep a courtroom battle that would have exposed Hollywood’s darker aspects and potentially created additional damaging disclosures.
Recent court decisions had already eliminated some legal claims from both sides.
Judge Lewis J. Liman threw out Lively’s sexual harassment allegations in early April, determining she couldn’t pursue them under federal statutes because she worked as an independent contractor, not an employee, during the film’s production.
The same judge had earlier dismissed Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios’ lawsuit accusing Lively and her spouse, “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds, of defamation and extortion.
“It Ends With Us,” based on Colleen Hoover’s popular 2016 book, hit theaters in August 2024 and performed better than anticipated at the box office.
According to Lively’s legal filing, Baldoni made unwelcome remarks about her physical appearance during production, crossed physical boundaries while shooting intimate scenes, and insisted on nudity during a childbirth scene despite her objections.
Baldoni maintained his actions fell within standard creative filmmaking practices.
When dismissing the harassment claims, the judge recognized the complicated nature of the situation, observing that creative professionals “must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment.”
The planned trial would have centered on Lively’s assertion that Baldoni and the studio sought revenge for her harassment complaints by employing publicists to turn public opinion against her. Her legal team claimed this effort included recruiting a “digital army” to create false negative social media content about Lively and providing “manufactured content to unwitting reporters.”
The legal documents stated the goal was to “retaliate against Ms. Lively by battering her image, harming her businesses, and causing her family severe emotional harm.”
Baldoni’s attorneys argued that Lively was the one strategically damaging Baldoni’s public reputation, partially by using assistance from her celebrity connections.
Lively gained recognition in the 2005 movie “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the television series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012, later appearing in films such as “The Town” and “The Shallows.”
Baldoni performed in the television comedy “Jane the Virgin,” helmed the 2019 movie “Five Feet Apart,” and authored “Man Enough,” a book questioning conventional masculine stereotypes.
