DUELING LAWSUITS

Justin Baldoni Drags ‘Aggressive’ Vengeful Ryan Reynolds Into Blake Lively Feud

The director claims in a $250 million suit that the ‘Deadpool’ star tried to have his agent drop him as a client.

Ryan Reynolds is being dragged into the Hollywood legal showdown between Justin Baldoni and the Deadpool star’s wife, Blake Lively.

In an 87-page lawsuit filed against the New York Times on New Year’s Eve, Baldoni accuses Reynolds of “berating” him after he allegedly asked how much Lively, his co-star, weighed before he was supposed to lift her in a scene for the movie It Ends With Us.

(Lively and Reynolds are not named in Baldoni’s suit as defendants.)

Baldoni, who also directed and produced the drama, alleges that Reynolds later “aggressively” accused him of “fat shaming” his wife.

“Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, had aggressively berated Baldoni during a meeting at their penthouse in New York,” says the lawsuit.

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“The confrontation that followed was so aggressive that Baldoni felt compelled to offer repeated apologies,” adds the legal filing, claiming also that a producer on the movie who was also in attendance at the meeting said later “that in his 40-year career he had never seen anyone speak to someone like that.”

Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs, including publicists Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, filed a $250 million lawsuit against the Times over a bombshell December 21 story in the paper alleging a smear campaign had been launched to discredit Lively.

They are accusing the newspaper of libel and false light invasion of privacy.

The lawsuit takes issue with the Times writing that Baldoni “repeatedly” entered Lively’s makeup trailer “uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.”

It quotes a text exchange between Baldoni and Lively in a different light, claiming the actress wrote: “I’m just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work out our lines.”

Baldoni also alleges that Reynolds spoke with his agent at a movie premiere and “demanded” he fire him as a client. Following the publication of the Times' article, Baldoni was dropped by the Hollywood agency William Morris Endeavor. (WME also represents both Lively and Reynolds.)

The Times stands by its reporting, saying in a statement: “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error..”

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Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman said in a statement to the Daily Beast that the Times “cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative. In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively’s self-induced floundering public image.”

Lively issued her own lawsuit against Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios on Tuesday, accusing him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her.

In a statement to the Daily Beast about the New York Times lawsuit, attorneys for Blake Lively said: “Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today. This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice “not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,” and that “litigation was never her ultimate goal.”

“As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false. While we will not litigate this matter in the press, we do encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s complaint in its entirety. We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”

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