It Ends With Us co-stars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively are heading to court.
But the matter has already been playing out in the court of public opinion, with text message conversations, email exchanges, video clips and even a seven-minute voice message Baldoni sent to Lively at 2am feeding the frenzy over the dispute.
Now Baldoni has created a website complete with a timeline detailing his claims against Lively.
It's the latest development in an ongoing saga surrounding the film, and it's becoming more complex as time goes on.
Here's a basic breakdown of what they stars suing each other for and how we got here.
How did the dispute start?
Lively and Baldoni worked together on the film It Ends With Us — a movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover's book of the same name.
The book and movie follow the story of Lily Bloom, a florist who falls in love with an abusive neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid.
Baldoni took on a number of roles for the movie: he was the director, played the leading male role of Ryle and he also co-owns Wayfarer Studios, which produced the film.
Lively starred opposite him as the main character, Lily.
During the promotional tour for the film, social media users noticed that while Lively was frequently seen with other cast members, Baldoni attended interviews and red carpets by himself.
That broke usual Hollywood convention, where the leading actors would attend interviews together.
The initial reaction online overwhelming favoured Baldoni, with fans criticising Lively's seemingly light-hearted approach to promoting the movie, which centres around her character's survival from domestic violence and generational trauma.
Press tour interviews for previous movies also resurfaced, bolstering online opinions that Lively was "difficult" to work with.
This online backlash, Lively claims, was orchestrated by Baldoni as part of a smear campaign.
What lawsuits have been filed?
Since rumours of the rift between Baldoni and Lively first emerged, several lawsuits have been filed by various parties:
What are Lively and Baldoni alleging?
Lively says she Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath sexually harassed her during the filming of the movie and several industry safety standards were not adhered to.
She claims she and Reynolds addressed the issue before the film was released and accuses Baldoni of retaliating by orchestrating a smear campaign to "destroy" her reputation.
Baldoni is counter-suing Lively and Reynolds on claims of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy.
He says Lively used false "sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production".
Baldoni argues any damage to Lively's reputation was "self-inflicted" after attempts to "steal" the film from Wayfarer Studios and defame him backfired.
The legal documents are lengthy and detailed, so we've broken down some of the key aspects of the dispute:
The slow dance scene
The filming of a slow dance scene is one instance put forward by Lively where she claims Baldoni initiated inappropriate and unchoreographed contact.
Here's a snippet from her complaint:
"On another occasion, Mr Baldoni and Ms Lively were filming a slow dance scene for a montage in which no sound was recorded. Mr Baldoni chose to let the camera roll and have them perform the scene, but did not act in character as Ryle; instead, he spoke to Ms Lively out of character as himself. At one point, he leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, 'It smells so good'. None of this was remotely in character, or based on any dialogue in the script, and nothing needed to be said because, again, there was no sound — Mr Baldoni was caressing Mr (sic) Lively with his mouth in a way that had nothing to do with their roles. When Ms Lively later objected to this behavior, Ms (sic) Baldoni's response was, 'I'm not even attracted to you'."
In response, Baldoni's lawyer released 9 minutes of raw footage to TMZ, arguing the clips "clearly refute Ms Lively's characterisation of his behaviour".
"Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism," Baldoni's side argued.
In the footage, Lively can be seen saying, "We should be talking. I think it's more romantic if we're like … dancing and talking …"
At another point, the interaction detailed in Lively's lawsuit can be seen.
Baldoni leans into Lively's neck as the following exchange occurs:
Baldoni: "Am I getting beard on you today?" [Laughs]
Lively: [Laughs] "I'm probably getting spray tan on you."
Baldoni: "It smells good." [Laughs]
Lively: "Well, it's not that. It's my body makeup."
Baldoni: [Sweeps hair from Lively's face]
Lively's lawyers say the video is "damning" for Baldoni:
"The video shows Mr Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character," Lively's team said in a statement.
"Every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what Ms Lively described in Paragraph 48 of her Complaint."
They argue Lively was seen leaning away from Baldoni:
"Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognise Ms Lively's discomfort."
The birth scene
The film includes a scene where Lively's character gives birth.
Lively claims Baldoni and Heath pressured her into performing the scene with simulated full nudity, with "only a small piece of fabric covering her genitalia".
She says Baldoni insisted "women give birth naked" and his wife had "ripped her clothes off" during labour.
Lively says she felt humiliated while filming the scene because Baldoni and Heath allegedly:
- Did not close the set, which allowed non-essential crew members to be present
- Did not turn off monitors to prevent the scene from being broadcasted to crew on set
- Did not choreograph the scene with an intimacy coordinator
- Did not have a signed nudity rider
Most of these claims, Baldoni says, can be disproven through film footage from the day.
He says Lively's claim she was "naked from below the chest down" is "dishonest" in his complaint:
"Lively was wearing black briefs and a pregnancy suit that covered her midsection, and her top was covered by a hospital gown."
Baldoni says Wayfarer had provided a nudity rider to Lively's counsel but "despite constant pursuit, it became clear that Lively had no intention of signing" it.
Lively also claims Baldoni employed "his 'best friend' to play the role of the OBGYN, when ordinarily, a small role of this nature would be filled by a local actor", which she says was an "invasive and humiliating" decision for an intimate scene.
While Baldoni doesn't deny he cast a friend in the role, he argues it is "no different than casting Lively's sister, who was cast because she is Lively's sister". Here's more from his complaint:
"The actor portraying the obstetrician is an award-winning Shakespearean-trained actor with an MFA in Acting from UCLA, and in addition to appearing on numerous hit television shows, has toured nationally with a Tony Award-winning acting company and attended Oxford's acting program on full scholarship."
'Return to Production' demands
Filming of It Ends with US was suspended for months due to industry labour strikes in 2023.
But before filming was to recommence, Lively provided Wayfarer with a list of non-negotiable conditions that were to be met before she would return to work.
According to Lively, it was a 30-point list, but in his lawsuit, Baldoni says there were only 17 demands.
Both parties met on January 4, 2024, to discuss the matter.
Lively says the alleged inappropriate conduct of Baldoni and Heath was discussed at the meeting, and "all parties present agreed that the outlined conduct would cease".
But Baldoni argues Wayfarer was pressured into signing the document, whether it agreed such conduct had occurred or not:
"It was clear that Wayfarer would have to sign the document as-is, despite the falsity of its insinuations.
"The alternative was to lose millions of dollars, cost hundreds of people their jobs after they had been out of work for months, and destroy their relationship with Sony.
"Nonetheless, the demands themselves were agreeable; indeed, some were already in place."
Smear campaign
In her lawsuit, Lively includes text messages sent between Baldoni and his PR team, which she says is evidence that he planned to damage her reputation.
Lively reportedly obtained the messages through a work phone used by publicist Jennifer Abel before she and co-accused Stephanie Abel were fired from Jonesworks.
In one message included in Lively's lawsuit, Baldoni's PR manager Melissa Nathan proposed an smear campaign against Lively, which would include:
"[a website (to discuss), full reddit, full social account take downs, full social crisis team on hand for anything — engage with audiences in the right way, start threads of theories (discuss) this is the way to be fully 100% protected."
Another screenshot shows Baldoni sharing an X thread discussing a smear campaign against Hailey Bieber with the message: "This is what we would need."
Lively also provides screenshots of text messages between Baldoni and his PR team as evidence that he sexually harassed her on set.
She argues two messages sent by Ms Nathan to Ms Abel show they were aware Baldoni had made her and others working on the film "uncomfortable". Here's a transcript of those messages:
"He doesn't realise how lucky he is right now we need to press on him just how f***ing lucky
"The whispering in the ear the sexual connotations like Jesus f***ing Christ
"Other members feeling uncomfortable watching it I mean there is just so much"
In his lawsuit against The New York Times, Baldoni argues many of the text messages Lively included in her lawsuit were taken out of context.
Baldoni also argues any negative press about Lively was of her own making because of the way she chose to market the film, particularly because she:
"… callously [promoted] her hair care and alcoholic beverage products rather than bring attention to survivors of domestic violence."
He adds that it was Lively's camp that orchestrated a smear campaign:
"… the reality is that it was Lively and her team who carefully planned and implemented a vile smear campaign against Baldoni and Wayfarer to deflect attention and blame for Lively's disastrous misjudgments."
'Stealing' the movie
Baldoni's lawsuit sets out to argue Lively attempted to "steal" control of the movie and its production from Wayfarer.
It frequently refers to the power dynamics between Lively and Reynolds, and Baldoni and Wayfarer.
In one exchange recounted in the filing, Lively expresses her disappointment about the team not using her rewrite of a scene, despite endorsements from Reynolds and a "megacelebrity friend" referred to only as Taylor.
Lively refers to Reynolds and Taylor (who fans believe to be Taylor Swift) as her "'Dance Moms' level stage moms".
Here's what Baldoni's counterfiling says on that:
"The message could not have been clearer.
"Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively.
"He was also facing Lively's "dragons," two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him."
The Daily Mail has since published an almost 7-minute voice note he sent to Lively about the rewrite, in which he apologises for upsetting her and says the pages were "really good".
The lawsuit also claims Lively threatened to quit the project if she did not get her way and force Wayfarer to recast the role.
Baldoni argues the meeting over Lively's "Return to Production" demands was "the latest escalation in [her] concerted campaign of extortion to extract concessions and creative control over the Film".
"Now that Lively had unleashed Reynolds on Baldoni and Wayfarer, they felt powerless to oppose the couple.
"Just as Lively had warned in April 2023, nine months before, Reynolds would ensure that Lively's demands were met at every turn.
"From then on, Lively would get her way — or else."
In April and May 2024, Sony allowed Lively to create her own cut of the film, despite Wayfarer and Baldoni's protests.
Baldoni says Sony agreed because "Lively refused to promote the film unless her demands were met".
Text messages included in the lawsuit show Baldoni learning that he and his editors were not permitted to watch Lively's cut before the release of the film.
What's the latest?
Over the weekend, a website called "thelawsuitinfo.com" was launched, which links to two files:
- Baldoni's amended complaint
- A 168-page document titled "timeline of relevant events"
Here's what the website looks like:
And it quickly sparked a series of stories on news websites around the world.
The website wasn't a surprise to people familiar with the case, however, with Baldoni's legal team previously floating the idea of publishing a site.
Lively's lawyers claimed Baldoni would use such a website to turn potential jurors against her, saying his legal team was:
"…engaging in this extrajudicial campaign to influence these proceedings and the public perception of legal filings to this court, and there already is a serious risk that his misconduct is tainting the jury pool."
In response, Baldoni's lawyer said:
"All we want is for people to see the actual text messages that directly contradict her allegations, video footage that clearly shows there was no sexual harassment and all the other powerful evidence that directly contradicts any false allegations."
When will we know more?
This week.
The judge overseeing both Lively's lawsuit and Baldoni's countersuit, Lewis J Liman, has told both sides to prepare for a March 9, 2026, trial.
He's indicated that he'll probably combine the lawsuits for trial.
There was going to be an initial conference in mid-February, but Judge Limin brought that conference forward to this week.
He told both sides to be prepared to address complaints about pre-trial publicity and attorney conduct.
ABC with wires
