Justin Baldoni has pulled Taylor Swift into his heated legal battle with “It Ends With Us” co-star Blake Lively.
Baldoni accused Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, of civil extortion, defamation and more in a $400 million lawsuit — which happens to mention global pop star Swift.
The “Jane the Virgin” star’s lawsuit followed Lively’s own, where she accused the actor of sexual harassment while filming “It Ends With Us.” However, Baldoni insisted Lively “falsely” accused him in an attempt to repair her reputation following the fallout around the movie’s press tour after she took control of the film.
In an attempt to show how Lively allegedly took control of the movie’s production, Baldoni’s legal team claimed the actress used her friendship with Swift to threaten him. While working on the film, Lively insisted on rewriting the infamous rooftop scene. Baldoni had been hesitant about the idea, but told the 37-year-old actress he would “take a look at what she put together,” according to the complaint.
Afterward, Lively invited Baldoni over to her New York City home, where the actor said he felt Swift and Reynolds pressured him into using the rewritten scene. “Later, Baldoni felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadn’t needed Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him,” the complaint said.
“… I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor [emoji] You really are a talent across the board. Really excited nd [sic] grateful to do this together,” Baldoni’s text read, according to the complaint.
Lively shared a lengthy response, in which she referred to Swift and Reynolds as “dragons” who protect her.
“Both Ryan and [redacted] have established themselves as absolute titans as writers and storytellers outside of their primary gig – just singing or just acting or [redacted] just directing. I’m so lucky to have them as creative barometers,” Lively’s text, included in the complaint, read. “But also to have them as people who prop me up and make sure I’m seen for all I can, and do offer. Because they know firsthand all I contribute. They also know I’m not always as good at making sure I’m seen and utilized for fear of threatening egos, or fear of affecting the ease of the process. They don’t give a s— about that. And because of that, everyone listens to them with immense respect and enthusiasm. So I guess I have to stop worrying about people liking me.”
Baldoni believed “the message could not have been clearer,” according to the lawsuit. “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.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Swift’s representative for comment.
Baldoni accused Lively of tormenting him, his family and colleagues throughout the production process of the film in a lawsuit filed Thursday and obtained by Fox News Digital. The actor requested a jury trial and a judgment of $400 million.
Baldoni’s legal team claimed Lively has no evidence of a deliberate smear campaign and instead worked to repair her reputation by accusing the actor and others of sexual harassment.
Lively “could not tolerate her publicly tainted image for even a moment, and further could not accept that it was entirely of her own making,” the lawsuit read. “She needed a scapegoat. And rather than admit and take accountability for her own mishaps, she chose to blame Plaintiffs, in a malicious and unforgivably public manner.
“When she and Reynolds could not force Baldoni and Wayfarer to read a statement she and her representatives prepared, extorting them to ‘take accountability’ in defense of Lively’s actions, she lay in wait for months, preparing to publicly attack Baldoni by falsely claiming that he had sexually harassed her.”
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A representative for Lively slammed Baldoni’s lawsuit.
“This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its associates is another chapter in the abuser playbook,” the statement provided by Lively’s legal team read. “This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.”
The statement continued, in part: “Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing. In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”
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Lively detailed allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional affliction of emotional distress, negligence and more made by Baldoni and film producer Jamey Heath in a complaint first filed with the California Civil Rights department and later in federal court.
Some of the issues allegedly addressed at an “all-hands” meeting before filming began included no more showing nude videos or images of women to Lively, no more mention of Baldoni’s previous “pornography addiction,” no more discussions about personal experiences with sex, no more descriptions of their own genitalia, no more adding sex scenes outside what was in the original script, no more discussions about Lively’s weight or deceased father, and more.
Baldoni’s lawyer denied the allegations in a statement to The New York Times.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” he claimed.
