Hollywood News Now: The Entire Justin Baldoni Vs. Blake Lively Feud Explained: TMZ Says ‘Both Sides’ Tried To Skew Its Stories

Topline

The founder of TMZ said in an interview with Justin Baldoni's attorney Wednesday the celebrity gossip website has faced attempts by PR teams representing both Baldoni and his "It Ends With Us" co-star Blake Lively to skew the outlet's reporting, since the pair started hurling accusations of sexual harassment, retaliation and bullying at one another last month. (Here are in-depth explanations for Lively's claims and Baldoni's claims.)

Justin Baldoni, left, on Dec. 4, 2024 and Blake Lively on Aug. 8, 2024.

Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty Images & Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Sony PicturesGetty Timeline

Jan. 8, 2025In an interview with Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, TMZ founder Harvey Levin said about the co-stars' competing accusations about online campaigns to damage one another's reputation: "Both sides tried to skew this story. We've been on the recipient end of that ... It has happened on both sides in the Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni war. Both sides." Freedman responded by saying, "That's good to know." (In recent days, Freedman has denied Lively's allegations that she faced a smear campaign by Baldoni's PR team, claiming Lively's team was instead working to smear Baldoni.)

Jan. 7, 2025Freedman appeared on Megyn Kelly's YouTube show to discuss Baldoni's plans to sue Lively "into oblivion" and pushed back on several of the actresses' allegations, accusing Lively of not reading the source material for the film, refuting claims she was sexually harassed and accusing her of orchestrating her own smear campaign against Baldoni. The interview also included newly released sound from a voice note from Baldoni explaining that he was "sent to the basement" of the film's premiere because Lively "didn't want me anywhere near her or the rest of the cast" (Here's more on what Freedman said on Kelly's show.)

Jan. 3, 2025Freedman told NBC's "Today" he "absolutely" plans to file suit against Lively after she alleged she was subjected to "sexually inappropriate behavior" by Baldoni on the set of their 2024 film, but wouldn't say exactly what the countersuit would allege, though denied Lively's claim that Baldoni and his team launched a smear campaign against the actress.

Dec. 31, 2024Baldoni filed a $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times for the paper's reporting on Lively's allegations, accusing the outlet of having "cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful 'untouchable' Hollywood elites"—Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds.

Dec. 31, 2024Lively formally filed a lawsuit in New York federal court against Baldoni, his publicist, Wayfarer Studios and other defendants for "retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns."

Dec. 24, 2024Vital Voices, a nonprofit that focuses on empowering women, rescinded an award it gave to Baldoni, who has made a career expressing his support of women's stories and co-hosted a podcast about masculinity called "Man Enough," which his co-host pulled out of the same day.

Dec. 20, 2024Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department claiming Baldoni invaded her privacy by "entering her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed," pressured her to lose weight four months after giving birth and coordinated a PR campaign with a crisis firm "designed to 'destroy' Ms. Lively's reputation."

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Crucial Quote

"Blake Lively, if she was sexually harassed to such a degree in this film and this situation, you know, she wouldn't have returned to the film," Freedman told Kelly.

Key Background

Baldoni directed and co-starred with Lively in "It Ends With Us," the movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling book of the same name, which released last August. Rumors of a rift developing between Lively and Baldoni during post-production began to emerge around the movie's release, and were further fueled during the film's press tour when Lively appeared to avoid mention of Baldoni in interviews. Speculation emerged that there were disputes over creative control and sources told TMZ Baldoni had "fat-shamed" Lively by inquiring about her weight, telling an on-set trainer he wanted to avoid injury while lifting the actress in the movie. Baldoni and Lively were never photographed together while promoting "It Ends With Us." As rumors of a feud grew, Baldoni hired Melissa Nathan, a crisis PR manager who represented Johnny Depp in his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard. According to texts published by The New York Times, Nathan suggested plans including "full social take downs" by creating "threads of theories" and planting pieces in the media of "how horrible Blake is to work with." Lively said the alleged smear campaign had caused "severe emotional distress" for her and her family, prompting her to back out of hosting the "Saturday Night Live" season 50 premiere.

How Were These Text Messages From Baldoni Released?

Lively's initial complaint included excerpts from thousands of pages of text messages and emails, which were the main focus of the Times article at the center of Baldoni's lawsuit. The text messages were largely between Baldoni, his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, and were obtained through a civil subpoena, Lively's complaint said. A lawsuit filed by Baldoni's ex-publicist Stephanie Jones, the founder of the Jonesworks publicity firm, days later revealed she was the source of the text messages, which were obtained from Abel's work phone. In her own lawsuit against Baldoni, Jones claimed Abel was fired for conspiring to steal clients from her firm and Jones later had Abel's company-issued phone "forensically preserved and examined in detail." Lively's team then obtained the texts through a subpoena against Jonesworks. The texts show discussions on how to coordinate a social media campaign against Lively, and how Baldoni wanted to feel like Lively "can be buried" under negative media. The messages show the trio talking about the "shift on social" against Lively, and reveal that Baldoni was aware of the negative messaging against her. Messages from Baldoni also show him encouraging the P.R. team, flagging social media posts for them to use and, in one case, suggesting "flipping the narrative" on a positive story about Lively and Reynolds, according to The Times. In other messages, he reiterates that the campaign needs to be untraceable.

Surprising Fact

Around the time of the "It Ends With Us" premiere, Lively was the subject of intense criticism online targeting how she promoted the film, the opportune release of her haircare line and other behaviors. In one promotional video, Lively encourages the audience to "grab your friends, wear your florals and head out to see (the movie)." Fans instantly criticized Lively's upbeat tone and claimed she was attempting to promote the movie as a lighthearted love story, cheapening the movie's serious take on domestic abuse. Comments on the video attacked Lively—"shame on you and your PR team for turning a blind eye," one said—but praised Baldoni for how he handled promotion. Lively was also criticized for seeming to promote her newly launched hair-care line, Blake Brown, off the back of the film, but it was later revealed that the two were never supposed to launch at the same time. Production delays caused by Hollywood strikes in 2023 pushed the premiere of "It Ends With Us," then coinciding with the predetermined launch date of the brand. At the same time, Lively was freshly criticized for her reaction to an interviewer in a resurfaced 2016 clip. Lively's lawsuits claim the public's attacks were part of the smear campaign she says was orchestrated against her.

Tangent

A number of celebrities have come out to support Lively since she filed her initial complaint, including Hoover, Lively's "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" co-stars and actress Amber Heard, who claimed to be a victim of a similar social media takedown. Hoover, who The Times reported also refused to do press with Baldoni, posted to Instagram after Lively first made her allegations to call her "nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient." America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn, who starred alongside Lively in her 2005 breakout role in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," slammed the "vindictive effort ensued to discredit her voice" and Heard said she has seen similar social media campaigns "firsthand and up close," calling it "horrifying and destructive." Actresses Kate Beckinsale and Abigail Breslin shared their own stories of harassment and retaliation in the wake of Lively's lawsuit, and director Paul Feig posted that Lively "did not deserve any of this smear campaign." Lively's "It Ends with Us" costar Brandon Sklenar posted a link to the initial New York Times story and Jenny Slate, another co-star in the film, said she stands by her "loyal friend." Amy Schumer posted a story on Instagram that said, "I believe Blake." Political influencer Candace Owens posted in support of Baldoni after he was stripped of his Vital Voices award, writing that he should "have his day in court" before such drastic measures are taken.