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The legal dispute between It Ends With Us co-stars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively is heating up, with Baldoni's legal team firmly denying accusations that he orchestrated a smear campaign against Lively.
Instead, his attorney argues that any negative press surrounding Lively developed naturally and was not driven by Baldoni or his team.
Baldoni's attorney denies involvement in negative press
During an interview on The Town podcast with Matthew Belloni on March 13, Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, addressed the allegations head-on. He claimed that text exchanges between Baldoni's publicists and crisis PR experts, which Lively presented in her lawsuit as evidence of a smear campaign, were taken out of context.
Freedman argued that emojis had been removed from the messages, distorting their meaning.
"They were joking around about articles that had already been published organically," he explained.
"Justin wasn't happy about any negative press-whether it was about Blake, himself, or the movie. He wanted the project to succeed."
Baldoni, who directed and starred in It Ends With Us, considered the film a ion project. His attorney maintained that he had no reason to encourage bad press, as it would have directly impacted the movie's reception. Instead, Freedman described Baldoni's involvement with PR professionals as a way to monitor the film's coverage and strategize responses, not to target Lively.
Adding another layer to the dispute, Baldoni's team claims that Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, attempted to pressure him into releasing a public statement in August 2024. According to Baldoni's legal team, this statement would have pinned the movie's production challenges and Lively's negative press on him-something they ultimately refused to do.
With the trial set for March 2026, the legal battle between the two stars continues to unfold, casting a shadow over what was supposed to be a major film release. As both sides present their arguments, the case remains a high-profile clash between two Hollywood heavyweights.