In the latest legal filing in the “It Ends With Us” saga, director and star Justin Baldoni alleges that co-star Blake Lively leaned on the powerful people in her life to ensure her vision for the movie ended up in the final cut.
One of those powerful people is mega-pop star Taylor Swift, whom Lively has counted among her best friends for years. The other is her husband, Ryan Reynolds.
The lawsuit, which Baldoni filed Thursday against Lively, Reynolds and their publicist, alleges that Reynolds and Swift bolstered a version of a scene in the movie written by Lively. His lawsuit includes screenshots of text messages between Baldoni and Lively.
Swift is not named in the suit, save for one text message in which a “Taylor” is mentioned. In the text of the lawsuit, she is referred to as a “megacelebrity friend.”
Baldoni’s team confirmed to NBC News that the Taylor referred to in the lawsuit is Swift.
Swift did not respond to request for comment.
Lively sued Baldoni late last month, alleging he harassed her on set and launched a smear campaign to ruin her reputation.
An attorney for Baldoni called the allegations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” and accused Lively of trying to salvage her reputation.
An attorney for Lively said Thursday that Baldoni’s lawsuit was “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
“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,” her team said in a statement.
The day Lively filed her suit, Baldoni sued The New York Times alleging libel based on an article headlined “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” The Times was first to report on a civil rights complaint Lively filed against Baldoni that preceded her lawsuit.
Lively has said her “decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks.”
Reynolds did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
In his latest suit, which seeks $400 million, Baldoni says he gave Lively the opportunity to rewrite the famed “rooftop scene,” in which Baldoni’s and Lively’s characters meet for the first time in “It Ends With Us.”
He says in the suit that Lively texted him asking him for the chance while noting that other directors had not allowed her to write scenes.
Baldoni says in the suit that he was “reluctant to allow” her to rewrite it but “felt the need” to give her the chance and agreed to review her draft, which “dramatically differed from what had been written originally.”
Baldoni “thanked Lively for her passion” and told her the scene would most likely end up somewhere between the original and her new version, his suit says.
Baldoni says that after his response, Lively “went silent for multiple days.”
Lively finally texted Baldoni to admit that his response “of course, didn’t feel great for me,” according to screenshots of the alleged conversation included in the lawsuit.
She added: “Or them.” She also wrote: “To have my passion be praised instead of any specific contribution,” the suit says.
“Them” appears to refer to Reynolds and Swift, who Baldoni said were at an earlier meeting at Lively’s home and heaped praise on Lively and her draft in front of Baldoni.
When he arrived at that meeting, Baldoni says in his lawsuit, Reynolds greeted him and “launched into enthusiastic praise for Lively’s version of the scene.”
As the meeting was ending, “a famous, and famously close friend of Reynolds and Lively, walked into the room and similarly began praising Lively’s script,” according to the suit.
“Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script,” the suit reads.
After the meeting, Baldoni texted Lively, it says.
“I really love what you did. … Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor),” Baldoni wrote, the suit says.
In a lengthy response, according to the suit, Lively wrote, “we’re in this together.” She also defended her “dragons,” it says, appearing to refer to Reynolds and Swift, whose name is redacted in this set of screenshots included in the lawsuit.
Lively said she is the luckiest person “on the planet to have them as my ‘Dance Moms’ level stage moms. They are embarrassingly effusive,” the suit says.
She also called them her “most trusted partners and the people I go to first with anything creative I touch,” it alleges. Lively said she felt good sending Baldoni her scene only after Reynolds and Swift had approved it, according to the suit.
It says Lively texted Baldoni: “I think they wanted you and me to see how they felt about the work because they’ve been by my side for far too many experiences where I’ve been overlooked.”
She wrote that Reynolds and Swift “have established themselves as absolute titans as writers and storytellers outside of their primary gig — just singing or just acting or just directing,” the suit says.
“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,” Lively continued, it says. “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.”
She then compared herself to Khaleesi from “Game of Thrones,” the suit says.
“Like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually for better,” Lively said, it says. “Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you.”
