Blake Lively's reason for bringing Ryan Reynolds to her supposed sexual harassment meeting with Justin Baldoni has been disclosed, in her new lawsuit.
She first sued on December 20, accusing Baldoni of sexually harassing her and fostering a toxic work environment on the set of their film "It Ends With Us," in which he both directed her and acted with her. He has denied the allegations.
Lively then filed a more formal complaint on New Year's Eve, doubling down on her claims from the previous legal action.
In the first filing, Lively revealed a meeting was held last January 4 to address "the hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film."
The 'all hands' meeting was said to have included both Baldoni and Jamey Heath, the CEO of Baldoni's production company Wayfarer Studios and a producer on "It Ends With Us", where Lively accused both men of engaging in 'inappropriate conduct' on set.
According to the lawsuits, Lively brought Reynolds to the supposed meeting - and in her new filing filed New Year's Eve - she shed light on why.
Her account of the January 4 meeting runs strikingly counter to the version presented by Baldoni, in his own $250M libel lawsuit against the New York Times for its report on Lively's initial legal action.
"Ms. Lively also had the agreed upon right to have a representative present. She chose her husband, given that the meeting was about repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior by Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath," the New Year's Eve lawsuit maintains.
Married for over a decade, Reynolds and Lively have emerged as one of Hollywood's power couples and share four children - James, 10, Inez, eight, Betty, five, and Olin, one.
Baldoni provided a notably different recollection of the January 4 meeting in his lawsuit, which was also filed on New Year's Eve.
In Baldoni's version, Lively and Reynolds are accused of 'bullying' him during a fraught confrontation at the couple's New York penthouse.
Baldoni alleges Reynolds "berated" him at the meeting and "aggressively" accused him of a litany of affronts against Lively such as 'fat shaming' her.
The "Jane the Virgin" alum claims he was invited to the couple's penthouse on the evening of January 4 along with a Sony representative and other producers of "It Ends With Us".
"They arrived eager to discuss plans for the next day's filming, prepared with their production materials. Instead, they were blindsided by Lively and Reynolds, who presented a list of grievances that were both unanticipated and troubling," Baldoni's filing claims.
"Reynolds launched into a tirade, berating Baldoni" in what Baldoni later described as a "traumatic" encounter, stating he had "never been spoken to like that in his life."'
Reynolds, a major Hollywood A-lister who starred in last summer's box office juggernaut Deadpool & Wolverine, demanded that Baldoni apologize to Lively 'for actions that were mischaracterized and demonstrably false," per Baldoni's lawsuit.
"When Baldoni resisted apologizing for what he had not done, Reynolds became further enraged. Everyone, including the producer Lively had asked production to engage and a representative of Sony that was in attendance, left that "meeting" in shock. The producer offered that in his 40-year career he had never seen anyone speak to someone like that."
Baldoni alleges that Lively and Reynolds then used their "Power and influence" against him, in an attempt at 'destroying Baldoni's career and personal life.'
In her initial complaint, Lively claimed Baldoni launched a smear campaign to tarnish her reputation with a team including his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR Melissa Nathan, who previously worked with Johnny Depp. Abel has denied waging a 'smear campaign.'
The "Gossip Girl" alum submitted her December 20 complaint to the California Civil Rights Commission but is now also suing Baldoni in federal court in New York.
She filed the New York suit on New Year's Eve - the same day Baldoni filed a $250M libel action against the New York Times for its Lively report.
Lively's second lawsuit targets Baldoni, Abel, Nathan, and Baldoni's production company Wayfarer Studios as defendants.
In her latest legal filing, Lively is demanding both "punitive" and "compensatory" damages and a jury trial.
She also accused the defendants of causing her "mental pain and anguish," as well as "severe and serious emotional distress" and "lost wages."
Lively's attorneys stated on Tuesday their client has been subject to "further retaliation and attacks" since she made the "decision to speak out" about her allegations against Baldoni.
In her new lawsuit, Lively demands "punitive damages" as well as "a money judgement representing compensatory damages, lost wages, earning, and all other sums of money," plus "interest" on the above "in an amount to be proven at trial."
She also wants "an award of money judgment for mental pain and anguish and severe and serious emotional distress, in an amount to be proven at trial."
Lively's legal team provided a statement on Tuesday, saying: "Earlier today, Ms. Lively filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios and others in the Southern District of New York,".
"Ms. Lively previously sent her California Civil Rights Department Complaint in response to the retaliatory campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Unfortunately, Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks."
Lively's attorneys continued: "As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court."
They added: "Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.:
On New Year’s Eve, the day Lively filed her second lawsuit against Baldoni, he initiated a $250 million libel action against the New York Times, which broke the news of Lively’s first complaint earlier this month.
In a statement, the New York Times stood by its reporting and denied the allegations. It said it plans to "vigorously defend against the lawsuit".
Since Lively's first lawsuit broke, Baldoni's career has imploded, as he was dropped by his agency William Morris Endeavor.
Liz Plank, one of the co-hosts of Baldoni's Man Enough podcast that billed itself as a space for "positive masculinity," announced she was quitting the show.
Lively has seen former colleagues rally around her amid her high-profile legal battle.
Her "It Ends With Us" co-stars Brandon Sklenar and Jenny Slate have spoken out to support her, as has Colleen Hoover, author of the novel on which the film is based.
Lively's first lawsuit contained a raft of accusations against Baldoni, whom she says showed her unclothed images and videos of other women, "improvised physical intimacy" during a scene without prior discussion, entered her trailer while she was bare and allowed his "friends" to watch her filming intimate scenes.
In legal documents from the first complaint, Lively's team claimed an "all hands" meeting was held on January 4 of this year, purportedly "to address the hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film."
In the run-up to the movie's August 9 release, rumors began swirling of a rift between Lively and Baldoni.
Lively repeatedly went viral during the run-up to the release of "It Ends With Us" as social media users slammed her "mean girl" behavior in interviews - a trend she now insists was the result of an "astroturfing" campaign waged by Baldoni's PR team.
Lively's first complaint included purported screen grabs of text messages, many of them between Nathan and Abel, allegedly showing the PR takedown being plotted.
One exchange, obtained by subpoena, showed Abel allegedly saying that Baldoni "wants to feel like she [Lively] can be buried."
Nathan supposedly replied: "Of course - but you know when we send over documents we can't send over the work we will or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble,' adding, 'We can't write we will destroy her."
She allegedly also texted Abel: '"Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands. You know we can bury anyone but I can't write that to him. I will be very tough."
In Lively's first suit, she also submitted an alleged text that Baldoni purportedly sent Abel - a screenshot of an X thread about bullying allegations against Hailey Bieber, along with the message: "This is what we would need."
There is no suggestion that Bieber was in any way involved or associated with the alleged smear campaign against Lively.
In her new lawsuit filed New Year's Eve, Lively doubles down on the claims about the all-hands meeting and the subsequent alleged smear campaign.
Along with her claims of sexual harassment, Lively's first complaint accused Baldoni of "other behaviors that were shocking and emotionally distressing."
One example was that he allegedly insisted he could speak to the dead and had communicated with her late father Ernie Lively.
"It was off-putting and violative for Ms. Baldoni [sic] to claim a personal relationship with her recently deceased father," the lawsuit stated.
Ernie Lively, an actor and acting coach, died of cardiac complications aged 74 in June 2021, less than two years before principal photography began on "It Ends With Us".
Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman responded to Lively's first lawsuit by calling her claims "false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt".
He argued that Lively's suit was a gambit to "fix her negative reputation" after rumors swirled the internet about the actress being difficult to work with during the making of the film.
This included her allegedly "threatening to not show up to set [and] threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release," Freedman asserted.
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