Bombshell lawsuit accuses Blake Lively of hijacking movie and forcing co-star to sit in the basement for the premiere

Blake Lively is accused of “hijacking” a movie and forcing her co-stars to sit out the premiere “in the basement,” a new lawsuit has revealed.

Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds are being sued by actor Justin Baldoni and his publicists, who say the actress devised a scheme to destroy their careers and discredit them by making false allegations of sexual harassment.

Court papers obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com accuse Lively and Reynolds of using their combined star power to hijack domestic violence film It Ends With Us, with Lively involved in production despite allegedly not having read the book until filming was already in full swing.

The hijacking reportedly went so far as to relegate Baldoni and his family to the basement after arriving on the red carpet for the film’s premiere on August 6, 2024, because “Lively demanded he not be present.”

The complaint said: “Security personnel, acting as if there was a risk of ‘escape,’ escorted Baldoni’s group to the basement of the building.

“There they were confined to a makeshift waiting area surrounded by concession stands, with only fold-out tables and chairs arranged in a square.”

Lively’s sexual harassment claims first appeared three weeks ago in a New York Times story that included texts between his publicists that they now say were handpicked and decontextualized to make it appear as if Baldoni organized a ‘smear campaign’ against the actress.

But the Italian actor says it was Lively who was the real orchestrator of a negative publicity campaign – claiming she had been working with her own publicist Leslie Sloane and the New York Times for months before the article was published.

Baldoni has already sued the outlet for $250 million for libel and defamation, saying in his lawsuit that the story was based on Lively’s “self-serving narrative.”

The new filing is a cross-complaint against Lively’s, noting that Baldoni and his publicists were even served papers while trying to evacuate their homes during the devastating LA wildfires that tore through the city last week.

Lively, the complaint adds, was safely at home in New York even as she deployed process servers in the middle of the inferno.

The home of Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman was among the victims of the Palisades Fire.

The filing also details how Baldoni’s publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel faced death threats and a barrage of abuse after Lively’s allegations aired, some of which were anti-Semitic.

An industry source told DailyMail.com: ‘The only question we need to ask now that we can see the full picture is: why did Blake make the decision to do this?

“There can only be two reasons: one, she didn’t think the other side would fight back, or two, she herself was shown edited and falsified messages from her own team of advisors.

“It will be interesting to see how she handles herself now that the public has the completely unedited communication in full.”

In a statement released exclusively to DailyMail.com, Nathan and Abel described the impact of Lively’s allegations as “devastating” and accused the actress of bullying them.

“It is devastating that we are being forced to answer this viciously self-serving ongoing lawsuit, littered with documented and provable lies, in the midst of the tragedy impacting California, where we live,” the statement said.

“Five months ago, Ms. Lively chose to promote a film about domestic violence in a way that caused immediate negative and organic reactions due to her own highly publicized actions.

‘Instead of accepting responsibility, she cruelly decided to blame us. This malicious attack on private individuals by Ms. Lively and her team, in which they chose to feed The New York Times with spoofed, decontextualized and edited text messages in an attempt to portray themselves as victims, set off a chain of events that has been immeasurably damaging,” they continued.

“To be clear, Ms. Lively and her team initiated this media smear campaign for the sole purpose of gaining undeserved public sympathy for her own misdeeds.

“Over the past month, we have received death threats, horrific abuse and vile anti-Semitic comments directed at us because of her decision to use us as scapegoats for her own choices to promote her multi-million dollar movie.

“With this filing, we lift our own curtain on what happens when rights holders weaponize power, fear and money to destroy, intimidate and bully those who stand in their way.”

The new lawsuit comes after months of tit-for-tat fighting between Lively and Baldoni, who dramatically fell out over It Ends With Us, which the actress is accused of hijacking.

According to the new lawsuit, the backlash she received during the film’s publicity campaign was the direct result of using it to promote her own brands, including a liquor company, in a tone-deaf manner – but not as a result of a smear campaign. .

The lawsuit goes on to say that she tried to force Baldoni to make a statement saying he would “take responsibility” in light of the backlash, and when he refused, plotted to drive him out of the industry altogether via ” false allegations of sexual abuse’. intimidation’.

It Ends With Us became one of the most talked about films of the year after its release in August, but for all the wrong reasons.

The romantic drama follows Lily Bloom, played by Blake Lively, as she becomes involved in an abusive relationship with Justin Baldoni’s Ryle Kincaid.

A perceived point of contention was how to market the film, with Lively reportedly wanting to make the story more optimistic in contrast to Baldoni, who felt the film should focus more on the abuse aspect.

As rumors of the feud continued, reactions on social media began to turn against Lively, who was repeatedly criticized for her responses in interviews promoting the film.

She was branded “tone deaf” and “shallow” after setting up an interview with her It Ends With Us costars and failing to discuss the serious message behind the film.

Another conflict came when Baldoni asked how much Lively weighed prior to a scene where he had to lift her.

The A-list actress reportedly said it made her “embarrassed,” while those close to Baldoni insisted he was just trying to protect his back after an injury.

Unlike many other projects where controversy affects the box office, It Ends With Us still proved to be a box office hit despite mixed reviews from critics.

More to follow…