Justin Baldoni Is Suing Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for $400 Million

Justin Baldoni has filed his second lawsuit in response to the drama surrounding It Ends With Us. Over two weeks after Blake Lively formally filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York against the director for alleged sexual harassment, Baldoni sued the actress and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million on Thursday, January 16. He also included their publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane's PR firm, Vision PR, Inc. in the suit, which was filed on behalf of Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel, and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan in the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit marks the second time that Baldoni took legal action in the wake of the film's release; two weeks prior, in response to Lively's claims, he responded by suing the New York Times based on its bombshell report titled "'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine."  (The Times denies the allegations, and issued a statement defending the article, which it called "meticulously and responsibly reported.")

Baldoni is now suing Lively and Reynolds on claims of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage.

Among other things, the complaint includes allegations that “Lively, her team, and the Times worked in concert to cherry-pick, deliberately misconstrue, splice, and alter private communications to manufacture a self-serving and factually baseless narrative.”

"This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence,” said Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, in a statement to InStyle. "It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle [Lively] will not win and will certainly regret."

"We know the truth, and now the public does too," he continued. "Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie."

On Thursday, January 16, Lively's legal team issued a statement in response to Baldoni's $400 lawsuit. “This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its associates is 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," the statement read.

"They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer," it continued. "Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing. In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”

Lively's attorneys previously told InStyle that her "decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks," and that they "look forward to addressing [the] allegations in court."

As for Lively's suit, the actress alleges that Baldoni sexually harassed her on set, exhibiting "disturbing" and "unprofessional" behavior. Once filming wrapped, she claims, Baldoni orchestrated a retaliatory smear campaign to "destroy" her reputation which caused her to suffer “grief, fear, trauma, and extreme anxiety" and "severe emotional harm."  Baldoni denies the allegations, and Freedman has stated that Lively's allegations are "false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”

Since filing her lawsuit in December, Lively has received support from other women in Hollywood, including Amber Heard, her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-stars, and even It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover.

"@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met," the author wrote alongside a photo of herself and Lively in an Instagram Story. "Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt."

Read the original article on InStyle