The talent agency head who fired Justin Baldoni a few months ago remains in Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds‘ corner! Even after all the receipts Justin has dropped!
The drama between the actress and her It Ends With Us co-star and director was first revealed to fans last summer. Then it became a massive legal battle in late December when Blake publicly accused Justin of sexual harassment — and conducting a retaliatory smear campaign against her to “destroy” her reputation. After the bombshell allegations came to light, Justin took a massive hit. That same day, his talent agency, WME, dropped him.
Related: Anna Kendrick Has ‘No Drama’ With Blake Lively — But She IS ‘Upset’ About THIS!
Baldoni believes the agency got rid of him at the behest of Blake and Ryan, who they also represent! In his $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times for publishing the Gossip Girl alum’s accusations, Justin claimed he found out Ryan “approached Baldoni’s agent at William Morris Endeavor” during the premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine in July 2024 and demanded that the agent “drop” him. This isn’t the first time the couple used their power to get their way, either, per the filmmaker — it’s their whole thing! WME shut down the accusation, insisting Ryan never “pressured” Justin’s agent at the movie premiere or at any other time.
Hmm…
Blake and Ryan may not have asked anyone at WME to ditch Justin, but it sounds like they are why he’s no longer on the client roster! And it’s all because of where a certain talent agency executive’s loyalties lie!
Ari Emanuel, the chief exec of WME’s parent company, Endeavor, spoke out about the messy drama during a live taping for the Freakonomics podcast on Thursday night. And unsurprisingly, guess whose side he’s on? Speaking to host Stephen Dubner, Ari shared that he has known the two for more than a decade now and thinks they are “really incredible people.” He continued to defend them, saying:
“They’ve never had any bad mojo out there or treated people badly.”
Justin definitely would disagree with that take! And guess Ari hasn’t heard about the A Simple Favor AD Blake allegedly was so “cruel” to that she cried every day yet! That doesn’t sound like someone who doesn’t treat people “badly!” (Then again, Ari is famously the inspiration for Jeremy Piven‘s character of Ari Gold on Entourage, so maybe his view of how to treat *the little people* is a little off, ya know?)
Ari stood by his actions by noting that if the allegations in Blake’s lawsuit are true, then Justin and the others involved are “really bad people.” And he insisted the Green Lantern stars are “good people”:
“These are good people who have been in the business for decades and have never had any bad press about them. And all the people they’ve worked with like them.”
Again, not everyone has liked Blake! Clearly! As for Justin? The executive confirmed he “fired him,” adding unrepentantly:
“I am a ride-or-die.”
Depending on how this legal battle goes, Ari may regret being so “ride-or-die” for Blake and Ryan! Reactions to his defense of the pair, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments below!
[Image via MEGA/WENN, Soul Bloom w/ Rainn Wilson/YouTube]
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