Justin Baldoni just scored an unexpected win in his case against Blake Lively!
As Perezcious readers know, as part of his countersuit against his It Ends With Us co-star, the director claimed his talent agency, WME, dropped him at a request made by their other clients… Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. The agency already denied the allegation — but then reports surfaced that Justin’s ex-agent (who also represents the couple), Ari Emanuel, went on a podcast and admitted he did, in fact, fire the actor over this drama!
Related: Blake Calls Out Justin’s ‘Five Mistresses’ In Letter To Judge!
Ari, the chief exec of WME’s parent company, Endeavor, sat down for a live taping for the Freakonomics podcast earlier this month, telling the host he thinks Blake and Ryan are “really incredible people” who have “never had any bad mojo out there or treated people badly.” (Not exactly true, depending on who you ask…)
He went on to call Justin and his team “really bad people” for allegedly orchestrating a smear campaign against the Gossip Girl star. He then straight-up confirmed that he axed Justin because of this, saying:
“I fired him. I am a ride-or-die.”
Jeez!!
That feeds right into Justin’s theory! Not something Ari probably should’ve said!
But until now, the podcast episode was nowhere to be found — but thanks to some digging from content creators, it’s been leaked and reveals even more damning commentary! And there’s no more wondering if Ari really said this — you can hear him loud and clear!
On Thursday, the full clip of Ari spilling the tea on this scandal dropped. In it, he revealed he wrote “notes” about the topic because he knew he was going to be discussing the matter — so he was prepared. None of this was just off the cuff!
First off, when the host Stephen Dubner brought up the topic, he noted that “Ari just slit his throat.” Yeesh. He’s clearly over this conversation. Ari then complained:
“Bad situation that bologna, Baldoni, whatever his name is, is doing.”
WTF! This was *his* client! Pretending to forget his name is just low — and using this term really rude!
He went on to say the situation isn’t “fair,” calling Blake and Ryan — who he’s known “for over a decade” — very “successful” in the industry, claiming they’ve never had issues with people and are “charitable.” He then claimed Justin and his producing partner Jamey Heath used social media in an “evil” way (based on Blake’s accusations), continuing:
“If what is alleged in her lawsuit that happened on social media, just because she complained to the studio that things were unhealthy on set — that he was the director and this man [Jamey Heath] was the producer — and they did to her what they’re saying in the letter, they’re really bad people. And I know Blake, I know Ryan, they’re excellent people.”
He furthered:
“Now, social media is a really good thing, at times, because it lets people, stars connect with their fans. But these two guys used it in an evil way, if that’s true. And they should no longer be out there intimidating people, using social media now and trying to hurt them and using their, what they have been doing prior to it now, to go against them. They should just stop since they think they’re innocent and let the process play itself out. These are good people who have been doing good business for decades. They have never had any bad press about them and all the people they work with like them.”
Again, that last bit isn’t entirely true. The host then wanted to get Ari’s take on the whole intimacy coordinator controversy. Given Ari’s reputation in the industry, the host assumed he wouldn’t take that kind of a job seriously, but Ari wanted no part of that, replying:
“This is actually not a joke. I mean, that’s actually an important role. She [Blake] felt that she was not being protected. She complained and then these people tried to go after her. They should stop.”
When asked his “role” in all this, Ari declared proudly:
“I fired him. I’m a ride-or-die! And they’re good people, yeah.”
Wow! He’s not worried about sharing this at all!
The interview then quickly ended as Ari shared that he had to catch a flight to head to SNL 50 — where Ryan and Blake made waves for THAT controversial joke. LOLz! Hear the whole convo (below):
__
LEAKED AUDIO (just the audio)
OF BLAKE LIVELY & RYAN REYNOLDS AGENT
ADMITTING TO FIRING JUSTIN BALDONI TO "RIDE OR DIE" WITH TEAM LIVELY-REYNOLDS
Here's the Ari Emanuel audio without my commentary–just the audio. If you want my full video with commentary and… pic.twitter.com/9268DP3hva
— Colonel Kurtz -PopCulture/ Politics/ MarilynManson (@colonelkurtz99) February 28, 2025
It’s pretty incredible he said all this on a live taping — especially knowing this firing has been brought up in the legal case! Now, Justin has even more proof to use to back up his claims. That’s why you’d think Ari would want nothing to do with this line of questioning! But maybe that’s exactly why this never properly aired???
As mentioned, this is a leaked clip taken from someone in the audience because the podcast never aired the real thing! In an explanation shared about a week after the taping, the host claimed the “theater’s P.A. system had crashed” before the show, though they were able to get it “partially” working. But at an afterparty, his editor revealed someone screwed up and the chat wasn’t recorded at all. He tried to recreate it, noting:
“Some friends who had been in the audience had already started sending in bits of video and audio they had recorded. At least one journalist had recorded the entire Ari Emanuel interview, but it’s iPhone-on-the-lap quality, not radio quality. So we ditched that re-creation idea.”
Same journalist who helped leak this clip!? But because of this mess, that’s why the episode was never released. Whoa. Was this really just super bad luck? Or did Ari have second thoughts and want to bury this conversation? Hmm. Listen to the full explanation:
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