Justin Baldoni filed his enormous lawsuit against Blake Lively on Thursday, accusing her of, well, a LOT.
At its foundation, though, the suit is about the creative control over It Ends With Us. Justin is accusing Blake of pushing him out to seize control of the movie. He’s arguing she saw this as a potential ongoing franchise she could make hers — not because she cared about the source material or the gravity of the story, but because of the branding. From the suit:
“The Film was the hotly anticipated adaptation of a worldwide best-selling book by Colleen Hoover, and by starring in it as ‘Lily,’ Lively stood to enhance her already considerable star power. But she was not content merely to headline one of the year’s biggest movies. Instead, apparently driven by overweening ambition and a need for control, Lively eventually leveraged her power as a wealthy celebrity to wrest the reins from her costar and the Film’s director, Baldoni, insisting on total control over every aspect of the Film she could get her hands on, from wardrobe to marketing strategy to music, even creating her own cut of the Film.”
Based on popular IP, a star with power over the marketing strategy, pushing out the first film’s director entirely… Yeah. He’s saying this was supposed to her her Deadpool. That’s not our comparison btw — Justin specifically mentions the drama between Ryan Reynolds and Tim Miller in the suit! He’s saying Blake wanted to do what her husband did and bully her way into control over a major franchise.
Related: Blake Lively’s Game Of Thrones Text Is An All-Timer Whether You Love Or Hate Her!
Those who have followed the drama surrounding the film know the problem with her “marketing strategy.” It Ends With Us is about domestic abuse, and a lot of fans were vocally uncomfortable with her fun, playful promo — they preferred Justin’s somber approach and Q&As with abuse survivors. The director argues Blake’s own “disastrous marketing efforts and tone-deaf press interviews and appearances” were the reason she was targeted by organic fan backlash, NOT a smear campaign. And it was only after her reputation suffered that she chose to blame him, painting him as a sexual harasser who was retaliating against her.
And this next part is wild, y’all. Justin says the reason Blake never got the right tone for It Ends With Us? SHE NEVER READ THE BOOK! The suit continues:
“Not only did Lively’s power play cost numerous people their jobs, but at every turn, her wrongheaded creative decisions reflected her fundamental lack of understanding of the book the Film was based on. This came as no surprise to her worried colleagues, given that, even well into production, Lively had not even read the book.“
That’s his emphasis, btw. In a footnote, he blasts her claims to the contrary, writing:
“Lively later claimed she read the book, but text evidence shows that well into production she had not, and in fact expressed she had chosen not to read the book. She even tried to ‘Google’ the color of her character’s hair rather than pick up the book.”
Wow.
Innerestingly, the book’s author Colleen Hoover has been on Blake’s side all this time, not Justin’s. Though since his first suit launched against The New York Times, she’s decided to pull back on the public support. Maybe he saw this as an opportunity to drive a wedge between them? And making it public that she never read the book would help?? Especially if Blake lied to the writer about it…
Hoover would make a strong ally in his fight. Hmm. What do YOU think of this part of the lawsuit??
[Image via ABC, NBC, & Sony Pictures Entertainment/YouTube.]