Justin Baldoni is NOT down with Blake Lively‘s longtime publicist Leslie Sloane trying to wiggle her way out of the It Ends With Us costars’ vicious legal battle!
According to Deadline, Baldoni’s lawyers submitted an amended complaint in court that pushed back on Sloane’s public relations firm Vision PR trying to extricate themselves from the filmmaker-director’s lawsuit against Lively. Of course, Sloane has worked with the Gossip Girl alum for a VERY long time. And the duo is so close that Baldoni now claims Sloane made him a “scapegoat” as the whole IEWU fracas bubbled up!
Related: Blake Lively And Her Fake “Fans”! Justin Baldoni’s Costar EXPOSED!
Per the outlet’s reporting, lawyers for Baldoni and Wayfarer Entertainment filed a memorandum of opposition against a judge to deny Sloane’s previous motion to have herself and her firm dismissed from the lawsuit.
But Baldoni didn’t just push back on the PR flack trying to get out of the suit — he also claimed Sloane used the long tail of the IEWU feud to dodge Blake’s wrath over its negative fallout!! The filing argued:
“In a desperate effort to salvage Lively’s reputation and to escape her wrath, the Sloane Parties conspired with Lively and Consolidated Defendants Ryan Reynolds (‘Reynolds’) and The New York Times Company (‘New York Times’) to make scapegoats of the Wayfarer Parties for Lively’s woes.”
The filing went on to claim that Sloane and her team breadcrumbed “sinister allegations” against Baldoni for MONTHS leading up to the legal battle:
“On information and belief, the Sloane Parties worked for months to drop breadcrumbs and hints of sinister allegations to the public while secretly feeding defamatory falsehoods to any reporter who would listen, including Megan Twohey of the New York Times.”
Yuuuuup! That would include the New York Times article from back in December that really set s**t off — and got Baldoni’s side to push for the paper’s inclusion in the courtroom battle.
The filing then went on:
“As a direct result of the actions of the Sloane Parties and their co-conspirators, the Wayfarer Parties have been damaged beyond measure: Their reputations are destroyed, their businesses lie in tatters, and their own Film was taken from them. These are the facts underpinning the Wayfarer Parties’ allegations against the Sloane Parties, and this is what the evidence will prove at trial.”
So, basically, Sloane and her folks are in DEEP, Baldoni’s team claims. And neither they nor the paper of record should be allowed to run away!
Through it all, the parties continue to point towards a 2026 trial. It’s still really early, but damn, y’all — it already feels like the (civil) trial of the century. At least in the film world.
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[Image via Jimmy Fallon/YouTube/Live With Kelly & Mark/YouTube]
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