Blake Lively filed her amended complaint late Tuesday, expanding the scope of her accusations.
In addition to claiming there are more witnesses to inappropriate behavior by It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni, she is also blasting his business partner. You know, Steve Sarowitz, one of the guys behind Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer Studios? The billionaire worth an estimated $2.6 billion, according to Forbes. And Blake says he was willing to spend BIG to take down her and hubby Ryan Reynolds.
Related: Justin’s Lawyer Reveals Why He Believes HIM Over Blake
In the new complaint, she says she’s found a witness who heard Sarowitz say at the NYC premiere of the film that he was willing to spend $100 MILLION of his own money to “ruin the lives of Ms. Lively and her family,” in the words of the suit. WHOA! The suit even contains a footnote linking to a January 7 Forbes article in which his legal team said something similar:
When asked about this comment, Mr. Sarowitz’s counsel “confirmed that his client is prepared to spend whatever necessary to defend Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and himself.”
OK, but spending to defend himself and his partners isn’t the same as spending to RUIN LIVES! But another statement Blake includes is unequivocally a threat. The suit goes on to say Sarowitz told another witness, someone working with him on an unrelated project, that if Blake or Ryan “ever cross the line, ever, then I will go after them.” It gets worse. He allegedly invoked the genocide in the Middle East as a metaphor for what he would do to the Hollywood stars! Yes, really! They claim he told the person:
“I will protect the studio like Israel protected itself from Hamas. There were 39,000 dead bodies. There will be two dead bodies when I’m done. Minimum.”
Wow. Holy crap. That is… a statement. Even he apparently realized the potential legal ramifications if this were interpreted as a literal death threat, so he followed up immediately with:
“Not dead, but ‘you’re dead to me.’ So that kind of dead. But dead to a lot of people.”
LOLz! Really giving Zoolander eulogy energy with that caveat!
But in all seriousness, it sounds like the guy was willing to spend a pretty penny!
“If they ever get me to that point. Then I’ll make it worth their while. Because I’m gonna spend a lot of money to make sure the studio is protected.”
So if you’re wondering how a small-time actor and director like Baldoni is putting up such an aggressive legal challenge to Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, there’s your answer.
Blake, though, has interpreted the threat’s actualization to be an enormous secret smear campaign against her. It seems like whether the backlash against her was organic is going to be the crucial point around which this whole case revolves. Is that even possible to prove? Guess we’ll find out…
[Image via MEGA/WENN.]
