Justin Baldoni’s legal representatives have released screenshots of text messages purportedly sent by Ryan Reynolds before Baldoni collaborated with Blake Lively on the film It Ends with Us.
Last December, Blake Lively initiated legal action against Justin Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and attempting to ruin her reputation.
Baldoni refuted these claims and countered by filing a lawsuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, alleging civil extortion, defamation, and invasion of privacy.
Baldoni’s legal team has since launched a website featuring two publicly available court documents: Baldoni’s amended $400 million complaint against Lively and Reynolds and a 168-page ‘timeline of relevant events.’
Within the ‘timeline of relevant events,’ found on page eight, are several screenshots of an alleged text exchange.
This text exchange is claimed to be between Baldoni and Reynolds. The first screenshot shows Baldoni awkwardly reaching out to someone named Reynolds, expressing his desire to ‘be friends.’
The director and star of the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel claims that Lively had sent a ‘sweet message’ to his wife, expressing a similar sentiment, which led Baldoni to ‘respect’ the couple’s ‘union even more,’ as he had been a ‘supporter and admirer from afar of both of [them] for years.’
Baldoni mentions their families and even suggests the possibility of a ‘workout’ together.
In the response allegedly from Reynolds, the Deadpool actor apologizes for ‘the delay,’ explaining that he’s been in a ‘writing cave’ and his children are ‘sick again.’
The text commends Baldoni for his ‘loving and generous message’ and states: “We’re both looking forward to getting to know you and your family better. We’re also big fans over here.”
The message praises Baldoni as a ‘wonderful collaborator with B’ and emphasizes how much it means to ‘both of us,’ asserting that the director has been ‘a stand up person’ ‘since day one.’
It continues: “You’ve hit the jackpot with B. She literally passes on every film and every filmmaker all the time. I’m excited for Blake to crack open her creative piggy bank with someone as dynamic as you. This is gonna be INCREDIBLE.”
The text proceeds to commend Lively’s creativity and ‘tastes’ while expressing gratitude to Baldoni for attempting to facilitate Lively’s schedule to ‘reunite’ with her family ‘as soon as possible.’
It concludes with: “All this to say, I’ve had your producer’s face tattooed on my perineum is he/she/ they can figure out how to start two weeks earlier. Completely understand how big of an ask that is. But the perineum is one of the most nervy parts of the human body to expose to trauma. So..
“Looking forward to seeing you. And thank you again for all you’re doing. I happen to adore you, Justin xo.”
A New York judge, Lewis Linman, has scheduled a date for their trial, with an initial conference set for Monday (February 3) and the trial proceedings expected to begin on March 9 next year.
Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s attorney, previously commented to UNILAD: “This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.
“It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret. Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”
There has been considerable discussion about a scene in It Ends With Us that Lively asked to rewrite.
Lively texted Baldoni: “You OK if I play around with the dialogue to give her a bit more agency and fun and send to you? We can amp up their verbal ping pong/volley.”
She further explained in another message: “If you knew me (in person) longer you’d have a sense of how flirty and yummy the ball busting will play. It’s my love language. Spicy and playfully bold, never with teeth….”
Amidst negative publicity surrounding Lively during the film’s press tour, her talent agency, WME, reportedly insisted that Baldoni and production studio Wayfarer accept full responsibility for negative stories about Lively, threatening that ‘the gloves will come off’ otherwise. They asserted that Baldoni’s team was spreading negative stories about Lively.
The statement they prepared for Baldoni reads in part: “It Ends With Us was a troubled production which we take full accountability for. Blake Lively, Colleen Hoover, the entire cast and crew led with professionalism every step of the way, any negativity aimed at them is ours to own.
“We have always said we are not perfect and even if [we] unintentionally make mistakes, we always own them.”
Baldoni’s legal team has long been preparing the website. Lively’s attorney, Michael Gottleib, told the Daily Mail about their plans: “The planned website will release what Mr. Freedman self-servingly proclaims will be ‘full unedited WhatsApp, text and email exchanges between Lively and Baldoni,’ although neither the media nor public will have any way of knowing which communications Mr. Freedman has selectively omitted from disclosure, including communications that Mr. Freedman and his clients may have deleted.”