When It Comes To Justin Baldoni vs. Blake Lively, It's Clear Who's Winning In The Court Of Public Opinion

Unless you've lived under a rock for the past few months, you've heard about Justin Baldoni and his lawsuit against his "It Ends With Us" costar, Blake Lively.

Not only was Baldoni her costar, but he was the director of the film, which put him in a position of power over the "Gossip Girl" alum. Lively has accused him of using this power to sexually harass and body shame her on set. Baldoni, on the other hand, has accused her of trying to wrestle creative control of the film away from him.

So who's right? Who's wrong? With lawsuits flying on both sides, it remains to be seen who is going to win in the court of law, but in the court of public opinion, it seems that Lively's ship is slowly sinking.

The #MeToo movement may no longer be in the spotlight as it once was, but that hasn't stopped women from being sexually harassed on movie sets. But is that really what happened here? Given the information that has come to light, it seems that Lively was uncomfortable on set and may have been justified in feeling that way. Without being there to witness things firsthand, it's hard for anyone to come to a conclusion about what really happened behind closed doors.

A lot of people would say that, if she was so uncomfortable with Baldoni, she should have vocalized her concerns with him long before filming wrapped. And I agree with that. Is it fair to file a lawsuit after the movie has already finished? If she was harassed the way she claims, then yes, maybe, if she was afraid of some kind of retaliation, but the evidence that has emerged so far doesn't seem like a woman who was afraid to use her voice.

Baldoni's team has leaked a treasure trove of information and even launched his own website titled "Lawsuit Info" that shares alleged text messages that include himself, Lively, and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. This situation has spiraled so out of control that even Lively's close friend, pop star Taylor Swift, has been dragged into the lawsuit. Ultimately, though, it looks like Lively is the one that put her there.

When you’re going to film a romantic drama that deals with domestic violence, you need an intimacy coordinator on set. “It Ends With Us” had an intimacy coordinator, but according to Baldoni’s amended complaint listed on his website, Lively decided to skip the initial meeting where they outlined the sex scenes in the film and how they would play out on screen.

After she “declined” the meeting, Baldoni claims that he was put in the "less than ideal position of having to relay these notes to Lively in her penthouse" and used terms like “goes down on her,” “orgasm,” and “foreplay.”

His lawyers claim that "These notes would later become the basis for Lively’s complaint, in which she states that Baldoni would talk about his own sex life and insert gratuitous scenes with Lively’s character orgasming."

After reading her lawsuit, it seems like this conversation was part of her harassment claim, but it's worth noting that Lively made some strange comments about working with an intimacy coordinator before. In an August 2024 interview with Access Hollywood, Lively addressed some odd comments about being her own intimacy coordinator on set. “That shouldn’t be happening, by the way. I just want to be clear,” she said when asked what it was like “being the intimacy coordinator on some of those sexier scenes.”

“You should not be the intimacy coordinator. You should definitely hire intimacy coordinators,” she added. “Which we did have, thank goodness.”

The interviewer then described a “sexy scene” where Lively was teaching Baldoni how to “pull” her in. When Lively asked where the interviewer saw the clip, it was actually author Colleen Hoover who jumped into the conversation and said she saw it herself on Instagram. Lively seemed uncomfortable as she tugged on the ends of her hair and stammered a bit as she continued the interview.

In late January, behind-the-scenes footage of a romantic dancing scene surfaced online. The video, obtained by TMZ, shows them exchanging awkward banter while swaying back and forth. This scene is important because it was directly described in Lively as proof that Baldoni harassed her.

According to the court filing, Lively claimed that Baldoni “leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘it smells so good’... When Ms. Lively later objected to this behavior, Mr. Baldoni’s response was, ‘I’m not even attracted to you.’”

In the video, Baldoni makes an awkward joke about his nose being “so big” after Lively calls attention to it. Lively also tells him, “I’m probably getting spray tan on you,” to which Baldoni replies, “It smells good.”

It certainly puts Lively's description of the scene in perspective.

According to Baldoni’s lawsuit, Lively implied that she would “change her mind” about asking Taylor Swift to use her song “My Tears Ricochet” in the movie trailer unless her demands were met. The demands, in this case, were editing rights to the film. In the filing, Baldoni included an alleged text exchange with a Sony executive, which read:

"Blake is calling Taylor to approve the song. She of course just reached out saying she is asking for time with [REDACTED] her editor. We know it was conditional on signing contract, but asking if you will reconsider so [REDACTED] can release this trailer and Blake does not change her mind re calling Taylor Swift."

Another alleged text message shows Baldoni and Lively addressing a script change that Lively wanted to make. The text messages address a meeting that took place at Lively’s penthouse, with both Reynolds and Swift present.

Baldoni told her that he “really” loved the changes that she made and felt that they made the rooftop scene in question more “fun and interesting” but noted that he “would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor.”

Lively then compared herself to a “Game of Thrones” character, allegedly responding:

"I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually for better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. [Smiley-face emoji] You will too, I can promise you."

It remains to be seen how Taylor Swift feels about being called a "gorgeous monster." Conflicting reports have emerged about their friendship, but it’s worth noting that they haven’t been photographed together since October. Other reports have indicated that Swift was never even supposed to be at the meeting, but it just happened to be going on when Swift went to visit her friend.

Lively’s attempt at promoting the film was met with memes for weeks after she treated the film like a traditional rom-com and encouraged fans to “Grab your girls, wear your florals” while heading to the theater. Maybe it’s a little on the nose to make a story about a girl named Lily who runs a flower shop, but fans online felt that it was inappropriate to reduce a movie about domestic violence to something more Barbie-like.

According to Baldoni’s amended complaint on his website, Lively reached out to his production team and asked them to take the blame for the negative press that she received while promoting the film, which also included a resurfaced interview of her being rude to a reporter.

According to Baldoni's court documents, Lively and Reynolds “demand[ed]” that their statement be released on Baldoni and his company’s behalf and that refusal to do so meant the "gloves will come off." It's pretty clear that Baldoni's production team never released the statement, and the gloves have indeed come off.

So when it comes to Justin Baldoni vs. Blake Lively, who will come out on top?

Kristin says, when it comes to the court of public opinion, Baldoni has the upper hand. He has been dropping his dirty laundry all over the Internet for everyone to see (including an awkward 2 AM voice memo) in an effort to vindicate himself from Lively's claims. He wants to make it clear that her allegations have no merit, and, judging by what's been exposed so far, it certainly makes Lively look like the aggressor.

At the same time, Lively is married to Ryan Reynolds and it's doubtful that her career - or his, for that matter - will be impacted by the lawsuit, which is currently not scheduled to begin until March 2026. Baldoni already scored a legal win on Monday when a judge rejected Lively's request for a gag order, which means that even more evidence will probably surface in the coming weeks.

It might be difficult for Baldoni to pick up the pieces career-wise no matter which way his legal battle unfolds, but he may walk away from all of this proving that he did not harass Lively in the way she claimed, and for him, that vindication might be enough.