Blake Lively Slams Justin Baldoni’s $400 Million Lawsuit

It’s not over.

Blake Lively has responded to Justin Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit filed against her “It Ends With Us” co-star.

Baldoni, 40, is suing Lively, 37, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, 48, their publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane’s public relations firm, Vision PR Inc., over the ongoing “It Ends With Us” saga “, which focuses on Lively’s sexual harassment allegations against Baldoni.

The suit — filed Thursday in the Southern District of New York by Baldoni’s attorneys on behalf of the “Jane the Virgin” star, “It Ends With Us” producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel and journalist Melissa Nathan – claims Lively took some action. to take control of the 2024 film.

Lively’s lawyers responded to the complaint, saying her accusations were “retaliation for allegations of sexual harassment.”

“This latest lawsuit filed by Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and his associates is another chapter in the abusers’ playbook,” Lively’s legal team said in a statement to The Post.

“It’s an old story: a woman comes forward with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the attacker tries to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Refuse. Attack. Reverse delinquent victim.

The statement continued: “Wayfarer chose to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch baseless lawsuits, and threaten legal action in order to prevent the public from understanding that what it fact is retaliation for allegations of sexual harassment.

“They are attempting to shift the narrative toward Ms. Lively by falsely claiming she took creative control and took the casting away from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the actors and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer,” Lively’s lawyers added. “The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s editing of the film, which they then selected for distribution and which was a huge success.

“Their response to the sexual harassment allegations: She wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: Look what she was wearing,” the statement continued. “In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.

In Baldoni’s 179-page complaint obtained by The Post, he accuses Lively, Reynolds and their associates of civil extortion, defamation, invasion of privacy by false light, violation of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference. with a potential economic advantage and negligent interference with a potential economic advantage.

“Lively began to insert herself into the production process in an intrusive manner well beyond the scope of her contractual rights,” Baldoni’s filing reads. “For example, Lively began to emphasize creative control over her character’s wardrobe. Although lead actors are sometimes given approval over the overall appearance of their characters, they usually do not have complete control over it.

Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement: “This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s deceptive attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and falsified information to the media.

“It is clear, given our complete willingness to provide all text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and that she will certainly regret. » he added. “Blake Lively was either seriously misled by his team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”

Freedman concluded: “Let us not forget that Ms. Lively and her team attempted to destroy reputations and livelihoods for heinous and selfish reasons, by dangerously manipulating the media themselves, before even engaging real legal proceedings. We know the truth, and now so does the public. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, the documents don’t lie.

Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit follows a civil rights complaint and lawsuit Lively filed against the actor-director in December, alleging he harassed her sexually on the set of “It Ends With Us” with inappropriate comments. The “Gossip Girl” alum also claimed that Baldoni orchestrated a public smear campaign to ruin her reputation.

Lively first revealed her allegations against Baldoni in an interview with The New York Times. The Times was later sued by Baldoni, who accused the newspaper of promise fraud and breach of implied contract in his $250 million lawsuit.

A Times spokesperson told the Post: “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story has been reported meticulously and responsibly. It is based on an analysis of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails that we cite precisely and in detail in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article, and their representatives have not reported any errors. We also released their full statement in response to the allegations in the article.

“We plan to vigorously defend against this lawsuit.”