Baldoni Is Suing Lively, Reynolds

It Ends With Us actor and director Justin Baldoni sued his co-star Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for defamation on Thursday in the latest step in a bitter legal battle surrounding the dark romantic drama, the AP reports. The lawsuit seeks at least $400 million for damages that include lost future income.

• The lawsuit from Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios, which also names publicist Leslie Sloane as a defendant, comes about two weeks after Lively sued Baldoni and several others tied to the film, alleging harassment and a coordinated campaign to attack her reputation for coming forward about her treatment on the set. That lawsuit came the same day that Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel, alleging the paper worked with Lively to smear him.

• The new lawsuit filed in federal court in New York says the plaintiffs did not want to file the suit, but that Lively "has unequivocally left them with no choice, not only to set the record straight in response to Lively's accusations, but also to put the spotlight on the parts of Hollywood that they have dedicated their careers to being the antithesis of."
• "This is a case about two of the most powerful stars in the world deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio," the suit says. "Then, when Lively and Reynolds' efforts failed to win them the acclaim they believed they so richly deserved, they turned their fury on their chosen scapegoat."
• Earlier this month, Baldoni attorney Bryan Freedman said a countersuit against Lively was "absolutely" coming. "We plan to release every single text message between the two of them," he said.
• Lively and Reynolds are both represented by agency WME, which dropped Baldoni as a client after Lively filed a legal complaint that was a precursor to her lawsuit and the Times published its story on the fight surrounding the film.

(More Justin Baldoni stories.)