Justin Baldoni’s former talent agency, WME, has weighed in on his drama with Blake Lively.
WME dropped Baldoni, 40, as a client in December after Blake Lively filed a complaint against her “It Ends With Us” co-star, accusing him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her.
Baldoni has since filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times for publishing the article with Lively’s accusations.
In his own 87-page complaint, the director alleged that Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, pressured WME to drop Baldoni at the “Deadpool & Wolverine” premiere in July 2024.
However, the agency denied the accusations in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday.
“In Baldoni’s filing, there is a claim that Reynolds pressured Baldoni’s agent at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere. This is not true,” WME said.
“Baldoni’s former representative was not at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere nor was there any pressure from Reynolds or Lively at any time to drop Baldoni as a client,” the statement added.
The talent agency made the decision to drop Baldoni on Dec. 21 — just hours after the Times published the 4,000-word piece titled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” which outlined Lively’s first complaint against her co-star.
Lively, 37, and Reynolds, 48, continue to be represented by WME.
In his lawsuit, Baldoni accused the Times of promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract. He and nine other plaintiffs, including high-profile publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, are suing the publication for libel and false light invasion of privacy.
The Times’ piece painted Lively as a star who endured months of alleged sexual harassment from Baldoni, claiming she allegedly faced retaliation of a smear campaign when she voiced her concerns.
However, Baldoni’s lawsuit stated it was Lively who allegedly embarked on a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign.
The lawsuit also accused Reynolds of “berating” Baldoni during an “aggressive” fight after Baldoni allegedly “fat-shamed” Lively while they were working on the movie.
On the same day that Baldoni filed his lawsuit, Lively sued him in a New York federal court for causing her “severe emotional distress and pain, humiliation, embarrassment, belittlement, frustration and mental anguish,” in addition to lost wages.
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has denied Lively’s allegations.
Amid the legal battle, “It Ends With Us” author Colleen Hoover and two of the film’s stars, Jenny Slate and Brandon Sklenar, have come out in support of Lively.
Baldoni’s podcast partner Liz Plank, meanwhile, announced she was leaving the show in the wake of Lively’s sexual harassment claims.
