Morning Wire - It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25

Episode Date: February 8, 2025

A Hollywood feud turns into a legal and PR battlefield as Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni trade lawsuits, leaked messages, and explosive allegations over It Ends With Us—with reputations and careers on the line. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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on the entire. Trouvee de petitions like another.com.com. Actress Blake Lively and director Justin Baldoni are continuing their public feud over their hit film it ends with us,

with both sides filing lawsuits. But even more than a legal battle, this has become an all-out PR war, with leaked texts, calls, and film footage, as well as allegations of sexual harassment and spousal jealousy. The first trial date is set for March of 26. In this episode, Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Basham speaks with award-winning journalist, author and Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan to get insight into a drama only Hollywood could produce.

Thanks so much for joining us, Marine. You know, for those of us who are maybe just catching up with this story, a little bit on the later side, I'm wondering if you can give us something of a 10,000 foot summary of this scandal. Sure. So about a month ago, the New York Times ran a blockbuster, I think 4,000-word piece in which Blake Lively was alleging her writer-director co-star, forgive me, I'm not sure if he was the writer, Justin Baldoni on their film, It Ends With Us, had subjected her to almost ritualistic sexual harassment and that she suffered so greatly. It was a concerted effort in which he

involved multiple people to not only harass her while filming, but then once the movie was about to be released, orchestrated an online smear campaign against her. A couple of weeks later, Baldoni's lawyer, Brian Friedman, filed a countersuit in which he alleged that, the text messages obtained by the New York Times had been selectively edited, and they sort of threw open their document dump, which seemed to absolve Justin, of many of the things that Lively has been claiming. Nonetheless, these two are now locked in a bitter, bitter, expensive lawsuit, Baldoni's counter-sewing Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million, which is, I believe, leave what he thinks their estimated net worth is.

And the trial is tentatively set for March 2026. So before we get to some of the kind of legal ramifications, there's obviously been a lot of leaks. There's been a lot of, I would even say, shifting in public loyalties back and forth. At least that's been my experience. You know, at the outset, I was kind of team Justin, and then I went, well, wait a minute, okay,

that New York Times piece was really persuasive. but then Justin Baldoni's team released some new audio leaks and those kind of things sort of shifted the game a little bit. What's your sense right now of who's on top in the PR war? I think Blake Lively is suffering mightily right now and the collateral fallout is affecting not just her husband, Ryan Reynolds, but her so-called Dragon, her BFF Taylor Swift, who it's reported has been taking a step back from her friendship with Blake. because she doesn't want any of this runoff affecting her career. Justin's team has been very smart in what they're leaking and when.

They leaked footage of the two of them while filming a scene, rehearsing a scene in which they were dancing very closely. And Justin had his mic on. And so they're working out how they're going to do this scene. Justin is saying, I think we should be kissing. and Blake says, no, I think we should be talking. I think that's even more intimate. And Justin says, okay, so that sort of takes some wind out of herself. They also released another lengthy voice memo that Justin had sent to Blake in which he's phrasing her to the high heavens and saying he has let her down by not taking all of her notes.

and she's so brilliant and so smart, and he's going to do everything he can to make her happy. Again, a counter-narrative to Lively's claims that he was doing everything possible to sabotage her and make her feel unsafe on that set. So I think right now, Baldoni's team is in the power position, but that, of course, could shift in another few days. Well, you know, it seems like there was a moment

where Lively could have disengage and just moved on, and this would have been something of a blip on Hollywood's gossip radar. Why do you think she escalated to a lawsuit that opened up so much more of these internal communications? This is such a great question, Megan, because if you think about it, the damage has already been done to her. I don't know what director, because think about it, there are like five female directors working in Hollywood today. what male director is going to put himself and his career and reputation at risk by working with Blake lively

who launched this all out assault on a guy who is not as well capitalized as she and Ryan are who doesn't have the reputation, the lengthy career, you know, who on earth would risk it? And I have to wonder why she did it, because like you said, it could have just been. in a thing where they butted heads, they didn't see eye to eye, but they each walked away clean to do their next project. I have a theory, and it is just my own theory and supposition,

that something went on between these two. And perhaps it was an unrequited crush on Blake's part, and Justin didn't respond in kind. Perhaps they did in some way have a physical relationship, outside of the filming and that went south. There's something about this that just feels way too intense, way too personal, that I think that the real undergirding, the real story is why, why she did this? Well, I'm glad that you bring that up because I do want to talk a little bit about those messages

between Baldoni and lively. And I know that some media outlets characterize them as flirty. I don't know that I necessarily saw them. that way, but I at least saw them as very familiar. Let's put it that way. Do you think that by surprise? I kind of read them as flirty. And even the text messages between Justin and Ryan Reynolds, like, if anybody listening wants to get a taste of what it's like to deal with, like, Hollywood people, this is it. And it's really quite vile because they're just moaning over each other. I mean, they've just met. And Ryan's like, hasn't responded to Justin.

Justin's text for two weeks. And then he replies and he says, I happen to adore you, comma, Justin, period. It's like, buy me dinner first before you start talking to me like this. It's disgusting. And Justin and Blake are having a very, very familiar texting relationship, whether they were that familiar, whether it was this sort of hastened intimacy because they were working so closely together so quickly, who knows? But now I don't think there's any slight that's not going to be weaponized. I just read an item yesterday that Blake lively blew a good chunk of the movie's budget on her wardrobe. I mean, this is how petty we're going to get. I love it, but it's, it is the strangest Hollywood war. I'm going to say it's maybe the biggest one since

Brad versus Angie. Well, and do you think? that Lively and Reynolds, at least as a couple, their image. Like maybe Reynolds individually, lively, individually do kind of come back from this because, you know, Brad and Angelina eventually did. But does their image as this blissful it couple bounce back? Oh, well, Megan, first of all, when I said Brad v. Angie, I meant like when they divorced, when they separated. And it was like the bombshells were going off.

He was abusive. She was like out of her mind. like this will be the thing that shows the strength of their marriage because I'm very cynical. So I really do believe that if this blowback against Blake gets to be too much, Ryan's going to cut her loose. I think that Ryan Reynolds has his eyes firmly set on becoming a billionaire and I believe he'll get there. And I don't think he's going to stand for his reputation getting muddied in all of this, even though he's already. in it with these lawsuits and all of these text messages and these documents. And he was famously brought in by Blake to like write a whole scene in the movie and be some sort of, you know, unpaid advisor.

So I think that's really where you're going to see the strength of this countersuit against Justin, if it really does sort of greater their marriage. Well, maybe just a couple more questions, Marine. One of them is that the New York Times has come under a lot of scrutiny for the role it played in sort of rehabilitating Lively's claims when she was on the outs in terms of public affection. Let's put it that way. I have seen some claims that they handled that coverage in a biased way that was clearly working handed in glove with Blake Lively's team. What do you think of that, any validity there? Yeah, I think there is. I think, you know, it seems as though perhaps they didn't do their full due diligence. I think it sort of was probably seen initially as a

strength but is now a liability that I forget how many bylines were on that piece, but one, Megan Tui was one half of the team at the times that broke the Harvey Weinstein story and became synonymous with me too. They wrote a book. They made a lot of money off. of it. And I think that, you know, the Times is already struggling in many ways reputationalally, and this does not help. If I recall correctly, I could be mistaken, so forgive me. But if I recall correctly, I think they went to Baldoni's team and gave them two hours to respond to that laundry list of accusations. So if that's true, it's not a great look. Well, you kind of Intuitive where I was going to go next. And that was the role that Me Too has played in this

with these claims that it was a sexual harassment issue. So do you think on a broader level, the tide has turned? And maybe this is because of Johnny Depp, because before, I think there was a period of time where even when the public was willing to say, hey, I don't know that that's a Me Too allegation. I'm thinking of something like Aziz Ansari where there was a back and forth debate about that. In this case, it seems like some of these men in Hollywood who don't even possess the power of some of these women are now willing to challenge these Me Too allegations. So do you think this sort of shifts the balance on where we are on Me Too? Yeah, I think this case is very important in terms of where we are and where we're going. I agree with you. The Aziz Ansari thing was

ridiculous. If that allegation had come out maybe a year later, his career would not have been destroyed. I think we are now seeing a pendulum swing back towards sanity, where just because a woman says a man did something to her, it's not automatically received as gospel, that the man does get a chance to tell his side of the story and back it up with documents, receipts, screenshots, texts, voicemail, certainly helps when you

have movie footage. So I think this is going to be an interesting case in terms of the cultural corrective that is underway. Okay, well, last question then,

any predictions for the March trial? You know, I'll be amazed if it gets there because I would think sainer heads would prevail and both sides should really just drop it

and walk away. Justin Baldoni's lawyer has already said he's pretty much bankrupt by this financially and emotionally. I don't know what good it does for Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds to have this be the headline of their careers for the next calendar year.

And that's just to start it. So I think it'll be interesting to see if it ever really comes to fruition. And if there is some sort of settlement reached, who pays who? This is really, it's Hollywood writ large, right? The egotism, the narcissism. the narcissism, the ridiculous sums of money, the victimization, the weaponization, perhaps. We don't know yet, but perhaps of Me Too.

It's such a great weird stew of stuff. Well, thank you, Maureen. That was enlightening, and I kind of can't wait to see where this goes next. I know. It's like every day we get another tidbit, but yeah, thanks for having me.