Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni March Towards Mutually Assured Destruction – Hollywood Reporter

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterSubscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterThe ‘It Ends With Us’ duo seem hell-bent on controlling the narrative, while the press and public feeding off Hollywood’s best feud are the real winners.
By

James Hibberd
Writer-at-Large
“We need to the control the narrative,” famously declared Kendall Roy in HBO’s Succession. 
Across four seasons, the neurotic “eldest boy” of the Roy clan anxiously struggled for power; scheming and manipulating, only to watch one convoluted effort to conquer his father’s company Waystar fall apart, while Kendall’s reputation collapsed.

The Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni feud over their time making It Ends With Us — which swaps out the fictional Waystar for Baldoni’s real-life production company Wayfarer — is a Hollywood drama where every character looks increasingly like Kendall Roy. 

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Have you read the lawsuits instead of just the press coverage? 
If you only read Lively’s 80-page complaint, you’ll be convinced Baldoni is a fake feminist who made grossly inappropriate comments to his co-star, forced her into sexually compromising scenarios without consent, and then stealthily ordered a successful social media campaign to smear Lively for speaking out. There’s so much smoke, witnessed by so many other named people who will doubtless be deposed, that you cannot believe there is no fire. 
If you only read Baldoni’s 224-page amended complaint, you’ll be convinced Lively is a bullying diva who — aided by her husband Ryan Reynolds — manufactured a list of out-of-context harassment complaints in order to seize creative control of a film, forced him to sign a 30-point confessional, and then over-reacted to social media backlash by slipping her accusations to The New York Times. Several of Lively’s claims are disputed with additional purported texts, and it’s easy to conclude that she misrepresented at least some of her allegations.
Whereas if you read both lawsuits, you’ll be convinced that you never want to work in Hollywood and should instead seek out a less treacherous career — such as operating mining equipment or doing underwater welding. Because what overwhelmingly comes across is a sense of exhausting falseness among a sprawling assortment of broken toy characters who default to complex machinations to get what they want instead of taking the simpler path of being honest, respectful and sincere. If you’re having serious conversations about “astroturfing” and “crumbs,” or erasing tell-tale emojis from leaked texts, you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere. 

Which isn’t to paint both plaintiffs with the same brush. In the filings, Lively comes across like somebody who would order the launch of nuclear warheads over not getting a booth at a restaurant. Whereas Baldoni seems like somebody who would burst into tears when his Tinder date fails to praise his unsolicited dick pic. Which isn’t to say either of these caricatures are remotely accurate, but from the outside their battle sure looks like an unstoppable force met a slippery object. 
Making any judgements about the actual validity of their complaints is the height of foolishness right now, with so much legal process runway still ahead. One feels like the teenage Marvin in the backseat of the car in Pulp Fiction when a debate broke out between murderous hit men Jules and Vincent: “Man, I don’t even have an opinion.” 
Just examining a few specific accusations turns into peeling an onion of contextual shifts that may or may not matter (and there are doubtless more bombshells to come). A slow dancing scene released by Baldoni’s team has managed to turn nine minutes of raw footage into Rashomon. While attempting to listen to Baldoni’s entire six-minute groveling voicemail to Lively has practically become a TikTok challenge. 
Online sentiment — the documented obsession of both plaintiffs — has been a swinging pendulum. In recent weeks, it swung towards Baldoni for possibly one of the same reasons it favored Johnny Depp over Amber Heard in their 2022 defamation suit courtroom clash. The filings portrayed him as a super sensitive creature while the latter came across, fairly or no, like a bully. A man accused of workplace sexual harassment, it seems, doesn’t trigger the socials quite as much as a woman accused of being a mean girl.  

There have been many beats of unintended humor. Lively allegedly enlisted Reynolds and Taylor Swift to help squad-pressure Baldoni to agree to a scene rewrite while threateningly comparing herself to Daenerys Targaryen (except Emilia Clarke took direction). While some of Lively’s complaints to Wayfarer and Sony include accusing Baldoni of sage-purifying Lively’s employees, sobbing over unflattering paparazzi photos of her, and claiming to psychically speak to her dead father (if Nicepool did all that, it would have been considered too over the top). 
One wonders if there is a case, on either side, for doing the unthinkable: Either settling, or pulling their respective lawsuits. Because mutually assured destruction has already occurred. There is no criminal complaint, so nobody is at risk of jail time. Both sides are shelling out hefty fees in legal representation for perhaps long-shot paydays. The reason each side keeps going is to punish their respective arch nemesis and salvage their reputations.
We equate surrender with defeat, but as Oprah Winfrey once put it: “In surrender, you realize you’re not in control, and that’s the most powerful position you can be in.” It’s a lesson Kendall Roy never learned. There’s something to be said for getting out from behind lawyers and publicists and strategists and telling the public: I told the truth. I also wish I handled things better. I don’t want to continue fighting a toxic person. I’m going to trust that I will eventually be vindicated. The real race here isn’t legal, after all, but the one to look like a non-nightmare grown up and to protect their future business endeavors. 

The argument against this strategy goes back to Depp vs. Heard case, where a courtroom victory admittedly helped Depp shake off some his canceled vibes. In Lively vs. Baldoni, it’s hard to imagine a win makes either plaintiff look that much better given all that’s out there, but it might. 
In truth, each has more in common than they might realize: They’re both being used. Their lawyers get money and publicity. The media gets content. Readers and fans get the latest tea so they can judge and debate. Everyone is insatiable for more. Nobody wants this season of Feud: Lively vs. Baldoni to have its finale anytime soon. As a card-carrying member of the press, it would admittedly be terrific if both sides keep battling, going back and forth forever, like the Joker proposes to Batman at the end of The Dark Knight. But none of this seems to be much helping Lively or Baldoni. It’s just Hollywood’s best show for the rest of us. 
This story appeared in the Feb. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every daySign up for THR news straight to your inbox every daySubscribe for full access to The Hollywood ReporterSend us a tip using our anonymous form.

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