Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni

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Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. Today, we’re wading into Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal battle. This post is just for paid subscribers; if you’d like to sign up, you can do so in the box below.

Just over a month ago, Blake Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department accusing her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation. The New York Times detailed her complaint in a big story (reported in part by Megan Twohey, who co-led the Harvey Weinstein investigation in 2017) that laid bare, finally, the reasons Lively, 37, distanced herself from Baldoni, 40, during the press tour for the movie in August. Lively accused Baldoni of misconduct on set and of hiring a crisis PR manager (Melissa Nathan, who represented Johnny Depp during his legal fight with Amber Heard) to create an online smear campaign against Lively to discourage her from speaking out.

Baldoni responded by suing the Times for libel on December 31. He then filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively and Ryan Reynolds on January 17, accusing them of civil extortion, defamation, and invasion of privacy. Everyone on TikTok is being very normal about all of this.