By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have agreed to end their legal battle over the acrimonious production of their 2024 film “It Ends With Us.”
The two sides settled their legal dispute Monday ahead of a planned trial over Lively’s claims that Baldoni conspired with publicists to preemptively destroy her reputation after she privately accused him of sexually harassing her on the movie set.
In a joint statement, the sides said: “Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind. … It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.”
Baldoni, who directed the film and starred in it with Lively, had denied harassing her or orchestrating a smear campaign. He’d claimed the complaints about his behavior were made up by Lively as part of an effort to seize creative control of the movie.
The settlement will allow both sides to avoid a trial that would have featured Hollywood’s ugliest side and potentially led to more image-damaging revelations.
Both actors had some of their legal claims tossed out by the judge in recent months.
Lively’s sexual harassment claims were dismissed in early April by Judge Lewis J. Liman, who ruled that she couldn’t pursue them under federal law because she was an independent contractor rather than an employee when she worked on the movie.
The same judge previously dismissed a lawsuit in which Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, accused Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, of defamation and extortion.
“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel, was released in August 2024, exceeding box office expectations.
In her lawsuit, Lively said that during filming, Baldoni made inappropriate comments about her appearance, violated physical boundaries while filming a love scene, and pushed for nudity — against Lively’s wishes — during a scene in which her character was giving birth.
Baldoni denied doing anything outside the realm of the normal creative process of making a movie.
The judge, in the decision tossing out the sexual harassment claims, acknowledged the complexity of the matter, noting that creative artists “must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment.”
The trial was to focus on Lively’s claim that Baldoni and the studio retaliated against her sexual harassment complaints by hiring publicists to turn the public against her. Her lawyers said that campaign including hiring a “digital army” to post bogus negative content about Lively on social media platforms, and feeding “manufactured content to unwitting reporters.”
The lawsuit said the purpose was to “retaliate against Ms. Lively by battering her image, harming her businesses, and causing her family severe emotional harm.”
Baldoni’s lawyers have claimed it was Lively who was strategically manipulating Baldoni’s public image, partly by leveraging help from her famous friends.
Lively appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”
Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.