June 10, 2025

Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni - The Allegations That Shook Hollywood Part 1 - "The Set From Hell"

Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni - The Allegations That Shook Hollywood Part 1  - "The Set From Hell"

The case has been dismissed, but let's go back to the beginning. In January 2024, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni were making a movie about domestic violence. By December, they were accusing each other of harassment, extortion, and orchestrating smear campaigns. What happened on the set of "It Ends With Us" that transformed co-stars into courtroom enemies? From alleged inappropriate behavior to secret meetings with Ryan Reynolds, from social media manipulation to $400 million lawsuits—this is the story of how Hollywood's latest blockbuster became its most toxic workplace disaster.

To become a premium subscriber (no ads and no feed drops) visit caloroga.com/plus. For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which seays UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. You also get 25+ other shows on the network ad-free!




Join the Feuds Community!

Love drama? Obsessed with rivalries that shaped history? From Hollywood breakups to presidential vendettas, from rap battles to international Cold Wars, Feuds: Power, Pride, and Payback delivers the most explosive conflicts in culture, politics, and entertainment.


Join thousands of fellow drama enthusiasts dissecting every episode, sharing theories, and debating who really won these legendary battles. We're building the ultimate community for people who understand that the best stories are always about conflict.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram—just search for "Feuds Podcast" or click the link in the show notes.


Because every great story needs people to tell it to.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:13.439
Calaruga Shark Media. Welcome back to feuds, power, pride, and payback.

2
00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:19.199
I'm Marcus Reid. Yesterday a federal judge in New York

3
00:00:19.399 --> 00:00:24.559
dismissed Justin Baldoni's four hundred million dollar countersuit against Blake Lively,

4
00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:29.079
delivering what her lawyers called a total victory in one

5
00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:34.200
of Hollywood's most explosive legal battles. But to understand how

6
00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:37.159
we got here, how two co stars went from making

7
00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:41.439
a summer blockbuster to waging war in federal court, we

8
00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:45.439
need to go back to the beginning, back to a

9
00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:48.719
film set in New Jersey, where, according to one of them,

10
00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:54.920
something went very, very wrong. This is the story of

11
00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:59.880
It Ends with Us, a movie about domestic violence that

12
00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:03.759
became the center of its own abuse allegations. A story

13
00:01:03.799 --> 00:01:08.079
about power control and what happens when the cameras stop rolling.

14
00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:12.439
But the real drama is just beginning. The case may

15
00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:16.359
be dismissed today, but the feud that created it that

16
00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:23.159
started long before any lawyer got involved. This is episode four,

17
00:01:23.719 --> 00:01:31.640
the set from Hell, Act one, the movie that wasn't

18
00:01:31.640 --> 00:01:37.480
supposed to happen. In early twenty twenty four, Blake Lively

19
00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:40.719
seemed to have it All. The former Gossip Girl star

20
00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:45.040
had successfully transitioned to films, married to Ryan Reynolds, one

21
00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:48.959
of Hollywood's biggest stars, mother of four, with a carefully

22
00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:53.239
crafted public image as the relatable millionaire next door. She

23
00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:57.840
was selective about her projects, turning down countless scripts while

24
00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:02.159
building her brand as a businesswoman and lifestyle influencer. So

25
00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:04.719
when she signed on to star in It Ends with Us,

26
00:02:05.239 --> 00:02:09.400
the adaptation of Colleen Hoover's best selling novel about domestic violence,

27
00:02:09.960 --> 00:02:12.560
it felt like the perfect vehicle for her to tackle

28
00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:17.280
serious material. The book had sold millions of copies, inspiring

29
00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:21.639
a devoted fanbase. The role of Lily Bloom, a strong

30
00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:25.520
woman who survives an abusive relationship, seemed tailor made for

31
00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:29.680
an actress looking to prove her dramatic chops. What Lively

32
00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:33.159
didn't expect was that her co star and director would

33
00:02:33.159 --> 00:02:37.919
allegedly turn the set into its own kind of battlefield.

34
00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:41.639
Justin Baldoni was writing high in January twenty twenty four.

35
00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:46.800
The former Jane the Virgin star had successfully transitioned to directing,

36
00:02:47.319 --> 00:02:51.400
building his Wayfarer Studios into a production company focused on

37
00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:55.599
meaningful stories. It Ends with Us was supposed to be

38
00:02:55.639 --> 00:02:59.560
his breakout moment, directing and starring opposite an A list

39
00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:03.639
actress in a film about one of society's most important issues,

40
00:03:04.680 --> 00:03:08.080
but according to the legal complaint Lively would eventually file.

41
00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:14.039
Problems began almost immediately. The first red flag Lively alleged

42
00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:19.120
came during early script discussions. Baldoni, she claimed, wanted to

43
00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:22.639
add sex scenes that weren't in Hoover's original novel, scenes

44
00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:26.199
that would require Lively to appear nude on camera. When

45
00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:29.680
she pushed back, citing the approved script she'd signed on to,

46
00:03:30.280 --> 00:03:34.400
the tension was already building. Then came the alleged incidents

47
00:03:34.680 --> 00:03:39.319
that would eventually destroy both their careers. According to Lively's

48
00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:44.759
December twenty twenty four complaint, Baldoni began making inappropriate comments

49
00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:49.039
about her appearance, describing her body in sexual terms during

50
00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:52.759
what should have been professional conversations. She alleged he would

51
00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:56.280
enter her makeup trailer unannounced, including times when she was

52
00:03:56.319 --> 00:03:59.879
breastfeeding her infant daughter or getting dressed. But it was

53
00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:04.080
during filming itself that things allegedly crossed the line from

54
00:04:04.199 --> 00:04:12.680
unprofessional to harassment. In one scene, Lively alleged Baldoni was

55
00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:16.160
supposed to speak dialogue while they slow danced for a

56
00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:22.000
montage sequence. Instead, she claimed he leaned forward and slowly

57
00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:25.079
dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck,

58
00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:30.800
while saying it smells so good. The scene required no

59
00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:36.360
such intimate contact, no kiss, no physical affection beyond dancing.

60
00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:41.040
When Lively objected to what she called improvised physical intimacy

61
00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:45.920
that hadn't been rehearsed or choreographed, she alleged that Baldoni

62
00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:50.120
dismissed her concerns. The complaint painted a picture of a

63
00:04:50.199 --> 00:04:54.360
set where boundaries were constantly crossed, where the director used

64
00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:57.959
his position of power to allegedly make his leading lady

65
00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:06.680
uncomfortable in scene after s Act two, the meeting that

66
00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:12.759
changed everything. By late twenty twenty three, with production pause

67
00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:16.439
due to the writers and actors' strikes, Lively had had enough.

68
00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:20.199
According to her legal filing, she demanded a meeting before

69
00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:23.040
filming could resume, a meeting that would prove to be

70
00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:27.000
the turning point in what would become Hollywood's most bitter

71
00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:32.199
legal war. The January twenty twenty four all hands meeting

72
00:05:32.279 --> 00:05:37.480
was held at Wayfarer Studios. Present were Lively, Baldoni, producer

73
00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:42.319
Jamie Heath, Wayfarer executives, and, in a move that signals

74
00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:47.040
how seriously Lively was taking the situation, her husband, Ryan Reynolds.

75
00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:50.759
The presence of Reynolds at what was ostensibly a work

76
00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:55.040
meeting was unprecedented. This wasn't a social visit or a

77
00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:58.680
set visit by a supportive spouse. This was the star

78
00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:03.279
of Deadpool using his considerable industry power to back up

79
00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:08.680
his wife's complaints about workplace harassment. Lively presented a list

80
00:06:08.680 --> 00:06:12.439
of demands that read like a workplace safety manual written

81
00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:16.240
by someone who'd been pushed to their absolute limit. No

82
00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:20.279
more showing nude videos of women, including producer Heath's wife,

83
00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:25.240
to Lively or her staff. No more discussions of Baldoni's

84
00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:29.160
or Heath's alleged former pornography addiction with cast and crew.

85
00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:33.600
No more descriptions of their genitalia. No more improvised sex

86
00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:36.360
scenes or nudity beyond what was in the approved script.

87
00:06:37.079 --> 00:06:40.079
The demand for an intimacy coordinator to be present at

88
00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:45.160
all times was particularly telling. In post Me Too, Hollywood,

89
00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:50.600
intimacy coordinators had become standard for scenes involving physical contact

90
00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:55.199
that Lively had to demand one suggests the production had

91
00:06:55.199 --> 00:07:00.639
been proceeding without basic safety protocols. According to Lively, said complaint,

92
00:07:01.160 --> 00:07:05.439
Wayfarer Studios agreed to all her demands. They would provide

93
00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:09.199
the intimacy coordinator, they would stick to the approved script,

94
00:07:09.800 --> 00:07:13.600
and crucially, they agreed not to retaliate against Lively for

95
00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:18.600
raising these concerns. That last promise, Lively would later allege

96
00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:33.439
was the first one they broke. Act three, The Summer

97
00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:38.160
That Went Wrong. It Ends with Us was released in

98
00:07:38.199 --> 00:07:42.920
August twenty twenty four to massive box office success. The

99
00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:46.279
film earned three hundred fifty one million dollars worldwide on

100
00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:49.800
a twenty five million dollar budget, a massive hit by

101
00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:54.240
any measure, but even during the promotional tour, something felt off.

102
00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:59.480
Industry insiders noticed that Baldoni and Lively rarely appeared together.

103
00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:04.040
During the film's New York premiere, Baldoni didn't pose with

104
00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:08.800
the cast for photos, press interviews were conducted separately. The

105
00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:11.920
chemistry that should have been evident between co stars who

106
00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:15.959
just made a successful romantic drama was nowhere to be found.

107
00:08:16.920 --> 00:08:20.160
But it was Lively's promotional strategy that became the subject

108
00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:25.399
of intense online criticism. While Baldoni spoke seriously about domestic

109
00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:29.560
violence and the film's important message. Lively treated the press

110
00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:33.240
to her like a celebration. She promoted her hair care line,

111
00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:37.000
talked about fashion, and seemed to approach a movie about

112
00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:41.879
abuse with what critics called inappropriate levity. The backlash was

113
00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:46.480
swift and brutal. Social media turned against Lively with a

114
00:08:46.519 --> 00:08:52.559
ferocity that seemed disproportionate to her promotional missteps. Suddenly, old

115
00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:57.799
interviews resurfaced, her comments were dissected, her every public appearance

116
00:08:57.879 --> 00:09:02.080
was criticized. What looked like an organic social media pylon

117
00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:06.399
would later be revealed, according to Lively's complaint, as something

118
00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:17.960
far more sinister. Act four, the Digital Army. On December twentieth,

119
00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:21.840
twenty twenty four, Blake Lively filed a bombshell complaint with

120
00:09:21.879 --> 00:09:25.960
the California Civil Rights Department that would change everything. The

121
00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.600
allegations of onset harassment were damning enough, but it was

122
00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:33.840
what Lively claimed happened after filming that truly shocked Hollywood.

123
00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:38.399
According to the complaint, Baldoni and his team had orchestrated

124
00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:43.799
what Lively called a sophisticated press and digital plan designed

125
00:09:43.799 --> 00:09:50.000
to destroy her reputation using crisis management techniques typically reserved

126
00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:54.120
for major scandals. They allegedly deployed what the complaint called

127
00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:59.320
a digital army to weaponize social media against her. Text

128
00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:03.039
messages in included in the complaint appeared to show Baldoni's

129
00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:08.159
publicists discussing strategies to make Lively feel like she can

130
00:10:08.200 --> 00:10:12.919
be buried. One message allegedly read we can't write, we

131
00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:17.039
will destroy her, suggesting they understood the line between aggressive

132
00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:22.480
PR and illegal retaliation. The complaint alleged that Baldoni's team

133
00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:27.720
hired subcontractors to create fake social media accounts and promote

134
00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:33.679
negative content about Lively across multiple platforms. They allegedly planted

135
00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:39.120
stories and media outlets, and coordinated online harassment campaigns designed

136
00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:43.799
to look organic but were actually carefully orchestrated character assassination.

137
00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:50.039
This wasn't just about winning a PR battle, according to Lively,

138
00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:54.120
this was about using the power of modern media manipulation

139
00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:58.120
to punish a woman for speaking up about workplace harassment.

140
00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:03.080
The summer's social media pylon against Lively suddenly took on

141
00:11:03.159 --> 00:11:08.240
a different meaning. Those viral tiktoks criticizing her interviews, the

142
00:11:08.279 --> 00:11:13.759
resurfaced old clips, the seemingly organic outrage. Lively alleged it

143
00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:18.279
was all manufactured by professionals hired to destroy her reputation.

144
00:11:20.120 --> 00:11:26.360
Act five the Explosion. The New York Times published lively

145
00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:30.240
story on December twenty first, twenty twenty four, under the

146
00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:34.960
headline we can bury anyone inside a Hollywood smear machine.

147
00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:38.759
The article included the text messages, the alleged harassment, details,

148
00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:42.600
and documentation of what appeared to be a coordinated retaliation campaign.

149
00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:49.600
The response was immediate and devastating for Baldoni. Within hours, WME,

150
00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:54.120
one of Hollywood's most powerful talent agencies, dropped Baldoni as

151
00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:58.399
a client. The Vital Voices Organization rescinded an award they'd

152
00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:01.480
planned to give him for supporting WI Women. His Man

153
00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:06.480
Enough podcast co host, resigned. Colleen Hoover, the author whose

154
00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:10.519
book had made this all possible, released a statement supporting Lively.

155
00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:15.200
But Baldoni wasn't going down without a fight. On December

156
00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:19.279
thirty first, twoenty twenty four, hours before the end of

157
00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:23.200
the year, Baldoni filed a two hundred fifty million dollar

158
00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:27.679
libel lawsuit against The New York Times, accusing the newspaper

159
00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:31.759
of journalistic malpractice and alleging they had cowered to the

160
00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:36.960
wants and whims of two powerful, untouchable Hollywood elites. That

161
00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:41.000
same day, Lively escalated by filing her own federal lawsuit

162
00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:44.960
in New York, formally bringing her harassment allegations into court.

163
00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:50.000
But the real nuclear option came on January sixteenth, twenty

164
00:12:50.039 --> 00:12:53.919
twenty five, when Baldoni filed a four hundred million dollar

165
00:12:54.000 --> 00:13:00.159
lawsuit directly against Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist, the Complain

166
00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:04.279
to accuse them of extortion, defamation, and attempting to steal

167
00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:08.120
creative control of the film. It painted Lively not as

168
00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:12.120
a harassment victim, but as a manipulative a lister who

169
00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:16.759
weaponized false accusations to get her way. The lawsuit alleged

170
00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:19.879
that Lively had never even read Hoover's novel before signing

171
00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:24.399
onto the project, a devastating claim that suggested she didn't

172
00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:28.279
understand the material she was adapting. It accused her of

173
00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:33.679
making wrongheaded creative decisions and systematically excluding Baldoni from the

174
00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:38.279
production of his own film. Most explosively, it claimed that

175
00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:41.759
Lively had threatened to withdraw from the project and make

176
00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:47.559
sexual harassment allegations public unless she was given unprecedented creative control.

177
00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:53.200
According to Baldoni, the harassment claims weren't real grievances. They

178
00:13:53.200 --> 00:14:01.639
were weapons deployed by Hollywood Royalty to get their way. Epilogue,

179
00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:10.039
The Point of no Return. By January twenty twenty five,

180
00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:12.840
what had started as workplace tensions on a movie set

181
00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:18.120
had exploded into multiple federal lawsuits, industry blacklisting, and a

182
00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:24.799
media circus that dominated entertainment headlines. Both careers lay in ruins. Baldoni,

183
00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:29.679
once positioned as Hollywood's feminist ally, was now persona non grata,

184
00:14:30.200 --> 00:14:35.960
his directing career effectively over Lively, despite support from advocacy groups,

185
00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:41.639
faced continued online harassment and questions about her motivations. The

186
00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:44.799
film that was supposed to raise awareness about domestic violence

187
00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:48.840
had become the center of its own abuse allegations. The

188
00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:52.480
movie that was meant to empower women had divided Hollywood

189
00:14:52.519 --> 00:14:57.240
into warring camps questioning who was the real victim. What

190
00:14:57.399 --> 00:15:00.639
makes this feud particularly devastating is that there are no

191
00:15:00.799 --> 00:15:05.399
winners if Lively's allegations are true. She endured months of

192
00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:10.320
harassment and then suffered a coordinated retaliation campaign designed to

193
00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:14.080
destroy her career, all for the crime of speaking up

194
00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:21.279
about workplace abuse. If Baldoni's counter allegations are true, he's

195
00:15:21.320 --> 00:15:25.559
the victim of false accusations deployed as weapons by powerful

196
00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:30.399
celebrities who used Me Too movement's important principles to cover

197
00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:35.320
their own professional misconduct. The truth, as it often is

198
00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:41.440
in Hollywood, remained somewhere in the disputed territory between competing narratives,

199
00:15:42.039 --> 00:15:47.279
buried under mountains of legal filings and pr strategies. But

200
00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:51.159
what's undeniable is that a film about ending cycles of

201
00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:55.679
abuse had created its own cycle of professional destruction that

202
00:15:55.840 --> 00:16:00.919
consumed everyone it touched. The case may be dismissed today,

203
00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:04.519
but the real trial, the one that will determine whose

204
00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:07.759
version of events the world believes, is still set for

205
00:16:07.960 --> 00:16:12.080
March twenty twenty six, and, as we'll see in our

206
00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:15.559
next episode, the legal battle that followed would prove even

207
00:16:15.639 --> 00:16:20.240
more destructive than the original allegations, because when Hollywood goes

208
00:16:20.279 --> 00:16:25.039
to war, the collateral damage always extends far beyond the battlefield.

209
00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:30.559
I'm Marcus Reed, thanks for listening to feuds, power, pride,

210
00:16:30.679 --> 00:16:31.399
and payback.