Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds Ditch Golden Globes Amid Legal Drama

Just when we thought the It Ends With Us legal drama could not get any more chaotic, director Justin Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel after they published his co-star Blake Lively’s seemingly smear campaign accusations.

Amid this massive lawsuit, Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds — nor his costar Hugh Jackman from Deadpool & Wolverine — attended the Golden Globes on Sunday, according to Deadline, despite Reynolds’ recent nomination for the Marvel film.

Their skipping out might have to do with Baldoni’s lawsuit, which is seeking $250 million in damages as it accuses The Times of uncritically accepting a “self-serving narrative” by Lively that Baldoni, his production company, and his publicists worked to harm her public image after she complained about misconduct during the shooting of the film. It asserts that The Times article published on December 21 deliberately omitted portions of text conversations and other information contradicting Lively’s point of view.

“The article’s central thesis, encapsulated in a defamatory headline designed to mislead the reader immediately, is that plaintiffs orchestrated a retaliatory public relations campaign against Lively for speaking out against sexual harassment — a premise that is categorically false and easily disproven,” the lawsuit says.

Attorney Bryan Freedman — who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Baldoni and the rest of the plaintiffs — tells Variety that The Times “cowered to the wants and needs of two powerful untouchable Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen narrative.”

The same Times article from December 21 claims on behalf of Lively in a statement that wrote: “[Baldoni] repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.” Lively’s legal complaint alleges he instigated unwanted discussion of his genitalia and criticized her weight, including calling her personal trainer four months after giving birth to her fourth child to Reynolds. She also alleges Baldoni – along with his Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath – engaged in sexual misconduct in and out of the workplace.

Circling back to Baldoni’s point of view in his current legal complaint, he alleges The Times reporter Megan Twohey requested the plaintiffs’ response to the “imminent 4,000-word bombshell story concerning their alleged orchestration of a smear campaign targeting” Lively. They were asked to provide a comment on the record to follow up with Lively’s legal claims but suggested they were not given sufficient time to respond.

Furthermore, Baldoni’s legal team alleges that despite The Times’ claim to have “reviewed” his team’s evidence “along with other documents,” they relied almost entirely on Lively’s side of the story, “lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives.” With so much at stake between Baldoni and Lively in this legal battle, The Times will have to figure out how to get out of this jam smoothly.

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