It Ends With Us continues to cause controversy, as Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni remain locked in a legal battle.
The Colleen Hoover adaptation was widely criticised at the time of release for the lack of conversation around domestic abuse, with producer and lead actress Blake Lively particularly coming under fire.
Lively faced criticism for her "tone deaf" media approach - not giving enough attention to the topic of domestic violence in her interviews, and for using the film's publicity to spotlight her other projects. And following reports of a fallout between Lively and Justin Baldoni over creative direction, the 37-year-old suffered a major online backlash.
Now, Lively is suing her director and co-star Justin Baldoni for allegedly coordinating a smear campaign against her, as well as sexual harassment, announcing in a statement to The Times that she hopes her actions will help protect other people "who may be targeted.”
Baldoni, 41, has denied the allegations, with his representatives calling the accusations "yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film."
The It Ends With Us director has since filed a $400 million lawsuit against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Lively's publicist, Leslie Sloane, suing them for alleged defamation.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Amid the ongoing lawsuits, Baldoni has now published a website about the situation, which includes his complaint and a timeline of events from his perspective.
Included in the information listed is a statement, allegedly provided by Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, who Baldoni alleges requested for him and his production company, Wayfarer, to take responsibility for their negative attention.
"IT ENDS WITH US was a troubled production which we take full accountability for," read the statement that was allegedly proposed. "We are very sorry to everyone we caused upset to privately and publicly. Blake Lively, Colleen Hoover, the entire cast and crew led with professionalism every step of the way, any negativity aimed at them is ours to own. We mutually agreed that the cast would be promoting the film separately and understood why. We have always said we are not perfect and even if unintentionally make mistakes, we will always own them."
The alleged statement continues: "We hold ourselves accountable, it’s not anyone’s job but ours and that’s part of being ‘man enough.’ We will practice what we preach. We are learning and growing from the experience and we thank everyone for their patience as we find a better way to proceed. We are very proud of the film and the welcome arms that it’s been received. Part of our work is to have uncomfortable conversations for public growth. The film is doing that on screen and we are doing that off screen. Thank you to the cast crew and public for the opportunity to be imperfect and to be given the space to learn and grow."
However, according to the documents, WME and Wayfarer chose not to release the statement.
"Upon review, WME concurs with Wayfarer that the statement was vague, implies culpability without substance, and fails to address the issues at hand," read the documents, via Us Weekly. "Furthermore, if the goal was to mitigate negative online attention directed at Lively, the statement would have the opposite effect. In response, Wayfarer, Baldoni, and Heath reject the demand, firmly refusing to issue any statement falsely assuming responsibility for non-existent issues."
We will continue to update this story.
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