Justin Baldoni labelled Blake Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds ‘aggressive’ in the new lawsuit filed by the It Ends With Us director against The New York Times.

On December 20, Lively lodged an extensive 80-page legal complaint against Baldoni following what has been described as a tense working relationship on the Hollywood film, released in August. Part of her complaint accuses him of deliberately trying to “destroy her reputation” as well as sexual harassment. She alleges that his behaviour resulted in her suffering “severe emotional distress.”

Baldoni has denied the allegations against him. Lively filed a second lawsuit this week and accused Baldoni of causing “severe emotional distress and pain, humiliation and embarrassment”. She also accused him, along with his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR Melissa Nathan, of making her suffer ‘mental pain and anguish’ as well as lost wages’.

Gossip Girl actress Lively has asked for ‘punitive’ and ‘compensatory’ damages and a jury trial. Baldoni also filed a lawsuit, but against New York Times, who published an article called ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine. The lengthy article included the claims that Baldoni and his team were trying to create a smear campaign against Lively. The NYT said they “plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

According to the legal documents, as Variety reports, Baldoni claimed Deadpool star and Lively’s husband Reynolds ‘berated’ him during a meeting held at the couple’s home on January 4. The meeting was also attended by other It Ends With Us producers as well as a rep for Sony.

Baldoni alleged Reynolds ‘aggressively’ accused him of ‘fat-shaming’ his wife. “They arrived eager to discuss plans for the next day’s filming, prepared with their production materials. Instead, they were blindsided by Lively and Reynolds, who presented a list of grievances that were both unanticipated and troubling,” the documents read.

He also claims he was asked to apologise for actions against Lively that he says were mischaracterised and demonstrably false. Baldoni says he has ‘never been spoken to like that in his life’ and alleges that Reynolds was further enraged when Baldoni, who was a producer on It Ends With Us, refused to express any regret.

Other claims in the lawsuit claims Lively took over the It Ends With Us project. He also claims Reynolds went to Baldoni’s agent at William Morris Endeavor and demanded they ‘drop’ him. A rep for WME denied to Variety that there was any pressure from Reynolds and Lively to drop Baldoni as a client.

Meanwhile, Lively’s reps share a statement about Baldoni’s recent lawsuit and said: “Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today. This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice “not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,” and that “litigation was never her ultimate goal.”

“As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false. While we will not litigate this matter in the press, we do encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s complaint in its entirety. We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”

When Lively first filed her initial complaint, Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said: “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.”

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