Justin Baldoni vs Blake Lively: Why do we even care?

In case you somehow missed the news, Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni. And then Justin Baldoni sued her back. And then Lively… well you get the picture. Lively and Baldoni were co stars in “It Ends With Us,” a movie based on Colleen Hoover’s wildly popular book of the same name. 

Upon the film’s release in August 2024, it was already mired in controversy. It was clear that something had happened between the stars — Lively and Baldoni did not promote the movie together. Furthermore, fans of the book criticized Lively for being tone-deaf during her promotion campaign, as the book has serious themes surrounding domestic violence. They felt that Lively tried to promote the movie as a fun light-hearted movie, even encouraging people in a Tiktok to “grab your friends, wear your florals and head out to see it!” All of this came to a head in December 2024 when the lawsuit battle officially began. 

Blake Lively fired the opening shots by filing a complaint against Justin Baldoni and his team for creating a hostile work environment on set by sexually harassing her and violating her boundaries.This lawsuit happened to come out at a similar time as a New York Times article that accused Baldoni of running a smear campaign against Lively because of her complaints against him. Baldoni, in turn, sued the New York Times for libel. 

Lively then sued Baldoni for the very thing that the New York Times alleges, which is retaliating against her for speaking out about the alleged hostile workplace. Baldoni returned with a lawsuit of his own, accusing Lively and her team (which includes her husband Ryan Renolds) of extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy. He also released a website called thelawsuitinfo.com, where he lists all of the “receipts” or documentation supporting his claims. 

The public’s response to this has been predictable — a circus. As each new wave of lawsuits and documents is released, public opinion has bounced between Lively and Baldoni’s sides faster than a basketball in Cameron. When the New York Times article first came out, Baldoni received tons of backlash, causing his agency to drop him. However, as Baldoni released footage countering Lively’s claims, the tides of public opinion began to swing the other way. Fans began to accuse Lively of leveraging her famous husband and celebrity friend group against Baldoni. As new information comes in, public opinion will likely continue to ping-pong. 

Amid the media rumpus, it is hard not to be reminded of a recent overly public harassment suit. In 2019, Johnny Depp sued his ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation from an op-ed she wrote in 2018 titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” Heard sued him back and the conflict resulted in a drawn out legal battle that culminated June 1, 2022 where a jury ruled that Depp had successfully proven that Heard had defamed him on all three counts, while Depp had only defamed Heard on one of the three counts she put forth. 

What was truly remarkable about the case is how public it was. In the weeks leading up to the case, it seemed like everyone on social media had an opinion, though the consensus seemed to favor Depp. People would make videos and posts dissecting minute details, digging through the lives of everyone involved, all in an attempt to decide who is “right.” The trial itself was highly publicized, with each day being live streamed for audiences at home. 

Of course, the two cases are still vastly different. It is wrong to say that in this case Amber Heard is Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively is Johnny Depp or vice versa. However, the public way in which the conflict is being conducted echoes closely that of Depp v Heard. What is most concerning is the aftermath of that trial. When the fervor died down, sources found that the online discourse was not quite organic. For example, the conservative website the Daily Wire had spent between 35-47,000 dollars on bots promoting anti Heard propaganda. Also, the discourse was used as an opportunity for many people to voice misogynistic sentiments against women under the guise of defending Depp.