Never-before-seen footage from It Ends With Us has turned the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on its head.
In a bombshell twist, Baldoni, 41, who directed and co-starred in the movie, is accusing Lively, 38, of the very conduct which she claims justifies her lawsuit against him.
According to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail, Baldoni’s legal team submitted a deleted scene as evidence on Thursday, arguing that it shows the actress improvising a kiss during filming – something she has cited of evidence of sexual harassment on the set of the drama.
The minute-long clip, filed as an exhibit in a November 13 motion for summary judgment, shows Lively and Baldoni shooting a hospital hallway scene in May 2023.
In the footage, Lively’s Lily strides up to Baldoni’s Ryle, grabs his arms and plants a quick kiss on him before smiling and walking off.
Baldoni’s legal team says the moment was unscripted and was not part of the written screenplay.
The filing claims that the former Gossip Girl star – who is married to Ryan Reynolds – not only approved the moment, but ‘oversaw’ the scene and ‘herself added to the script, in which her character kissed Baldoni’s character in every take, although there was no kiss in the script.’
Daily Mail has reached out to reps for both Baldoni and Lively.
Baldoni’s legal team submitted a deleted scene from It Ends With Us as evidence on Thursday in the ongoing legal battle between Blake Lively and her co-star and director Justin Baldoni.
The minute-long never-before-seen footage of a hospital hallway scene was filmed in May 2023 and in a bombshell twist, Baldoni is accusing Lively of the very conduct which she claims justifies her lawsuit against him.
Lively filed a lawsuit in December 2024 accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment, retaliatory conduct and intentional infliction of emotional stress. He has forcefully denied all the allegations.
Lively’s team said in a November 3 letter that she had requested the presiding judge to put sanctions on producer Jamey Heath after he missed a September 2 deadline to turn over to the court ‘certain materials’ germane to the case.
Attorneys for Lively had asked Heath to submit into evidence ‘the video [he] showed [Lively] on the set of the Film of his fully nude wife during the birth of their child during an at-home birth.’
Lively noted that Heath had played the clip for her ‘without warning or consent.’
Lively has accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation — claims he forcefully denies.
As previously reported, when It Ends With Us filming was set to restart after the Hollywood strikes, Lively returned to the set in January 2024 with a strict checklist for Baldoni and the producers.
One of them, according to her lawsuit: ‘no more improvising of kissing.’
But Baldoni’s team is now pointing to the newly unearthed clip as evidence that Lively herself had participated in off-script kissing months earlier.
In January, Baldoni filed his own lawsuit for defamation against Livley, Reynolds and The New York Times stemming from an article published about the battle between himself and Lively; it was subsequently dismissed by a judge this past June.
In the footage, the actress strides up to Baldoni, grabs his arms and plants a quick kiss on him before smiling and walking off — a moment nowhere to be found in the shooting script, according to the actor and director’s legal team
Baldoni’s team argue Lively not only approved the moment but ‘oversaw’ the scene and ‘herself added to the script, in which her character kissed Baldoni’s character in every take, although there was no kiss in the script.’
Last week, a New York judge handed Lively a courtroom defeat when he dismissed her claims against social media strategist Jed Wallace, whom she accused of helping Baldoni’s camp coordinate an online smear effort during the film’s release.
The judge ruled that her legal team failed to show Wallace – who is based in Austin, Texas – had sufficient ties to New York to be sued there.
Lively accused Baldoni’s team of enlisting Wallace to lead an online ‘digital army’ that smeared her reputation across social platforms.
Judge Lewis J. Liman had previously tossed the claims but gave her legal team a chance to strengthen the case by proving Wallace’s ties to New York.
In the end, Liman ruled that Lively’s argument fell short, though he noted she could still pursue Wallace in Texas.
‘The Court ruled that Ms. Lively’s claims can and should be brought in a different court,’ a spokesperson for Lively told Daily Mail.
‘Ms. Lively is evaluating her many options for doing so, and looks forward to trial on all of her claims against Baldoni, Heath, Nathan and the rest of the Wayfarer defendants in March in New York.’
The unseen footage also comes after allegations Baldoni secretly used technology to orchestrate a smear campaign against his costar.
In response to the former Gossip Girls lawsuit, Baldoni filed a multimillion-dollar defamation suit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and The New York Times in January this year. It was subsequently thrown out by a judge.
Baldoni and his team of attorneys, agents and public relations professionals used digital tricks to conceal critical evidence in the legal proceedings, lawyers for Lively, 38, claimed in a court filing obtained by the Daily Mail on Wednesday.
Her team claimed: ‘Defendants have hid the ball at every turn in the discovery process, either failing to produce documents, or improperly cloaking them in the attorney-client privilege.’
Lively’s lawyers said that from Baldoni’s camp forced ‘no less than twelve discovery-related motions to date against’ them.
A former Baldoni associate in Jonesworks LLC – a PR firm and a third-party defendant in the case – raised similar allegations in a filing on Wednesday, Deadline reported after reviewing court documents.
Attorneys for Lively said in the court paper that Baldoni coordinated an effort with associates from Wayfarer Studios and PR professionals such as Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, with apps, auto-deleting messages and other digital elements coming into play.
Baldoni and his team worked in concert to try to destroy Lively’s reputation with the use of multiple digital resources, which included the app Signal; voice memos; and other software, lawyers for the Los Angeles-born actress said in the court paper.
Baldoni and his associates took multiple actions indicating they were aware litigation could be in the future, and sought to conceal information in the case that would not be advantageous if publicly exposed, Lively’s lawyers said in the filing.
Details about Signal and other efforts were gleaned from depositions with former employees of Nathan, including Katherine Case and Breanna Butler, Deadline reported, citing legal documents it reviewed.
It Ends with Us, directed by Baldoni, was a surprise hit when it arrived in theaters in 2024
It Ends With Us earned $148 million at the domestic box office and $350 million globally – but whatever goodwill the film garnered has since been overshadowed by the very public feud between its stars.
The motion picture, which also starred Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Brandon Sklenar and Kevin McKidd, was based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover.
The storyline of the film centered around a toxic relationship between Lily Bloom (played by Lively) and Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni).
According to a logline for the film, Lily ‘overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life,’ as ‘a chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents’ relationship.’
