Justin Baldoni has filed a $400 million lawsuit against Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, claiming civil extortion, defamation, and invasion of privacy in response to lively’s sexual harassment allegations.

In a dramatic twist to the ongoing legal battle, actor and director Justin Baldoni has filed a $400 million lawsuit against his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. The lawsuit follows a legal complaint filed by Lively in December, in which she accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and claimed that he had orchestrated a smear campaign to ruin her reputation.

Baldoni’s legal team has responded by alleging that Lively and her team engaged in a “duplicitous attempt to destroy” him, disseminating “grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information” to the media. According to Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, Lively’s actions were aimed at “bulldozing reputations” and were driven by “heinously selfish reasons.”

This bitter dispute revolves around the production of It Ends With Us, a successful film adapted from Colleen Hoover’s novel about domestic abuse, which grossed over $350 million globally. The tension between Baldoni and Lively was evident during the film’s press tour, with the co-stars notably avoiding each other at public events. Lively and Reynolds did not appear on the red carpet together with Baldoni at the premiere, and Baldoni skipped a London event entirely.

In her complaint, Lively accused Baldoni and his studio boss of creating a “hostile work environment” and making her experience on set unbearable. She also claimed that Baldoni and his crisis management team set out to tarnish her image. Baldoni, however, denies these allegations, calling them “categorically false” and asserting that the crisis management team was hired after Lively threatened to derail the film unless her demands were met.

In his legal filing, Baldoni maintains that his actions were justified and that the case is not a matter of “celebrity sniping.” His team asserts that the jury will ultimately recognize that “even the most powerful celebrity cannot bend the truth to her will.”

This ongoing legal battle between the two stars has brought renewed attention to the dynamics of Hollywood on-set relationships and the impact of crisis management tactics in the entertainment industry.