‘Blake vs. Justin: It Didn't End With Us' unpacks the explosive celebrity legal drama
What started as a promising on-screen partnership has turned into one of Hollywood's most bitter legal showdowns.The once-private feud between actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni has erupted into a full-blown public spectacle, with multi-million-dollar lawsuits, shocking allegations and a flood of leaked documents and text messages.
Now, Fox Nation's new special, "Blake vs. Justin: It Didn't End With Us," unpacks the twists and turns of this high-profile battle, offering viewers a deep dive into how these former co-stars became enemies.
Before their falling out, Lively and Baldoni were two of Hollywood's most likable stars. Lively rose to fame as Serena van der Woodsen on the CW's "Gossip Girl," quickly becoming a style icon and fan favorite.
"Every girl wanted to be her," says pop culture expert Lauren Conlin in the special.Blake Lively Vs. Justin Baldoni: Everything To Know
Baldoni, best known for his role as Rafael Solano in "Jane the Virgin," shifted gears into producing — leading the charge on the highly-anticipated film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel "It Ends with Us," in which he also starred alongside Lively.
The trouble started when production on the film was halted due to the national writers' and actors' strikes. According to legal documents from Baldoni's team obtained by Fox News Digital, Lively and Baldoni initially had a friendly working relationship.
Read On The Fox News App
"They texted almost daily, and a friendly banter established a comfortable dynamic that, under typical circumstances, would have made working together easy," the document states.
However, tensions escalated during the strike when Lively issued Baldoni a 17-point list of demands she required before returning to set. These included prohibiting "spontaneous improvising" during physical scenes, banning comments about her appearance and restricting discussions about personal experiences with sex or nudity.
"She really sort of put out there that there was something amiss in the workplace, that the workplace was not as safe as one would want it to be," argues criminal defense attorney Jonna Spilbor in the Fox Nation special.Blake Lively And Justin Baldoni Lawsuit: Messages Expose Alleged Lies, Threats And Intimate Secrets
While Baldoni's production company, Wayfarer Studios, agreed to Lively's terms and signed the revised contract, the drama didn't stop there.
Following the film's awkward press tour, during which Lively faced heavy criticism, the actress accused Baldoni and his production company of sexual harassment and of orchestrating a smear campaign against her. In her complaint to the California Civil Rights Department, she described a hostile work environment and a coordinated effort to damage her reputation.
Baldoni fired back, denying all claims and launching a counter-suit.
In addition to the updated suit, Baldoni shared a timeline of events – including texts and emails involving the actors, intimacy coordinators and producers – as evidence to counter Lively's claims that she was sexually harassed on the set of the drama where he served as director.
He also filed a staggering $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times, alleging their coverage further harmed his reputation.
With the case still unfolding, "Blake Vs Justin: It Didn't End With Us" brings together pop culture reporters, legal analysts and familiar Fox News faces to break down the controversy, analyze its implications and explore how this high-profile battle could reshape Hollywood's future.
Don't miss the exclusive deep dive premiering Thursday, March 6, on Fox Nation.
Click Here To Join Fox Nation
Fox News' Lauryn Overhultz and Tracy Wright contributed to this report.Original article source: 'Blake vs. Justin: It Didn't End With Us' unpacks the explosive celebrity legal drama
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Associated Press
32 minutes ago
- Associated Press
The home of one of the largest catalogs of Black history turns 100 in New York
NEW YORK (AP) — It's one of the largest repositories of Black history in the country — and its most devoted supporters say not enough people know about it. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture hopes to change that Saturday, as it celebrates its centennial with a festival combining two of its marquee annual events. The Black Comic Book Festival and the Schomburg Literary Festival will run across a full day and will feature readings, panel discussions, workshops, children's story times, and cosplay, as well as a vendor marketplace. Saturday's celebration takes over 135th Street in Manhattan between Malcom X and Adam Clayton Powell boulevards. Founded in New York City during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, the Schomburg Center will spend the next year exhibiting signature objects curated from its massive catalog of Black literature, art, recordings and films. Artists, writers and community leaders have gone the center to be inspired, root their work in a deep understanding of the vastness of the African diaspora, and spread word of the global accomplishments of Black people. It's also the kind of place that, in an era of backlash against race-conscious education and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, exists as a free and accessible branch of the New York Public Library system. It's open to the public during regular business hours, but its acclaimed research division requires an appointment. 'The longevity the Schomburg has invested in preserving the traditions of the Black literary arts is worth celebrating, especially in how it sits in the canon of all the great writers that came beforehand,' said Mahogany Brown, an author and poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center, who will participate in Saturday's literary festival. For the centennial, the Schomburg's leaders have curated more than 100 items for an exhibition that tells the center's story through the objects, people, and the place — the historically Black neighborhood of Harlem — that shaped it. Those objects include a visitor register log from 1925-1940 featuring the signatures of Black literary icons and thought leaders, such as Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes; materials from the Fab 5 Freddy collection, documenting the earliest days of hip hop; and actor and director Ossie Davis's copy of the 'Purlie Victorious' stage play script. An audio guide to the exhibition has been narrated by actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton, the former host of the long-running TV show 'Reading Rainbow.' Whether they are new to the center or devoted supporters, visitors to the centennial exhibition will get a broader understanding of the Schomburg's history, the communities it has served, and the people who made it possible, said Joy Bivins, the Director of the Schomburg Center, who curated the centennial collection. 'Visitors will understand how the purposeful preservation of the cultural heritage of people of African descent has generated and fueled creativity across time and disciplines,' Bivins said. Novella Ford, associate director of public programs and exhibitions, said the Schomburg Center approaches its work through a Black lens, focusing on Black being and Black aliveness as it addresses current events, theories, or issues. 'We're constantly connecting the present to the past, always looking back to move forward, and vice versa,' Ford said. Still, many people outside the Schomburg community remain unaware of the center's existence — a concerning reality at a time when the Harlem neighborhood continues to gentrify around it and when the Trump administration is actively working to restrict the kind of race-conscious education and initiatives embedded in the center's mission. 'We amplify scholars of color,' Ford said. 'It's about reawakening. It gives us the tools and the voice to push back by affirming the beauty, complexity, and presence of Black identity.' Founder's donation seeds center's legacy The Schomburg Center has 11 million items in one of the oldest and largest collections of materials documenting the history and culture of people of African descent. That's a credit to founder Arturo Schomburg, an Afro-Latino historian born to a German father and African mother in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He was inspired to collect materials on Afro-Latin Americans and African American culture after a teacher told him that Black people lacked major figures and a noteworthy history. Schomburg moved to New York in 1891 and, during the height of the Harlem Renaissance in 1926, sold his collection of approximately 4,000 books and pamphlets to the New York Public Library. Selections from Schomburg's personal holdings, known as the seed library, are part of the centennial exhibition. Ernestine Rose, who was the head librarian at the 135th Street branch, and Catherine Latimer, the New York Public Library's first Black librarian, built on Schomburg's donation by documenting Black culture to reflect the neighborhoods around the library. Today, the library serves as a research archive of art, artifacts, manuscripts, rare books, photos, moving images, and recorded sound. Over the years, it has grown in size, from a reading room on the third floor to three buildings that include a small theater and an auditorium for public programs, performances and movie screenings. Tammi Lawson, who has been visiting the Schomburg Center for over 40 years, recently noticed the absence of Black women artists in the center's permanent collection. Now, as the curator of the arts and artifacts division, she is focused on acquiring works by Black women artists from around the world, adding to an already impressive catalog at the center. 'Preserving Black art and artifacts affirms our creativity and our cultural contributions to the world,' Lawson said. 'What makes the Schomburg Center's arts and artifacts division so unique and rare is that we started collecting 50 years before anyone else thought to do it. Therefore, we have the most comprehensive collection of Black art in a public institution.' Youth scholars seen as key to center's future For years, the Schomburg aimed to uplift New York's Black community through its Junior Scholars Program, a tuition-free program that awards dozens of youth from 6th through 12th grade. The scholars gain access to the center's repository and use it to create a multimedia showcase reflecting the richness, achievements, and struggles of today's Black experience. It's a lesser-known aspect of the Schomburg Center's legacy. That's in part because some in the Harlem community felt a divide between the institution and the neighborhood it purports to serve, said Damond Haynes, a former coordinator of interpretive programs at the center, who also worked with the Junior Scholars Program. But Harlem has changed since Haynes started working for the program about two decades ago. 'The Schomburg was like a castle,' Haynes said. 'It was like a church, you know what I mean? Only the members go in. You admire the building.' For those who are exposed to the center's collections, the impact on their sense of self is undeniable, Haynes said. Kids are learning about themselves like Black history scholars, and it's like many families are passing the torch in a right of passage, he said. 'A lot of the teens, the avenues that they pick during the program, media, dance, poetry, visual art, they end up going into those programs,' Haynes said. 'A lot the teens actually find their identity within the program.'
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Blake Lively Seeks Court Order to Block Justin Baldoni from Requesting Communications Between Her and Taylor Swift
Blake Lively's legal team is seeking a "protective order" against Justin Baldoni's, which opposes the Wayfarer Parties' requests for communications between her and Taylor Swift Per her lawyer, the requests have been a "tactic ... to make Ms. Swift and her fan base central to their media strategy against Ms. Lively," they allege An attorney for Baldoni did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for commentBlake Lively is seeking a protective order against Justin Baldoni's legal team regarding the Wayfarer Parties' "continuing demands" for her communications with Taylor Swift. According to the letter, obtained by PEOPLE, Baldoni's team "have pursed [these communications] at the same time they have refused to produce to Ms. Lively the documents they publicly claimed to have received as part of a deal to withdraw their subpoenas to Ms. Swift and her counsel." The letter is addressed to just Lewis J. Liman, from Per Lively's attorney Esra Hudson's letter, "Good cause exists for this request because it has been" a "tactic" of Baldoni's Wayfarer Parties "to make Ms. Swift and her fan base central to their media strategy against Ms. Lively." As a result of the above, Lively, 37, "respectfully requests that she be relieved from producing documents responsive to" related requests from Baldoni's team, per the letter. An attorney for Baldoni, 41, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment on Friday, June 13. Swift, 35, was previously roped into the Lively v. Wayfarer Studios et al. case, but Baldoni dropped his document subpoena issued to the pop star last month, as mentioned in Hudson's new letter submitted to the court on Friday. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories. A spokesperson for Lively tells PEOPLE, 'Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties are still demanding access to Taylor Swift's private communications — despite having already subpoenaed and then withdrawn that subpoena after they 'got all they needed.' As reflected in today's filing, their intent to drag Taylor Swift into this was evident as far back as August 2024, when the crisis PR firm led by Melissa Nathan included her in their 'Scenario Planning' document (Lively Amended Complaint, Exhibit D) and flagged the 'TS fanbase' as something to take 'extremely seriously' (Lively Amended Complaint, ¶214(b)). The ongoing attempts to once again try and use the world's biggest star as a PR tactic in this matter reflects a public unraveling of epic proportions — and serves only to distract from the fact that Justin Baldoni's lawsuits against Ms. Lively, Ryan Reynolds, their publicist, and the New York Times have been entirely dismissed." The letter comes after it was previously reported that Lively would subpoena Scooter Braun and HYBE, Braun's K-Pop corporation, on Thursday, June 12. As first reported by Deadline, a notice of the upcoming move was sent to HYBE on Tuesday, June 10. Per the outlet, the subpoenas will seek documents regarding crisis PR manager Melissa Nathan — who was previously named as a co-defendant in Lively's ongoing case against Baldoni — and the work Nathan did for the It Ends with Us actor-director. Braun, 43, has notably long been embroiled in legal battles with Lively's friend Swift regarding the latter's music masters, which she just regained control of in late May. Meanwhile, news of the Another Simple Favor actress's move against Braun came two days after Judge Liman dismissed the $400 million countersuit that Baldoni previously filed against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane and The New York Times. Lively's lawyers Hudson and Mike Gottlieb called the decision a "total victory and a complete vindication" for her and the others whom "Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties dragged into their retaliatory lawsuit." is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! In a statement obtained by PEOPLE Tuesday, Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman said Lively and her team's "predictable declaration of victory is false." He also said in an interview on TMZ Live that same day that he believes Judge Liman's decision is "not fair" or "right." "I think that [Justin is] a person who wants to be vindicated, and that's all that he cares about," the lawyer continued, in part. "He knows who he is. He knows what he's done. He knows what he hasn't done. And he wants the truth to come out, and he wants to do that in the appropriate way. ... He's waiting for his day in court, where he can speak out to tell the truth." Read the original article on People
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Justin Baldoni to ‘March Forward' With Blake Lively Legal Battle After $400 Million Defamation Suit Thrown Out: Facts Are ‘on Our Side'
Justin Baldoni plans to keep at his legal battle with 'It Ends With Us' co-star Blake Lively after a judge dismissed his $400 million defamation lawsuit against her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. 'Ms. Lively and her team's predictable declaration of victory is false, so let us be clear about the latest ruling,' Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman said in a statement to Variety. 'While the court dismissed the defamation related claims, the court has invited us to amend four out of the seven claims against Ms. Lively, which will showcase additional evidence and refined allegations. This case is about false accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation and a nonexistent smear campaign, which Ms. Lively's own team conveniently describes as 'untraceable' because they cannot prove what never happened.' More from Variety Judge Throws Out Justin Baldoni's $400 Million Defamation Suit Against Blake Lively Judge Rules Blake Lively's Emotional Distress Claims Against Justin Baldoni Are Officially Dead Blake Lively Abandons Claims Against Justin Baldoni of Infliction of Emotional Distress Freedman's statement continued, 'Most importantly, Ms. Lively's own claims are no truer today than they were yesterday, and with the facts on our side, we march forward with the same confidence that we had when Ms. Lively and her cohorts initiated this battle and look forward to her forthcoming deposition, which I will be taking. We are grateful for the organic show of support from the public and for the dedication of the Internet sleuth community who continue to cover the case with discernment and integrity.' On Monday, a judge tossed out the entire lawsuit filed by Baldoni that accused Lively and Reynolds of extortion and other claims. Judge Lewis J. Liman, who found that Lively's accusations of sexual harassment were legally protected and therefore immune from suit, allowed Baldoni to amend and refile a couple of allegations regarding interference with contracts. Baldoni's lawsuit against The New York Times, which Baldoni claimed had conspired with Lively and Reynolds to destroy his career with false allegations, was also dismissed. 'As we have said from day one, this '$400 million' lawsuit was a sham, and the court saw right through it,' Lively's lawyers said on June 9 after the dismissal. 'We look forward to the next round, which is seeking attorneys' fees, treble damages and punitive damages against Baldoni […] and the other Wayfarer Parties who perpetrated this abusive litigation.' Lively has sued Baldoni in federal court for sexual harassment and retaliation, alleging the director and producers of 'It Ends With Us' launched a smear campaign against her after she complained about the conditions on the film's set. A trial on Lively's complaint against Baldoni and his company, Wayfarer Studios, has been set for March 2026. Best of Variety 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
