As the rising conflict between It Ends With Uscostars Blake Lively and director Justin Baldoni continues to escalate, one person is trying to step her way right out of the line of fire … even after she shared her own issues with Lively.
Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa first found herself tied in with the months-long feud growing between the costars in August when she shared video from a 2016 interview she’d conducted with Lively she dubbed “‘The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job.”
In it, Flaa made a comment about Lively’s evident baby bump, which appeared to not go over well with the actress, leading to a tense rest of the interview. It was around this same time, as Lively and Baldoni were separately promoting their film, that the tension between the stars began to pick up steam in the media.
Lively was accused of trying to take over the production and criticized for her more lighthearted approach to the film’s publicity tour, while Baldoni leaned into its more serious subject matter of domestic violence in his own appearances.
Baldoni reportedly hired renowned crisis manager Melissa Nathan — of the same firm that worked with Johnny Depp — also in August, four months before Lively’s bombshell lawsuit, filed Saturday and obtained.
The suit details allegations of sexual harassment along with claims that he and his team participated in a smear campaign to destroy her reputation. Baldoni and his team have denied the allegations and called the suit an attempt to “fix her negative reputation.”
Also on Saturday, the New York Times published an article revealing alleged private messages detailing a smear campaign against Lively. The article insinuated a possible connection between Flaa and Nathan, pulling her into the narrative surrounding this lawsuit.
Referring to the timing of Flaa’s video release in August 2024 amid the Lively-Baldoni feud, the Times wrote, “Meanwhile, an online backlash against Ms. Lively was underway. It is impossible to know how much of the negative publicity was seeded by Ms. Nathan, Mr. Wallace and their team, and how much they noticed and amplified.”
The article also noted, “It wasn’t the first time she had posted a video aligned with a client of Ms. Nathan. In 2022, in the midst of Mr. Depp’s legal battle with Ms. Heard, Ms. Flaa posted clips of her interviews with the actor, tagged #JusticeForJohnnyDepp.”
It is perhaps the implication that her share of her experience with Lively was “seeded” by Nathan or Baldoni’s crisis team that Flaa appeared to take issue with, as she quickly shared a video posted to her Threads and YouTube accounts.
“Okay, so I have to say something because now I see that things are starting to snowball and people are starting to that I had anything to do with the smear campaign against Blake Lively that was orchestrated allegedly by Justin Baldoni and his team,” Flaa wrote.
“I also read the article in the New York Times this morning. I’ve been reading through the lawsuit and I see there’s been so much dirty work going on behind-the-scenes,” she continued. “I just wanted to say I had nothing to do with it. When I read the text messages that were going back and forth between Justin Baldoni’s PR team, I was as shocked and appalled, like everybody else”
“I would never take part in anything like that. That’s such an insult to me,” Flaa added. “And I really hope if you have time, check out my video that I just posted on YouTube where I explain things, because I don’t want a part of this. I posted a video. I showed how Blake Lively was behaving in my interview, and that’s it.”
At this point, it appears that none of the stars of It Ends with Us are following Baldoni on social media, with the purported leaked texts even mentioning months ago when Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds had unfollowed him, requesting a plan of action should Lively ultimately do so.
As news of the lawsuit continues to gain steam in the media, there are those in Hollywood and among the cast who are sharing their support for Lively publicly.
Blake’s sister Robyn Lively, who also stars in the film, took to her Instagram Stories on Saturday to post a series of quotes from the NYT piece, underlining several choice passages and captioning the image, “FINALLY justice for my sister @blakelively.” She followed that with a rainbow-hued heart and a plea to “Please red!” the NYT article.
Director Shawn Levy, who has worked with Ryan Reynolds on Free Guy, and is collaborating with Lively on an upcoming film, shared the headline blurb to his IG Stories, commenting, “Proud to call @blakelively a friend.”
On Saturday afternoon, Colleen Hoover — who wrote the book and served as an executive producer of the It Ends With Us film — took to her Instagram Stories to also share her support for Lively, who plays the lead character, Lily Bloom.
The author posted a photo of herself and Lively, 37, sharing a heartfelt embrace in a movie theater, where they were cheered on by the audience at what was seemingly a screening of the film.
“@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met,” Hoover wrote over the photo. “Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
In explaining why she filed suit, Lively said in a statement to TMZ, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, fired back at the lawsuit in a statement, calling all of the claims “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
Freedman said Wayfarer Studios “did nothing proactive nor retaliated” against Lively, slamming the lawsuit as “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation.”
He also addresses Lively’s alleged behavior on set, claiming that her “demands and threats” included “threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.”
The suit itself alleges a series of inappropriate interactions with Baldoni by Lively and other female members of the film’s cast. Lively accused him of objectifying her and other women as ‘sex objects,” while also going “out of his way to message criticisms of her age and weight.” The lawsuit also alleges inappropriate comments about women’s clothing and appearances on set.
Additionally, Lively accuses Baldoni of a “social manipulation” campaign after an “all hands” meeting to “address the hostile work environment” on set. The lawsuit claims that Baldoni retaliated by “battering her image, harming her businesses, and causing her and her family severe emotional harm” with their “attack” on her reputation.
You can read all the details of the lawsuit here.
At the time of the It Ends With Us’ August release, Lively received criticism over the way she promoted the film versus Baldoni.
Lively leaned into fashionable red carpet moments and participated in prank videos … while Baldoni focused more on how the movie depicts domestic violence, bringing more awareness to the issue. According to the lawsuit, Lively followed the agreed-upon marketing plan.
Hoover and other cast members participated in press alongside Lively, with the actress alleging in her suit that her method of promoting the film was in line with the strategy outlined.
While It Ends With Us received mixed reviews from critics, it was considered a box-office success.
On Saturday, sources told Deadline that Baldoni had been dropped by his agency WME. Lively is also represented by the agency.
It Ends with Us is the first of Hoover’s bestselling novels to be adapted for the big screen. As of this past summer, Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, still held the rights to the follow-up book It Starts With Us. It’s unclear if that remains unchanged.
