Ryan Reynolds was all smiles on Tuesday as he made his first public appearance since wife Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni.
The Deadpool & Wolverine star, 48, brushed off the lawsuit as he attended the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.
The actor was a presenter at this year’s ceremony, and looked dapper in a grey tuxedo with a white button up.
He presented an award to Wicked, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, which the National Board of Review recognized as the best film of the year.
Afterwards he was seen posing with Cynthia, Ariana and her co-star and boyfriend Ethan Slater.
Reynolds and his wife Lively, 37, have kept a low profile in recent weeks, since the Gossip Girl star filed a complaint against her It Ends with Us costar-director Baldoni, 40, alleging he had improvised unwanted kissing scenes and created a hostile work environment through sexual harassment and more.
Ryan Reynolds, 48, was all smiles on Tuesday as he made his first public appearance since his wife Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni
Just a day later, The New York Times published an article revealing Baldoni hired a crisis PR team to ‘bury’ Lively and destroy her credibility, with Lively then suing Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios company later that day.
Baldoni responded by filing a $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times for their report that he claimed pushed an, ‘unverified and self-serving narrative.’
The bombshell lawsuit also accused Reynolds and Lively of ‘bullying’ Baldoni, claiming Reynolds ‘berated’ him during a heated meeting at the couple’s home.
Reynolds is said to have ‘aggressively’ accused Baldoni of a string of offenses against his wife, including ‘fat shaming’ her, during a meeting with other producers and a representative of Sony.
Baldoni — who ‘absolutely’ plans to sue Lively back amid their spiraling legal battle — called the encounter ‘traumatic’, stating he had ‘never been spoken to like that in his life.’
However an insider who was present at the meeting stated that Reynolds ‘never screamed’ at Baldoni during the showdown at his and Lively’s New York penthouse.
The source told told TMZ Reynolds was ‘angry and stern’, but the accusation of him screaming is ‘overblown.’
The insider described the actor’s tone as ‘impassioned’, but insisted that it did not escalate to the level of screaming or berating.
The Deadpool & Wolverine star brushed off the lawsuit as he attended the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City
The actor was a presenter at this year’s ceremony, and looked dapper in a grey tuxedo with a white button up
He presented an award to Wicked, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, which the National Board of Review recognized as the best film of the year
Reynolds and his wife Lively, 37, have kept a low profile in recent weeks, since the Gossip Girl star filed a complaint against her It Ends with Us costar-director Baldoni, 40
The source emphasized that everyone present was aware that Baldoni’s alleged behavior would be discussed, therefore, nobody was blindsided.
The insider also disputed the lawsuit’s characterization of the meeting, specifically the claim that other celebrities were casually present at couple’s home. The insider stated that celebrities were not coming and going from the penthouse.
On the evening of January 4 last year, the lawsuit says Baldoni plus other producers and a representative of Sony were invited to the home shared by the couple.
It says: ‘They arrived eager to discuss plans for the next day’s filming, prepared with their production materials. Instead, they were blindsided by Lively and Reynolds, who presented a list of grievances that were both unanticipated and troubling.’
‘Reynolds launched into a tirade, berating Baldoni in what Baldoni later described as a ‘traumatic’ encounter, stating he had ‘never been spoken to like that in his life.’
Reynolds demanded an apology to Lively for actions that were mischaracterized and demonstrably false, the lawsuit says.
It adds: ‘When Baldoni resisted apologizing for what he had not done, Reynolds became further enraged. Everyone, including the producer Lively had asked production to engage and a representative of Sony that was in attendance, left that ‘meeting’ in shock. The producer offered that in his 40-year career he had never seen anyone speak to someone like that.’
Baldoni says after the filming was complete that Lively took over the movie project from him, refused to walk the red carpet with him or let him attend its premiere, and that she and husband Reynolds allegedly used their power to try and damage him.
The lawsuit says that in July last year, before the film’s release, he got word that: ‘during the premiere of his movie Deadpool & Wolverine, Reynolds approached Baldoni’s agent at William Morris Endeavor and demanded that the agent ‘drop’ Baldoni.’
The lawsuit was filed against the New York Times after its story on December 20 said that a Hollywood ‘smear machine’ had been summoned into action to discredit Lively.
He posed with Cynthia, Ariana and her co-star and boyfriend Ethan Slater
They were also joined by Michelle Yeoh, Jon M. Chu and David Nicksay
Ariana was seen reaching for her boyfriend’s hand as Ryan watched
Reynolds also shared a hug with Cynthia
That article was based in part on an 80-page legal complaint filed by Lively which accused Baldoni and his partner of sexual harassment.
Instead, says the lawsuit, the ‘true source of tension between Lively and plaintiffs.. was Lively’s brazen and calculated effort to expropriate the film.’
Lively first sued on December 20, accusing Baldoni of sexually harassing her and fostering a toxic work environment on the set of their film It Ends With Us, in which he both directed her and acted with her. He has staunchly denied the allegations.
In the first complaint, she also claimed Baldoni worked to tarnish her reputation with a team including his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR Melissa Nathan, who previously worked with Johnny Depp. Abel has denied waging a ‘smear campaign.’
Lively then launched more formal complaint on New Year’s Eve, doubling down on her accusations. She filed her first complaint with the California Civil Rights Commission, but is now suing Baldoni in federal court in New York.
Her December 31 filing came on the same day Baldoni initiated a $250M libel action against the New York Times for its bombshell report on Lively’s first complaint.
Now Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman has declared the actor intends to sue Lively herself, telling NBC: ‘We plan to release every single text messages between the two of them [sic]. We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts.’
A source with knowledge of the case claimed that Baldoni’s lawsuit against Lively will be launched ‘soon’, according to People.
Lively’s lawsuits include screen-grabs of text messages by Baldoni, Abel and Nathan, supposedly showing a PR takedown of the actress being planned.
Freedman has previously slammed the ‘leaked personal text exchanges’ for lacking ‘critical context,’ and now he has said on television that he and his client mean to publish all texts between Lively and Baldoni.
The Deadpool star and his wife have been accused of ‘bullying’ the It Ends With Us director in a bombshell lawsuit, which says Reynolds ‘berated’ Baldoni during a heated meeting; Reynolds and Lively seen in 2024
Reynolds is said to have ‘aggressively’ accused Baldoni of a string of offenses against his wife, including ‘fat shaming’ her; Baldoni pictured in 2023
One example is a purported screen-grab of a conversation between Lively and Baldoni, in which she apparently informs him she is pumping breast milk in her trailer and then invites him there to work with her.
Lively allegedly texts Baldoni: ‘I’m just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work out our lines,’ and he replies: ‘copy,’ adding: ‘Eating with crew and will head that way.’
Freedman argues that those texts disprove Lively’s claim that Baldoni would enter her trailer ‘uninvited while she was undressed, including while she was breastfeeding.’
Lively’s latest lawsuit, launched on New Year’s Eve, targets Baldoni, Abel and Nathan as defendants as well as Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer Studios.
In her second legal action, Lively is demanding both ‘punitive’ and ‘compensatory’ damages and a jury trial, accusing the defendants of causing her ‘mental pain and anguish,’ as well as ‘severe and serious emotional distress’ and ‘lost wages.’
Lively’s attorneys gave a statement to DailyMail.com alleging their client has been subject to ‘further retaliation and attacks’ since she made the ‘decision to speak out’ about her allegations against Baldoni.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Nathan, Abel and Wayfarer Studios, as well as representatives for Baldoni for comment.
In her new lawsuit, Lively demands both ‘punitive damages’ as well as ‘a money judgement representing compensatory damages, lost wages, earning, and all other sums of money,’ plus ‘interest’ on the above ‘in an amount to be proven at trial.’
She also wants ‘an award of money judgment for mental pain and anguish and severe and serious emotional distress, in an amount to be proven at trial.’
Lawyers acting for Baldoni and his publicists have produced a wealth of text, email and WhatsApp evidence which they say proves that Lively undertook a ‘hostile take over’ of the film.
It lays out a litany of alleged diva behaviour by the actress. It says that she ‘disrupted’ the film by refusing to meet with an intimacy coordinator, demanded that her wardrobe was changed and that outfits were taken to her home so that she could look at them, and added lines to the film.
Lively first sued on December 20, accusing Baldoni of sexually harassing her and fostering a toxic work environment on the set of their film It Ends With Us, in which he both directed her and acted with her. He has staunchly denied the allegations; he and Lively are pictured in a still
Eventually she took over editing the movie and produced her own cut.
It is alleged that she ‘threatened’ producers Sony that she would walk out and eventually wrested full control from Baldoni.
She then allegedly demanded a PGA (Producers Guild of America) credit, and despite feeling that she had not done enough to get a producing credit, Jamey Heath wrote a letter in her support, which is produced.
Baldoni says that he, his family and friends were not invited to the film’s after party, were forbidden from the red carpet and on the night of the premiere even ended up sheltering in a basement holding area because Lively wouldn’t permit them to be in the same room as her.
The lawsuit says that the allegations that Baldoni, aided by crisis PRs Melissa Nathan and Jen Abel at TAG, created a global smear campaign against the actress are false, and this was a strategy used by Lively to try and reclaim her damaged public image.
