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Ryan Reynolds reportedly took a swipe at Justin Baldoni amid wife Blake Lively’s ongoing legal battle while taking to the stage at the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala in NYC on Tuesday.
In his thinly veiled dig the Wolverine actor, 48, claimed that ‘women are held to a different standard’ and must ‘hide their strength’ to succeed while presenting The Best Film Of The Year Award to Wicked.
Lively, 37, starred in It Ends With Us opposite Baldoni, 40, who also directed the film and after months of rumours, she alleged he’d improvised unwanted kissing scenes and created a hostile work environment through sexual harassment and more.
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. Baldoni responded by filing his own $250M libel lawsuit against The New York Times claiming their report pushed an, ‘unverified and self-serving narrative.’
Reynolds took to the stage at Cipriani 42nd Street and People reports he told the audience: ‘Wicked is indeed wicked, It dares to centre on two powerful women. It examines a nuanced, complex relationship which has resonated with people for over two decades on stage’.
‘Stories about women seem to be held to a different set of standards, and that is to say that they’re often held to the standards women are held to in life. You must be perfect. You must must hide your strength. You must shape-shift or placate’.
Ryan Reynolds took a swipe at Justin Baldoni amid wife Blake Lively ‘s ongoing legal battle while taking to the stage at the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala on Tuesday
In his thinly veiled dig the Wolverine actor, 48, claimed that ‘women are held to a different standard’ and must ‘hide their strength’ to succeed
Lively, 37, starred in It Ends With Us (pictured) opposite Baldoni, 40, who also directed the film and after months of rumours, she sued alleging he had improvised unwanted kissing scenes
He continued: ‘But Donna Langley and Universal, they know where and with whom to place their trust, and it paid off in this film’.
It comes following reports that Reynolds ‘seemingly’ used his power and influence to create a Deadpool & Wolverine character parodying Baldoni.
Attorney Bryan Freedman, appearing Tuesday on The Megyn Kelly Show said that ‘there’s no question’ Reynolds exercised his creative control on the Marvel summer smash hit to crack an inside joke at the expense of the It Ends With Us actor-director.
‘What Ryan Reynolds has seemingly done is use his power and influence … on Deadpool and to make fun of Justin Baldoni,’ Freedman said in reference to a character named Nicepool.
Dailymail.com has reached out to reps for Reynolds and Lively for further comment on this story.
On Tuesday, Kelly played a clip of the Nicepool character – who wore a manbun style Baldoni has worn in the past, and had dialogue referencing an affinity for social activism, as well as Lively’s Ladypool character and her pregnancy – and then asked Freedman what he made of it.
Freedman replied, ‘What I make of that is that if your wife is sexually harassed, you don’t make fun of Justin Baldoni; you don’t make fun of the situation – you take it very seriously.’
‘What you don’t do is mock the person and turn it into a joke,’ Freedman said, adding that the proper protocol of addressing the serious situation would be to ‘file HR complaints [and] raise the issue and follow a legal process.’
Reynolds took to the stage at Cipriani 42nd Street to present The Best Film Of The Year Award to Wicked
He said: ‘Stories about women seem to be held to a different set of standards, and that is to say that they’re often held to the standards women are held to in life’
He continued: ‘You must be perfect. You must must hide your strength. You must shape-shift or placate’
He later met the film’s cast including Ariana Grande and her boyfriend Ethan Slater
Reynolds shared a hug with Cynthia Erivo
The cast and crew all posed together with their award
The New York Times published an article revealing Baldoni hired a crisis PR team to ‘bury’ Lively and destroy her credibility
He added: ‘If someone is sexually harassed, you don’t make fun of it – it’s a serious issue.’
Freedman said that traits shown by the Nicepool character was a clear joke at Baldoni’s expense in an effort to humiliate the actor-director.
‘There’s no question it relates to Justin,’ Freedman said. ‘I mean anybody that can watch that – the hair bun, you know, the comment about the pregnancy – it’s pretty obvious what’s being done.’
Reynolds ‘for sure’ will be named in a lawsuit over It Ends With Us, Freedman told Kelly, adding that Reynolds helped ‘Blake Lively take over’ It Ends With Us.
Lively at a premiere even falsely claimed Reynolds penned a scene in the romantic drama, Freedman told Kelly.
The claims shocked Sony officials and production staffers on the film – as Christy Hall and Colleen Hoover were the only writers credited on the movie – but Baldoni handled the uncomfortable situation with grace.
‘It’s the first time they’re hearing that and Justin handles that really, really well and doesn’t want to say she’s a liar, doesn’t want to say that’s inappropriate … and he treats her very well about that,’ Freedman said.
The appearance came as intrepid viewers of Deadpool & Wolverine began to question in Nicepool was a shot at Baldoni in the wake of revelations detailing his tension with the A-list couple throughout the making of It Ends With Us.
Deadpool & Wolverine, also starring Hugh Jackman, was filmed at the same time as It Ends With Us and was written by Reynolds.
It comes following reports that Reynolds ‘seemingly’ used his power and influence to create a Deadpool & Wolverine character parodying Baldoni
Attorney Bryan Freedman, said that ‘there’s no question’ Reynolds, 48, exercised his creative control on the Marvel monolith to crack an inside joke at the expense of his actor
In the movie, Deadpool and Wolverine encounter a Deadpool ‘variant’ named Nicepool, who, like Deadline, was played by Ryan (left). Nicepool sports a man bun, a hairstyle Justin (right in 2021) noticeably also wore for years
In a scene in the movie, Deadpool and Wolverine encounter a Deadpool ‘variant’ named Nicepool (who was also played by Reynolds) sporting a man bun, a hairstyle Baldoni wore for years.
The character made a comment about Ladypool – played by Lively – saying, ‘Oh my goodness, wait til you’ve seen Ladypool. She is gorgeous. She just had a baby too and [you] can’t even tell.’
Deadpool responded, ‘I don’t think you’re supposed to say that’ to which Nicepool, with one hand on his chest, declared, ‘That’s OK – I identify as a feminist.’
Baldoni has frequently and publicly said that he is a feminist. He gave a TED talk in 2017, titled ‘Why I’m done trying to be “man enough.”‘
During his speech he said that he was ‘trying to be a feminist, amplifying the voices of women around the world.’
The following year, Baldoni wrote an article for Romper about being a ‘feminist dad’ to his and wife Emily Baldoni’s two children.
Deadpool & Wolverine completed filming in June 2024, which is five months after Lively and Reynolds had attended an ‘all hands’ meeting with Baldoni to address the ‘repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior,’ according to Lively’s lawsuit.
Lively gave birth to her and Reynold’s fourth child, son Olin, just months before filming It Ends With Us began.
In both of her lawsuits she alleges that Baldoni ‘routinely degraded’ her by ‘finding back channel ways of criticizing her body and weight.’
In another scene in Deadpool & Wolverine, supervillain Cassandra Nova (played by Emma Corrin) gets inside Deadpool’s mind to gain access to his memories. She literally sticks her hand into Deadpool’s head as he yells, ‘And where in God’s name is the intimacy coordinator?’
Lively alleges that Baldoni ‘improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed’ with her, ‘with no intimacy coordinator involved’ in her lawsuits.
In Baldoni’s lawsuit against the the New York Times, he alleges that Lively ‘refused to meet with the intimacy coordinator to plan out the film’s sex scenes.’
In the lawsuit Lively filed last month, she accused Baldoni of body-shaming her, attempting to add additional sex scenes into the movie, showing her pornographic images and videos, breaking character and continuing to kiss her while filming.
Lively also claimed in legal documents Baldoni launched a ‘social manipulation’ campaign against her to ‘destroy’ her reputation.
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 is said to have ‘aggressively’ accused Baldoni of a string of offenses against his wife, including ‘fat shaming’ her; Baldoni pictured in 2023
Lively told The New York Times the day after she filed the complaint, ‘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 has denied all of the claims against him in Lively’s legal filing.
Since the complaint was filed, Baldoni has faced a number of professional consequences, including a lawsuit from a former publicist; and being dropped by the agency WME, which also reps Lively and Reynolds.
Baldoni has accused Reynolds of screaming at him during the fateful production meeting at the couple’s apartment.
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 called the encounter ‘traumatic,’ stating he had ‘never been spoken to like that in his life.’
A source close to Reynolds denied this claim, as eyewitnesses told TMZ that while Reynolds was ‘angry and stern,’ his behavior cannot be categorized as yelling.
Baldoni’s lawsuit against the Times follows Lively’s lawsuit against him for alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and lost wages, though he has denied her accusations.
She initially filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department on December 21, before filing a federal lawsuit against him on December 31.
