Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds are accused of ‘bullying’ the producer and director of the film It Ends With Us, Justin Baldoni, in a bombshell lawsuit which says Reynolds ‘berated’ Baldoni in a heated meeting at their New York penthouse.

Reynolds, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood who is on a high after the success of last year’s movie Deadpool & Wolverine, is said to have ‘aggressively’ accused Baldoni of a string of offences against his wife, including ‘fat shaming’ her.

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.

t 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 mischaracterised and demonstrably false, the lawsuit says.

It adds: ‘When Baldoni resisted apologising 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.

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.

The New York Times ran an August 16 text exchange in which Nathan allegedly shared a link to an article with Abel. 

The text exchange shows Abel responding, ‘Wow,’ followed by, ‘You really outdid yourself with this one,’ to which Nathan allegedly replied, ‘That’s why you hired me, right? I’m the best.’

The lawsuit says that these text messages were altered and edited.

The lawsuit includes a longer version of the exchange. In it, Nathan forwards a screenshot of an article and writes: ‘Damn this is not fair because it’s also not me,’ followed by, ‘Everything now looks like it’s me.’ 

The New York Times also said that both men entered her make up trailer uninvited and when she was topless. The lawsuit says that Lively invited Baldoni into her trailer while she was ‘pumping’ (expressing breast milk) so that they could work out their lines. It includes a text message allegedly from Lively which runs: ‘I’m just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work out some lines.’

The lawsuit notes: ‘Both Heath and Baldoni have children, and are comfortable around breastfeeding mothers, and Lively seemed equally comfortable. As revealed in a text message exchange between Baldoni and Lively less than two weeks into filming, Lively invited Baldoni to her trailer to rehearse lines while she was pumping breast milk.

‘Breastfeeding was an activity she often conducted openly in the presence of both Baldoni and Heath, including during production meetings… Lively suggests Heath walked in her trailer unannounced while ‘in state of undress’ and topless, which is false.

‘Heath was invited into her trailer, along with a female producer, Baldoni, and a Sony representative for a meeting requested by Lively. Mr Heath arrived first to see if Lively was ready for the meeting, and after knocking and being invited in, saw that Lively was breastfeeding. She was not topless. She was having makeup removed from her collar bone while fully-covered.

‘Heath asked if they should return at a later time. Lively said no, they could move forward with the meeting as initially planned and would meet them after she finished removing makeup. 

‘Roughly two weeks later Lively announced that she thought she had seen Heath make eye contact with her. Heath immediately apologised and said he hadn’t even realized he looked her way, in response to which Lively remarked, ‘I know you weren’t trying to cop a look.’

Accusations that Baldoni improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life in ways which were inappropriate are said to be ‘misleading.’ 

The lawsuit says: ‘Lively refused to meet with the intimacy coordinator to plan out the Film’s sex scenes. Baldoni, in turn, was forced to meet with the intimacy coordinator alone and relay any suggestions to Lively separately.