Metadata seems to show TMZ was ready for Justin Baldoni’s Instagram video at least 8 hours before it was posted

This dude just comes across as so disingenuous and more than a little creepy.

I know people like to talk about how annoying Blake and Ryan are, but I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a room with this man.

This whole saga confuses me cause depending on where you read, the consensus on who the bad one in the situation changes. I don’t even know. I’d love a truly non bias breakdown of the situation cause both sides are convincing lol

Wait people thought he spoke on the fly? I’ve not read it (in fact this post is the first I’ve heard of it) but a lawsuit this size of course it’s all crafted. 😂 


Baldoni seems to be the last one to notice that his career is toast and he has no one to blame but himself. Clawing at the walls of relevance isn’t going to sway anyone at this point.

Not to mention the video was weird as hell too. All that planning just to release a cringey video where you sigh, whisper, close your eyes and trot out your wife for sympathy.

Now this is some good gossip. Bravo, OP

I tried to summarize this in another thread but honestly there is just so much that has happened. I’ll try again here but full disclosure I am on Blake’s side. I’ll try to keep it unbiased but just know that going in. If you don’t want to read the entire summary, I would say these are the main points:

* Baldoni and Lively filmed a movie together. Baldoni directed and owned the studio that filmed the movie. There was no HR on set, all complaints ended up going to Baldoni himself.
* Lively and others on set raised concerns about Baldoni’s behavior very early on. Lively was not the first and only person to complain. On her first day on set, Heath (a close friend of Baldoni) hugged her and said “I don’t know if this is allowed, we already have HR complaints.”
* Another actress told a producer about issues on set. This producer told Heath, who told her NOT to write any of it down because it would make them look bad.
* Baldoni and Heath were afraid that Lively would tell people about the issues on set. They hired a PR crisis team and paid them 30k per month (court documents confirm this money changed hands!) to smear Lively during promotion of the film.
* Lively filed a lawsuit for sexual harassment and retaliation because of the smear campaign.
* Baldoni then filed his own lawsuit, and called her a liar and said she made up all the claims of SH.
* Over 10+ witnesses were deposed under oath and confirmed Lively’s version of events. It’s Baldoni’s word against the word of ten other people.

**Full Summary:**

Justin Baldoni co-owns a production studio (Wayfarer Studios) with Steve Sarowitz who is a billionaire and has footed the bill for the studio since it began. Their other friend Jamey Heath is the CEO of this company.

Wayfarer Studios produced the film It Ends With Us around 2-3 years ago. Blake Lively starred in the film alongside Justin Baldoni, who also directed the film. The studio is fairly green. This was their largest production to date. Baldoni is also green, has maybe two small directing credits, nothing like the caliber of this film.

As soon as production begins there are numerous issues on set. Baldoni and Heath both have complaints made against them for harassment of various actresses and possibly even crew. There is no HR on set at all, so all the people who complain go directly to Baldoni and Heath but they also are either an owner/CEO of the studio and most of the complaints are about their behavior.

Sometimes they issue apologies to the people who complain but even when they do they also make excuses for the behavior. Baldoni even rolled his eyes at an actress who expressed discomfort when he called her sexy, then told her that he guessed he missed the HR meeting.

Again, there was NO HR on this set. A producer went to Heath with complaints from an actress who was NOT Blake Lively and he told her it was better that they did not put any of the complaints in writing.

This is actually illegal. Companies are required to investigate complaints of this nature and to provide HR training. Multiple cast and crew gave depositions under oath and testified that there was NO training, and NO HR or HR personnel on set at all.

Blake Lively and the other actors/actresses talk about the harassment. There are dated text messages that show people commiserating with her about how poorly Heath and Baldoni are behaving. Another crew member actually confided in Lively that Baldoni’s inappropriate behavior was an ongoing issue.

Fast forward to the end of filming. Everyone stops working due to a strike. Blake has her lawyers draft a legal agreement that lists the things that were making her and others uncomfortable and says, hey, in order for me to come back I want you guys to agree to stop doing all of these things. If you don’t want to sign, I want a formal HR process. If you sign, I’ll see you Monday.

Baldoni and Heath sign. They finish filming, and there are no more complaints. Lively even tells other people how much better filming was during those last few weeks.

Promotion for the movie gets ready to start, and Blake and Ryan and some of the rest of the cast unfollow Baldoni although it’s unclear whether they all were following him to begin with. Anyways, he sees this, panics, and ends up hiring a crisis PR firm because he is so afraid Blake is going to tell people what it was like working with him. He even sends messages literally saying, “think of all the things she could say about me” or something to that effect.

He tells this firm directly in messages that were turned over during discover of the lawsuits different stories and narratives to plant in the press about Blake and Ryan Reynolds. He tells them to say that Ryan Reynolds is a scab and that he wrote for the film during the writer’s strike. That appears in numerous articles right after he tells the PR team. He also tells them to put out stories about Blake being a bully, and many of these also appear in the press. One of these narratives is actually tied to a ten year old interview that Blake did. This suddenly appears online with everyone talking about what a bully Blake is to the interviewer.

Over a year passes, and Blake files a lawsuit for two major things: sexual harassment and retaliation. She alleges that Baldoni and Heath harassed her on set, and then they hired a PR team to smear her during the promotion of the film to try and silence her or prevent her from talking about what happened. This is textbook retaliation for making complaints.

Baldoni filed his own lawsuit and basically said that she lied about all of it. She made all the SH claims up to steal control of the movie from him, and she was trying to come forward now because she got bad press (that had nothing to do with his PR team) and wanted a way to redeem herself. This was his original narrative, btw. He said it was all a lie.

During the lawsuits it was revealed that Lively complained about the harassment as it was happening. There are texts that were dated as it was happening that show her complaining to others about the things happening as they were happening. The claim that she retroactively claimed harassment is then false, because she was calling it SH as it was happening she didn’t decide it was SH after the fact.

Also during the lawsuits, multiple people were deposed. They gave testimony under oath. Over 10 different people confirmed her claims about Baldoni’s behavior. He absolutely did the things that Lively alleged, AND there were other people who raised concerns about the behavior as it was happening. So again, the whole narrative that she was lying or just making up the claims after the fact has never been true. There are so many witnesses who were aware of the issues on set.

There are a lot of people who genuinely dislike Lively and that’s whatever. But demonizing this woman when there are so many people who have corroborated her version of events is insanity. Justin Baldoni harassed her and others, and then he paid a PR team to smear her in the press because he didn’t want her to tell people he was a harasser.