Ryan Reynolds, 49, spent more than a year urging Blake Lively to settle her lawsuit againstIt Ends With Usco-star Justin Baldoni in the United States, according to NewsNation in a report published on Friday, 8 May, because the legal dispute was allegedly damaging both their careers. The insider claimed Reynolds believed the high-profile case, which included allegations of sexual harassment and defamation against Baldoni, had already damaged Lively's standing in Hollywood.
Lively's battle with Baldoniand his production company Wayfarer began when she brought 13 claims, among them sexual harassment, defamation, retaliation, aiding and abetting retaliation and breach of contract.
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The row unfolded as the pair worked together on the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling novelIt Ends With Us, with Lively starring and Baldoni directing and co‑starring. A judge later dismissed 10 of her claims, leaving only three live counts on the brink of trial in New York.
According to the NewsNation report, Reynolds was not simply a concerned spouse on the sidelines. One source said bluntly, 'Ryan had been urging her to settle for over a year. The lawsuit has damaged her career and his, badly.'
The allegation speaks to a familiar, if rarely stated, Hollywood calculation. Executives and agents tend to avoid anything that looks expensive or unpredictable, and high-stakes litigation can sit firmly in that category. In this case, industry figures quoted by NewsNation painted a bleak picture of how Lively was being viewed within the business.
Her career had stalled while the case continued, with Hollywood agents described as 'loath to work with litigious actresses who cause them to go over budget.' Former director Fran Weinstein told the network, 'At the moment, I believe that Blake is persona non grata. They do not want to go near that fire for a while.'
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None of the major studios or agencies have publicly confirmed blacklisting Lively, and there is no independent verification of how widespread that sentiment really is. But even the perception that an actor is 'difficult' or likely to drag a production into court can be enough to chill job offers.
An additional source according to OK! Magazine suggested that, from a purely legal standpoint, the momentum of the case had already swung against her. With just retaliation, aiding and abetting retaliation and breach of contract still intact, they claimed that 'two more charges were likely to be dismissed, and then there would have been only one minor charge left.'
Source: International Business Times UK
