Well, this isn’t going away anytime soon. Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni spent six hours locked in separate rooms at a Manhattan federal courthouse Wednesday, trying to hash out a settlement in their increasingly messy legal battle. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work.
The former co-stars showed up in what might be the most awkward fashion coincidence of 2026, both wearing olive green jackets with pops of light pink. Baldoni arrived holding hands with his wife Emily, while Lively came alone. After hours of back-and-forth negotiations through U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave, they left separately with no deal in sight.
Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s attorney and Hollywood legal heavyweight, confirmed what everyone suspected as he headed to his waiting SUV. No settlement. Trial’s still happening May 18. And he seemed pretty pleased about it, adding they’re “looking forward to it.”
The Mess That Started It All
This whole saga kicked off in December 2024 when Lively dropped explosive allegations of sexual harassment and an unsafe work environment against Baldoni during the filming of It Ends With Us. But she didn’t stop there. She accused him of hiring a crisis PR firm to launch what she called a misogynistic smear campaign against her.
The fallout has been absolutely wild. Baldoni responded with a $400 million countersuit claiming defamation and extortion. He even sued The New York Times for breaking the story. Both of those lawsuits got tossed by a judge in June 2025, which probably wasn’t the outcome he was hoping for.
One judge called this entire thing a “feud between PR firms,” which honestly might be the most accurate description of modern celebrity disputes. It’s not about who’s right or wrong anymore. It’s about who can control the narrative better in the court of public opinion and the actual courtroom.
When Your Group Chat Gets Subpoenaed
Here’s where it gets really messy. Last month, a judge unsealed messages that showed just how deep this rabbit hole goes. Turns out, Lively wasn’t handling this solo. She had backup from some pretty heavy hitters: her husband Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Swift, Jenny Slate, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and even Anna Wintour.
The messages from April 2023 are particularly spicy. Lively apparently asked Swift to help her deal with what she called her “doofus director.” She wanted Taylor to tell Baldoni how excited she was about script pages Lively had written for a pivotal rooftop scene. The whole exchange reads like someone trying to use their friend’s clout to win an argument at work, except the friend happens to be one of the biggest pop stars on the planet.
“He’s a clown and thinks he’s a writer now,” Lively allegedly wrote, asking Swift to make it seem like Baldoni deserved credit for pages he didn’t actually write. Swift’s response? “I’ll do anything for you!!” Which is sweet friendship goals but probably not what you want in your court documents.
This is what happens when entertainment industry feuds collide with the legal system. Everyone’s dirty laundry ends up on public display.
The Reputation War
Both sides are fighting for something more valuable than money at this point: their reputations. Lively claims she’s suffered “emotional distress, humiliation, shame, and embarrassment” from Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign, and says it’s damaged her career. Baldoni maintains he did nothing wrong and was simply defending himself against “threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources.”
The case has ballooned into hundreds of court filings and thousands of pages of documents. Baldoni’s crisis PR firm got dragged into separate litigation, claiming they only did what any firm would do when hired by a client under attack. The news cycle keeps churning, and neither side seems willing to back down.
What started as a dispute between two actors has morphed into something much bigger. It’s a window into how Hollywood really works behind the glossy premieres and carefully crafted Instagram posts. It’s about power, control, and what happens when professional relationships implode spectacularly.
With settlement talks dead and trial approaching, we’re guaranteed months more of revelations, unsealed messages, and probably a few more celebrity cameos in court documents. The question isn’t whether this gets uglier before it’s over, but how much uglier it can possibly get.
