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Justin Baldoni's legal team has released texts showing that Blake Lively did not sign the Nudity Waiver (also known as Nudity Rider) after demanding the same. These texts were a part of Baldoni's $400 million lawsuit filed against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, on January 16, 2025, as per a report by StyleCaster.
Justin Baldoni's lawsuit, also signed by producer Jamey Heath and his publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, accuses Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively of "civil extortion, defamation, and invasion of privacy." Among multiple allegations against the celebrity couple, Baldoni claimed that Blake Lively did not sign the Nudity Rider provided by his company, Wayfarer Studios, in the context of the film It Ends With Us.
A Nudity Rider or Waiver refers to a mandatory document that must accompany a cast member's contract. The document must include specific details about any nude, semi-nude, or love-making scenes in the media in question. It should also disclose details about the type of attire involved in such sequences and any other important information pertinent to such scenes.
Nudity Riders mandatorily includes detailed descriptions of all nude scenes in media alongside excerpts from the screenplay to make the intent of the scenes clear. These documents must be presented to performers well in advance of the signing of the contract so they have time to give their consent. Nudity Riders are suggested by agreement by the SAG-AFTRA in the United States.
As per Baldoni's lawsuit, Lively's team sent his company Wayfarer Studios a list of 17 non-negotiable points which included the demand for Nudity Riders. A Rider, approved by a SAG-AFTRA intimacy coordinator, was sent to Lively on May 8, 2023, as per StyleCaster. The actress was requested to sign the same within May 11, 2023.
On May 12, 2023, Lively's team said that they are reviewing the Nudity Rider and will come up with their notes. They then shifted their focus on Blake Lively's payments to be paid in escrow despite Wayfarer's multiple requests to sign the document, reported the outlet.
Blake Lively's attorneys respond to Justin Baldoni's $400 million lawsuit
Blake Lively's legal team has responded to Justin Baldoni's $400 million lawsuit against her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Lively's lawyers said:
"This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender."
The legal drama between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively began when the latter filed a complaint against her co-star with the California Civil Rights Department on December 20, 2024. In her complaint, Lively accused Baldoni of alleged s*xual harassment, inappropriate workplace conduct, and indulging in a scheme to tarnish her reputation because she demanded a better workplace environment.
Among her multiple complaints, Blake Lively claimed Justin Baldoni entered her trailer while she was breastfeeding, inappropriately commented on her post-partum body, and did not have an intimacy coordinator on the sets of It Ends With Us. Baldoni denied all of her accusations. Her complaints were later followed by a formal lawsuit filed with the New York federal court.
Lively's allegations formed the basis of a The New York Times article published on December 21, 2024, titled We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine. On December 31, 2024, Justin Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times over the published article, accusing them of teaming up with Lively to damage his reputation.
Baldoni's latest lawsuit against Lively and Ryan Reynolds accuses them of civil extortion, defamation, and invasion of privacy. The lawsuit alleged:
"Lively stole Wayfarer’s movie, hijacked Wayfarer’s premiere, destroyed Plaintiffs’ personal and professional reputations and livelihood, and aimed to drive Plaintiffs out of business entirely. It further appears that Lively worked for months with the equally powerful New York Times to prepare a false and damaging narrative to deploy against Plaintiffs.”
Further, the lawsuit claims the case is not "about celebrities sniping at each other in the press." It added:
"This is a case about two of the most powerful stars in the world deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio. When Plaintiffs have their day in court, the jury will recognize that even the most powerful celebrity cannot bend the truth to her will.”
In Justin Baldoni's lawsuit against The New York Times, he did not name Blake Lively or Ryan Reynolds as defendants. However, his lawyer, Bryan Freedman, claimed that the couple would soon be sued. Moreover, Freedman has also sent a legal letter to Disney and Marvel Studios to preserve all documents related to the character Nicepool in the 2024 MCU movie Deadpool & Wolverine.
The character, a parody of Reynolds' popular character Deadpool, was played by the actor himself. Baldoni's lawyers allege that the character was based on Justin Baldoni and designed to mock the actor.
Justin Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman's statement on the lawsuit
Sportskeeda received a statement from Bryan Freedman, the lawyer representing Baldoni in the lawsuit against Lively. It said:
“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.”
He added:
“It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret. Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth. Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power.”
He further mentioned:
“Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”
Further developments on the case are awaited.
