Having been dropped by WME and sued by Blake Lively for sexual harassment and an alleged online smear campaign, Justin Baldoni has now made it very clear he never ever wants to work on a Walt Disney Company project.
That’s certainly the tone and likely immediate impact of a January 7 letter sent to CEO Bob Igor and Marvel boss Kevin Feige from the It Ends With Us co-star/director’s team demanding the Mouse House “preserve evidence” related to last year’s massive hit Deadpool & Wolverine. The correspondence was sent in anticipation of the expected “commencement of litigation against” the Merc with a Mouth himself Ryan Reynolds and Lively, it says.
This isn’t the first time Reynolds has been mentioned in filings or conversations around the increasingly bitter dispute between Lively and Baldoni over what went on during and after the making of the domestic abuse film based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel. A-lister leading man Reynolds has made plenty of cameos in almost all of the suits. Now, in a classic distraction tactic, he’s the star attraction.
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Looking to scoop up all and anything related to the Reynolds and Hugh Jackman starring Deadpool & Wolverine, which saw a masked cameo by Lively as Ladypool, the five-page correspondence from the pugilistic Bryan Freedman wants to leave no rock, smartphone, contract, ““Blackberry devices,” paperwork, or floppy disc unturned.
Not a lawsuit but certainly an indication of one to come, the shot across the bow letter also tosses a grenade into the already explosive and multi-lawsuit situation.
Almost buried among the demands on Disney/Marvel from Baldoni’s side, there’s an ask for “all documents and communications relating to complaints of sexual or other harassment asserted against Ryan Reynolds by any person.”
WTF?
Though Lively cites numerous instances of alleged sexual harassment, body shaming and more by Baldoni during the 2023 production of It Ends With Us in her own legal action, there has never been zero indication of any such behavior by her blockbuster hubby – and this innuendo leaning letter offers nothing to substantiate such accusations. There is also a hope to haul director Tim Miller, who helmed the first Deadpool movie and was reported to have had friction with Reynolds, into the ever expanding Lively vs Baldoni saga.
All that clickbait aside, in this clearly not-so-nice letter, the real guts is all about the character of Nicepool, the longhaired duplicitous empathic version of Deadpool that shows up about halfway through the $1 billion and more earning superhero flick.
Among the bullet point demands in the letter to Iger (who is currently running Disney’s response to the LA wildfires and the losses suffered by staffers out of a hotel due to his own evacuation I hear) and perpetual baseball cap wearing Feige are some very clear words about how unkind Baldoni feels he has been treated by Reynolds in the third Deadpool flick.
“I don’t think you can say that,” says Reynolds Deadpool to Reynolds’ Nicepool at one point in the movie after the latter has remarked on how the “gorgeous” Ladypool “just had a baby too, and you can’t even tell. With not an announce of self-awareness, Nicepool quips: “That’s okay, I identify as a feminist.”
To that, the letter asks Disney to preserve for a possible lawsuit:
- Any and all documents relating to the development of the “Nicepool” character in Deadpool & Wolverine, including without limitation all documents and communications relating to the development, writing, and filming of storylines and scenes featuring “Nicepool’
- Any and all documents relating to or reflecting any deliberate attempt to link the character of “Nicepool” to Justin Baldoni
- Any and all documents relating to or reflecting a deliberate attempt to mock, harass, ridicule, intimidate, or bully Baldoni through the character of “Nicepool”
“There’s no question it relates to Justin,” Freedman told pal and client Megyn Kelly earlier this month, before the Sanrta Ana winds and the terrifying blazes tore through LA. “I mean, anybody that watched that hair bun — if somebody is seriously sexually harassed, you don’t make fun of it. It’s a serious issue.”
Now, with most Hollywood business on hold because of the January 8 starting fires, which left Freedman’s own home in ashes among thousands of others in the Palisades and elsewhere in LA County, there has been no legal action against either the still WME repped Lively or Reynolds by Baldoni, his PR team of Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel or others named in the Gossip Girl’s December 20 complaint to California’s Civil Rights department that brought this not so secret IEWU tension to the surface.
Of course, Lively did launch a formal sexual harassment and retaliation suit against Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios, Nathan, Abel and others on New Year’s Eve. That was the very same day that Baldoni and gang went after the New York Times for $250 million with accusations that the Gray Lady cherry-picked text seemingly derogatory message and more for the Jane the Virgin alum’s Crisis PR team in a well-researched December 21 article on Lively’s CRD filing.
As a sideshow of sorts there’s also the Christmas Even defamation and breach of contract action from Stephanie Jones, the head of Baldoni’s old PR firm, in New York state court against Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios and publicists Nathan and Abel.
As of now, no one’s really talking about this latest missive. Freedman gets a pass because of his loss from the fires Lively’s team did not respond to request for comment on the letter to Disney went contacted by Deadline. Folks over at Disney and Marvel also were nowhere to be found on this when we sought to contact them.
If either Disney or Lively’s reps respond, this post will be updated.
In the meantime, be safe, the winds are expected to pick up again for the next day or so – and play nice.
Variety was first to report the news of the letter to Disney. Seems someone over in Team Baldoni likes to play ball with them.
The post Not So Nice Justin! Ryan Reynolds Dragged Deeper Into Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni Battle With Looming Litigation Letter Sent To Disney Over ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’s Nicepool appeared first on Deadline.
