Hollywood's ongoing legal battle between It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni and actress Blake Lively took another turn as talent agency executive Ari Emanuel defended Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, while confirming that he personally fired Baldoni from WME's client roster.
Speaking at a live taping of the Freakonomics podcast in Los Angeles on February 13, Emanuel addressed the high-profile lawsuit between the former co-stars and business partners. "I fired him," Emanuel said bluntly, adding, "I am a ride-or-die." He characterized Lively and Reynolds as "good people who have been in the business for decades and have never had any bad press about them."
Baldoni, 41, was dropped by WME in December 2024, shortly after Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit against him and his co-producer, Jamey Heath, accusing them of sexual harassment and orchestrating a social media campaign to tarnish her reputation. Heath, the CEO of Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios, was also named in the complaint.
Emanuel, the chief executive of WME's parent company, Endeavor, dismissed Baldoni's defense and questioned his response to the allegations. "If what is alleged in her lawsuit [and] what happened on social media is true, just because she complained to the studio that things were unhealthy on the set, and that he was director and this man was the producer, and they did to her what is being alleged, they're really bad people," Emanuel said.
The lawsuit has escalated into a high-profile legal battle, with Baldoni filing a $400 million defamation countersuit against Lively, Reynolds, and publicist Leslie Sloane in January. The lawsuit alleges extortion, defamation, and reputational damage.
Baldoni's legal team has pushed back aggressively, launching a website that links to court documents related to his case. The move prompted Lively's attorneys to request a gag order, arguing that Baldoni was attempting to litigate the case in public. A judge recently warned both sides to refrain from making public statements, though no official gag order has been issued.
Emanuel criticized Baldoni's use of social media as part of his defense, stating, "Social media is a really good thing at times because it lets stars connect with their fans, but these two guys used it in an evil way, if that's true." He urged Baldoni and Heath to stop their public efforts to defend themselves, saying, "If they think they're innocent, they should let the process play itself out."
Lively and Baldoni's legal battle is set for a civil trial on March 9, 2026, after both legal teams argued that settlement talks would be "inappropriate" and "premature." The case has captivated the entertainment industry, given the reputations of those involved and the serious nature of the allegations.
Emanuel doubled down on his support for Lively and Reynolds, citing their longstanding reputations in Hollywood. "They are charitable-we help them with their foundation [and] they've given tons of money away," he said. "People work with them, they've never had any bad mojo out there or treated people badly."
