In December, Lively initiated a lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a ‘social manipulation’ campaign against her.
The lawsuit details various allegations of sexual misconduct and a toxic work environment, which reportedly caused significant emotional distress for Lively, a mother of four.
The 37-year-old actress alleges that Baldoni attempted to insert ‘improvised gratuitous sexual content and/or scenes involving nudity into the film.’ She also claims he made comments about her appearance, reportedly complaining for hours in her dressing room because he felt she didn’t look ‘hot’ enough.
A meeting involving Lively, Baldoni, producers, and Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, was held during the filming process.
Following the completion of filming, Lively’s legal complaint asserts that Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios sought to tarnish her reputation through ‘social manipulation,’ employing the same crisis communications team led by Melissa Nathan that worked with Johnny Depp during his defamation trial with Amber Heard.
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, dismissed Lively’s accusations as ‘intentionally salacious’ and labeled her lawsuit as ‘another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation.’
The attorney further claimed that Lively had ‘threatened’ not to participate in promotional activities for the film, while noting that the agency group was operating under threat from two influential individuals.
On New Year’s Eve, Lively filed a federal complaint, alleging that her decision to speak out had resulted in further retaliation and attacks.
Lively had previously discussed her legal proceedings in an article with the New York Times, which Baldoni is now suing for libel and false light invasion of privacy.
The controversy has drawn attention to Deadpool & Wolverine, with fans speculating that Reynolds may have mocked Baldoni.
In a particular scene, Deadpool and Wolverine encounter a ‘variant’ of Deadpool named Nicepool, who sports a man bun—a hairstyle Baldoni has been known to wear.
Nicepool then remarks on Ladypool, portrayed by Lively, stating: “Oh my goodness, wait until you’ve seen Ladypool. She is gorgeous. She just had a baby too and [you] can’t even tell.”
Reynolds’ character defends his comment, saying: “That’s ok. I identify as a feminist.”
Baldoni has often identified as a feminist, from his 2017 TED talk where he spoke about ‘amplifying the voices of women around the world’ to an article in Romper where he described himself as a ‘feminist dad.’
In another scene, Deadpool chastises the supervillain Cassandra Nova, asking ‘And where in God’s name is the intimacy coordinator?’
Reynolds not only wrote the script for Deadpool & Wolverine but the film wrapped up filming just five months after he supported Lively during the It Ends With Us meeting.
Lively had also recently given birth to their fourth child prior to filming and had accused Baldoni of making body-shaming comments and failing to provide an ‘intimacy coordinator’ on set in her legal complaint.
Representatives for Reynolds and Baldoni have yet to comment on the situation.