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(NewsNation) — Blake Lively is up against a wall, facing several lawsuits stemming from the movie “It Ends With Us,” but her real issue may be that Hollywood is loath to work with litigious actresses who cause them to go over budget.
“No one wants to work with Blake,” my Hollywood insider said. “She cost (producer) Wayfarer and Sony (the distributor of ‘It Ends With Us’) millions and blew past budgets with her demands and actions.”
The “demands” and “actions” are detailed in the $400 million defamation lawsuit (and corresponding website) Justin Baldoni, who produced, directed and co-starred in “It Ends With Us,’ filed against Lively.
On the website for Baldoni’s lawsuit, which not only has accusations but proof and receipts to back up his claims, it is said that Lively went $450,000 over budget in the wardrobe.
In addition, Baldoni claims Lively held up production on several occasions (which costs millions), and a producer that Lively hired quit once and had to be rehired at “three times” his original salary to be coaxed back onto the project.
That producer, sources tell me, is the Oscar-nominated producer Todd Black, who helmed “Antoine Fisher” and “Fences.” Black is said to have been the producer who witnessed Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, tear into Baldoni during a meeting.
Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni lawsuit
According to the lawsuit, “one of the film’s producers who was present said that in his 40-year career he had never seen anyone speak to someone like that in a meeting, [while] the Sony representative mentioned that she would often think of that meeting and her one regret is that she didn’t stop Reynolds’ berating of Baldoni.”
I’m hearing Black actually quit the movie after that meeting — and was only lured back after his salary was tripled, costing Sony and Wayfarer even more money.
An email to Black’s company wasn’t returned.
Blake Lively ‘smear campaign’
As well as blowing through budgets, my source said, “People are wary of working with someone who will drag them into lawsuits — and expose the inner workings of their business … and they really don’t like it when people try to take over a movie.”
According to Baldoni’s lawsuit, Lively embarked on a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign of her own and used false “sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production.”
“Blake begged for that role,” my insider said. “And when she got in, she then demanded a producer role and took control of the movie.”
Disney is also likely to be dragged into the legal battle as Baldoni’s lawyers are asking for documents on how Reynolds developed “Nicepool,” the character in “Deadpool & Wolverine” (produced by Marvel and Disney) that seemingly mocks Baldoni.
In addition, other actors are wary of working with someone who has mixed reviews from her peers — and may get them fired from their agency (Baldoni claims he was fired from his agency WME at the behest of Lively and Reynolds, a claim WME denies).
In a statement, the WME responded, saying, “This is factually incorrect. Ryan never pressured Patrick to drop Justin as a client nor was Patrick involved in the decision to drop Justin as a client in December.”
Blake Lively: Public opinion turned against her
As public opinion turned against Lively, online sleuths dug up old interviews of the actress making a cruel joke about “Gossip Girl” co-star Leighton Meester — and it was also noted how her “A Simple Favor” co-star Anna Kendrick “hated her.”
In fact, marketing material for the “A Simple Favor” sequel “Another Simple Favor” has left Lively out of all promotional material for the movie, which premieres next month. The movie’s director, Paul Feig, posted a Lively-free promo for the movie on Instagram this week — and tagged everyone but Lively in the post.
Blake Lively movies in development
According to Lively’s IMDB page, she has only three more movies either in development or pre-production (as opposed to her husband, Ryan Reynolds, who has nine projects in development). All of which is better than Baldoni, who was dropped from all his projects after Lively filed her complaint against him.
My insider said, “This is a big deal and a huge shame. If (Lively) hadn’t filed her complaint — she would have been the darling of Hollywood. ‘It Ends With Us’ was a huge box office success, and offers would have poured in. Right now, it’s crickets.”
Baldoni’s lawyer didn’t return emails. WME said it was “absolutely not true” that people do not want to work with Lively.