6 key takeaways from Justin Baldoni’s new lawsuit against Blake Lively, including an apparent nod to Taylor Swift

The suit says that “even well into production, Lively had not even read the book” that the movie was based on.

“She even tried to ‘Google’ the color of her character’s hair rather than pick up the book,” a footnote in the suit says.

Baldoni wrote to his business partner, Jamey Heath, in a text message — a screenshot of which is included in the lawsuit — that he understood Lively’s reasons for not wanting to read it. The suit does not say the reason, however.

The suit says that Lively did at some point claim to have read “It Ends With Us.”

Baldoni claims Lively’s sexual harassment suit was served to Los Angeles-based defendants in the midst of wildfire evacuation orders.

The suit says: “On a day when Defendants were gathering their kids and pets, preparing ‘go bags’ and monitoring evacuation orders while fearing for their homes, Lively — from the safety of her penthouse in New York — deployed process servers in the midst of these troubling times.”

Reynolds is mentioned several times in the suit, which claims the actor referred to Baldoni as a “sexual predator” to a WME agent during the “Deadpool & Wolverine” premiere.

The suit says Reynolds later demanded that the agent drop Baldoni as a client. A WME spokesperson previously denied that Lively or Reynolds pressured the company to drop Baldoni.

The suit also suggests Lively’s attempt to seize control of “It Ends With Us” echoed a previous incident involving her husband. Reynolds is “widely reported to have insisted on taking so much control over the film ‘Deadpool 2’ that the director, Tim Miller, left the production,” the suit claims, citing a Men’s Health article from 2019.

A rep for Reynolds did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The suit describes a conflict in which Baldoni felt hesitant after Lively re-wrote a key scene in the film.

The suit says that after a meeting at Lively’s penthouse — which was attended by Reynolds and a “megacelebrity friend” — Baldoni felt he was being pressured to concede to the rewrites.

But in a text message to Lively included in the complaint, he appeared to express a more positive view of Lively’s contributions: “Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor).”

Lively is known to be close friends with Taylor Swift and they are often photographed attending events, such as the Super Bowl, together.

In response, per a text in the suit, Lively described Reynolds and the megacelebrity friend as “my most trusted partners and the people I go to first with anything creative I touch,” likening them to her “dragons” from the series “Game Of Thrones.”

Elsewhere, the suit seems to allude to Swift, saying that Lively’s decision to unfollow Baldoni on social media may have been strategic.

“Lively was leaving what she had earlier referred to as ‘crumbs,'” the suit reads, “a social media strategy she had learned from a close celebrity friend: to give fans just enough to allow them to come to their own conclusions, thereby launching an army of detectives that, on information and belief, Lively hoped would turn against Baldoni.”

A representative for Swift did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

Baldoni alleges he was permitted to attend the film’s premiere so long as he wouldn’t interact with Lively. When she arrived at the premiere, Baldoni claims he and his guests were escorted to the building’s basement by security.

“There, they were confined to a makeshift holding area surrounded by concession stand stock, with only fold-out tables and chairs arranged in a square,” the suit reads. “The irony of being held in a basement on what was arguably one of the most important nights of Baldoni’s career thus far, was not lost on anyone.”

Throughout the suit, Baldoni counters some of Lively’s previous allegations of sexual harassment, including saying that her characterization of being “mostly nude” during a birthing scene was “dishonest.” The suit says she was wearing black briefs, a pregnancy suit, and a hospital gown.

The suit also claims Lively mocked his appearance, joking that he needed a nose job. And while Lively had previously claimed Baldoni had improvised kissing during filming, Baldoni’s complaint says Lively had done the same.

“It is clear Lively was initiating unchoreographed kissing: In one take, she pulled Baldoni in and kissed him once; in another twice, and the number of kisses, entirely initiated by Lively, changed at her whim,” the suit says. “Lively demonstrated, again and again, that this was a normal and acceptable part of filming romantic scenes.”