Originally appeared on E! Online
Blake Lively is not thrilled about a magazine cover illustration depicting her and Ryan Reynolds’ legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
After the Hollywood Reporter released its Feb. 21 cover story, “Blake vs. Baldoni: An Exclusive Look Behind the Battle Lines of Hollywood’s Uncivil War,” with a David & Goliath-like graphic showing the actress appearing to aim a slingshot armed with a cellphone at her “It Ends With Us” director and costar, she issued a statement condemning the image.
“The Hollywood Reporter should be ashamed of itself,” Lively’s rep said in a statement to E! News Feb. 22. “The framing in this picture is outrageously insulting as it plays into every sexist trope about women who dare file a workplace complaint, turning them into the aggressor, and suggesting they deserve the retaliation that comes their way.”
The Hollywood Reporter also featured on its cover illustrations of Reynolds as his Nicepool character in “Deadpool & Wolverine” — which Baldoni’s legal team alleges in their filing is based on the director — and the “Jane the Virgin” alum’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman.
E! News has reached out to the outlet and Baldoni’s reps for comment and has not heard back.
READ Justin Baldoni’s Lawyer Reacts to Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ SNL Appearance
The Hollywood Reporter’s cover story alleges that the legal battle “has been framed as the newest chapter in Hollywood’s ongoing fight for gender equality” but also raises “another possibility, one that has less to do with gender equality than it does a simple cultural misunderstanding.”
The outlet noted that it had “interviewed multiple friends and former colleagues of Baldoni, along with members of the Baha’i community, to piece together if and how this religion might have inadvertently contributed to the situation.”
Lively’s rep said in the statement that “the story is extremely offensive as it incredibly seems to explain away documented examples of sexual harassment and retaliation by calling them ‘cultural misunderstandings.'”
Lively had sued Baldoni in December, alleging that she and other “It Ends With Us” cast and crew members experienced “sexually inappropriate” and other unwelcome behavior by the director on the set of the 2024 movie. She also alleged that he retaliated against her by working with a crisis PR team to try to destroy her reputation.
Through his lawyer, Baldoni denied the allegations and in January, he filed a $400 million countersuit against the actress and Reynolds for extortion, defamation, and other alleged wrongdoing, alleging that it was her team that “carefully planned and implemented a vile smear campaign” against him.
On Feb. 19, Lively filed an amended complaint in which she alleged she “was not alone in complaining about Mr. Baldoni,” that her and others’ alleged experiences “were documented at the time they occurred, starting in May of 2023” and that the director “acknowledged the complaints in writing at the time.” E! News reached out to Baldoni for comment and has not heard back.
