@kimonA judge signed off on roughly $407,000 in legal fees for Blake Lively after Justin Baldoni's defamation case against her got tossed. That's where the It Ends With Us saga landed, but the road there was wild. Rewind to 2024. Lively starred in the film, Baldoni directed it and acted opposite her. Their characters were stuck in an abusive relationship on screen. Off screen, reports said things got tense between the two during production. Then came the accusations. Lively said Baldoni behaved inappropriately and claimed that once she spoke up, a campaign meant to wreck her reputation went after her. Baldoni pushed back, denying it all, arguing her complaints were really a play to grab more creative control of the movie. From there it blew up. She sued him and his production company. He fired back with a countersuit against her, Ryan Reynolds, and others, calling it defamation and extortion. Meanwhile the movie still cleaned up at the box office even as the mess around its stars swallowed the release whole. Over a year of legal back and forth passed. Then in May 2026, just before the trial was set to start, both sides settled. No terms were made public. Later, a judge handed Lively around $407,000 in legal fees once Baldoni's defamation claim was dismissed. Two people who once shared a press tour for the same film ended up across from each other in court instead. The scariest part of this story was never the script 🎬

@kimonA judge signed off on roughly $407,000 in legal fees for Blake Lively after Justin Baldoni's defamation case against her got tossed. That's where the It Ends With Us saga landed, but the road there was wild. Rewind to 2024. Lively starred in the film, Baldoni directed it and acted opposite her. Their characters were stuck in an abusive relationship on screen. Off screen, reports said things got tense between the two during production. Then came the accusations. Lively said Baldoni behaved inappropriately and claimed that once she spoke up, a campaign meant to wreck her reputation went after her. Baldoni pushed back, denying it all, arguing her complaints were really a play to grab more creative control of the movie. From there it blew up. She sued him and his production company. He fired back with a countersuit against her, Ryan Reynolds, and others, calling it defamation and extortion. Meanwhile the movie still cleaned up at the box office even as the mess around its stars swallowed the release whole. Over a year of legal back and forth passed. Then in May 2026, just before the trial was set to start, both sides settled. No terms were made public. Later, a judge handed Lively around $407,000 in legal fees once Baldoni's defamation claim was dismissed. Two people who once shared a press tour for the same film ended up across from each other in court instead. The scariest part of this story was never the script 🎬