Viewing court cases is nothing new. Televised court proceedings have been around since 1981 with “The People’s Court.” Sometimes it is a fun pastime to watch strangers argue with one another for an hour and then move on to another case or to something else. But watching court cases becomes an entirely different beast when these strangers are suddenly two well-known celebrities suing one another.  

John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard happened from April 11 to June 1, 2022. It is not like celebrities had never been in court before, but it had been some years since a celebrity case had seen coverage like this.  

In the case, Depp filed for defamation, which meant that Heard had said something that hurt his reputation and potentially cost him job opportunities because of it. He claimed that the damage caused to his reputation was worth $50 million. For example, Depp was told to leave the Fantastic Beasts franchise after an article came out, which Heard was involved in the creation of, with allegations that he was abusive towards Heard.  

Heard counterclaimed with her own defamation lawsuit and claimed $100 million in damages. In the end, the court sided more in favor of Depp while Heard had to pay around $10 million of the $50 million. Depp was found liable on one count of defamation, so Heard received $2 million of the $100 million she counterclaimed for.  

Fast forward two years, we seem to have more drama involving two celebrity actors once more, and an op-ed is the fired gun again.  

On Dec. 21, 2024, the New York Times released an article about the alleged PR campaign started by Justin Baldoni against Blake Lively.  

Baldoni and Lively’s relationship was strictly professional, with Baldoni being the director and antagonist of the film “It Ends with Us” and Lively being an actress and eventually a producer on the same movie.  

Everything seemed fine about the movie; people on the internet were a mixture of excitement and curiosity. Colleen Hoover, the author of the book of the same name, had been in some hot waters concerning her books. Lots of them portray problematic relationships and romanticize them. Since “It Ends with Us” focuses on domestic violence, people rightly had concerns about how the movie would portray the matter.  

The movie was released with massive success but mixed reviews, some people really enjoying the performances of the actors and enjoyed it for what it was. Others saw the movie as having weird pacing issues and seemed unrealistic.  

However, it is hard to say how much the drama would have impacted the reviews for the movie. I mean that before and when the movie was released, promotional material for the movie was drawing controversy towards the movie. There seemed to be something weird going on. 

Usually actors are asked to promote the movie as a way to help get people into movie theater seats. Especially when the cast are well-known actors, like Lively, having them talking about it alone could bring their entire fanbase to see the movie and get positive revenue for the movie.  

Lively chose to promote the movie with her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and other cast mates—except Baldoni. It was a weird choice since Baldoni was not only the director but also her co-star. But maybe that was part of the marketing plan. 

Fans seemed quite upset with how Lively was promoting the movie. She promoted it like it was a rom-com—like domestic violence is supposed to be cute and comedic. It is already a topic that does not get taken seriously enough.  

She said in one promotional video, “So grab your friends, grab your florals, and head out to see it.” On one side of it, it may have been smart on her part to promote it this way. Her thought process may have been that nobody would want to watch just a sad movie about domestic violence. They might need to promote it as something else to get people in seats.  

It seems to have worked initially as they have made their return on the movie. However, the reviews are very telling about the expectations of the movie. People looked back on the marketing of the movie and saw it as tone-deaf as this is a movie about domestic violence. There is very little rom-com energy about that.  

Lively did post on her Instagram an interview addressing the more serious content of the movie, but that is not what was heavily promoted to people on the internet.  

Meanwhile, Baldoni seemed to be doing his own press tour in which he talks in-depth about the issues of domestic violence and the messages he wants to put out with this movie. Baldoni received praise for his press tour, while Lively received intense backlash for hers.  

This is when Pandora’s box opened in this situation. Social media blew up and people were talking about Lively very negatively, pulling up past interviews to prove people’s negative opinions about her. 

All of this led up to the allegations of all the negativity being because Baldoni paid for a PR campaign to make Lively look bad. This eventually became a battle with both ends posting screenshots and making allegations towards one another.  

As of right now, the case will happen in court in March 2026. There is a possibility that all the publicity will make it happen sooner, but nothing more is known about the court proceedings. 

On Feb. 1, 2025, Baldoni posted a website called the lawsuitinfo.com where he wrote his side of everything. He posted the 224-page amended complaint that talks about everything Lively has done to harm Baldoni, his movie, and his career. I have read some of it, and some of the complaints say that Lively “stole” the movie, changing things in the movie without consent, pressuring Baldoni, and taking over the premiere.  

During the premiere of the movie, Lively and her fellow castmates took to the carpet and watched the movie with her friends and family. Baldoni had to go to the premiere basement with his friends and family, which he has shown photo and video evidence of on the internet.  

With all the information made available to me right now, I am learning towards Baldoni being innocent. I do not think he intentionally made a bad PR campaign against Lively. Instead, it appears that Lively may have wanted to start this to take down Baldoni and launch herself into more stardom.  

Everything seems suspicious to how she started out as just an actress starring in the movie to eventually becoming a producer. The way she slowly took control over everything. It sounded like she really wanted that producer credit. It also sounds strangely similar to what Ryan Reynolds did for Deadpool. 

There were also mentions of Taylor Swift being involved? But these are all allegations as of right now. Nothing will be officially proven until the court date when they will decide what happened with all the evidence shown.

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures