Justin Baldoni Accuses Blake Lively Of ‘Ballooning’ Budget For ‘It Ends With Us’ By Demanding Outrageous $430,000 Wardrobe

Justin Baldoni has accused Blake Lively of “ballooning” their movie’s budget and complicating production schedules.

Lively and Baldoni starred in the movie It Ends With Us, which was released earlier this year and includes serious depictions of domestic violence. While doing promo for the movie, Lively was heavily criticized for advertising the film as a light-hearted rom-com and ignoring the sensitive content.

Just before Christmas, Lively initiated a legal battle against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment. The New York Times released a story covering Lively’s legal case, which accused Baldoni of conducting a smear campaign against her.

Baldoni denied these allegations and sued Lively for $400 million in response, accusing her of using her power as a public figure to trash his movie and destroy his career. Baldoni also sued the New York Times for defamation. To support his case, Baldoni launched a website dedicated to evidence that Lively is lying about the charges.

In new legal documents added to the site, Baldoni reveals that Lively allegedly demanded such an expensive wardrobe for her character that the film’s budget “ballooned” by $430,000. The documents further accuse Lively of refusing to attend fittings at the production office and insisting her outfits be shipped to her house, complicating production and crew schedule.

The documents declared Lively was “ignoring the director’s vision for her character and disposing of the weeks of effort and creativity spent by the wardrobe team on shopping and carefully crafting her wardrobe.” The filing further stated, “Requests of this nature are typically made during contract negotiations; since Lively made no such request at the time, this added expense was not included in the budget. Lively, who had a greater obligation to the studios as an executive producer, paid no heed to budget constraints, let alone to the months of planning that had already been completed.”

Lively and Baldoni’s legal battle has instigated a massive debate across the internet reminiscent of the divide in opinion regarding Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s legal case from a few years ago.

Lively has received sizable negative publicity, with claims that she is attempting to shift the conversation and “play the victim.” However, many people have pointed out that the reaction Lively has received to her sexual harassment lawsuit is indicative of the “perfect victim” mindset, a prevalent misconception in society that victims are only deserving of sympathy and justice if they are unproblematic in other regards.