{"id":385608,"date":"2026-01-23T06:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/385608\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T06:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:33:08","slug":"sony-pictures-execs-caught-bashing-blake-lively-in-court-docs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/385608\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony Pictures Execs Caught Bashing Blake Lively in Court Docs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDozens of text and email conversations from the Blake Lively<\/a> and Justin Baldoni<\/a> PR dumpster fire have become public thanks to the ongoing legal battle between the \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d star and director.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis week, global spectators read exhibits from a New York district court meant to bolster both sides in Lively\u2019s lawsuit against Baldoni for harassment and retaliation. Of particular interest to Hollywood insiders were blunt and extremely candid conversations between executives at Sony Pictures<\/a>, who co-financed and released \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d in August 2024, trying to parse the scandal that erupted when Lively came forward with accusations against Baldoni. The director and co-star mounted his own defamation case against the actress and the New York Times for a story meant to expose him.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not just that the Sony emails and texts lay bare the tough business of making a movie \u2013 and dealing with an ugly talent war \u2013 but also how eerily reminiscent these revelations are of the 2014 Sony hack. That corporate cyber-attack rated as the worst ever on U.S. soil, ended careers and caused rifts for years in show business thanks to an archive of leaked emails between executives, agents and stars.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe did it to herself,\u201d Sanford Panitch, president of the Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, wrote about Lively in August 2024. \u201c At that time, it had been revealed the Lively insisted Baldoni be banned from the red carpet of her film\u2019s New York premiere, until she had cleared the press line.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf she just let him come to the premiere, or didn\u2019t make all the cast unfollow him or kick \u2028him off the movie, and did what everyone ever has done in show business for time and\u2028memorial which is protect \u2018the show\u2019 then none of the sleuthing would have happened,\u201d observed Panitch. The \u201csleuthing\u201d refers to countless users on social platforms like TikTok spending months investigating the fallout between Baldoni, Lively and his cast.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe hair sell at the same time was epic level stupid. She wouldn\u2019t listen. She knows better,\u201d Panitch concluded, referring to Lively\u2019s decision to launch marketing activations for her haircare and alcohol products in concert with the film\u2019s release. \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d tells the story of domestic violence, and how one woman attempts to break the toxic cycle. Selling shampoo and spiked lemonade on the back of the Colleen Hoover adaptation played as vulgar and opportunistic.<\/p>\n

\n\tTom Rothman, the longest-serving studio executive in modern Hollywood and CEO at Sony Pictures, said he did not think Lively deserved the heat she got, but did write in an email that \u201c\u201dshe did bring it all on herself by refusing to listen to advice\u2028\u2026 and by selling her products.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tTahra Grant, Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for Sony Pictures Entertainment, echoed the sentiment. \u201cShe orchestrated all this drama in a totally unsavvy and amateur way\u2028(and basically threatened\u2026Sony) and now is mad it backfired on her,\u201d Grant wrote of Lively in August 2024. <\/p>\n

\n\tOne could hardly blame Sony for the post-mortem. \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d grossed a staggering $350 million at the worldwide box office on a reported $25 million budget (in court documents, executives admitted the budget ballooned closer to $55 million after reshoots and delays caused by the 2023 Hollywood guild strikes and COVID-19 outbreaks). A sequel would\u2019ve been a no-brainer for a mid-budget movie that overperformed in theaters. The catch, of course, is that Baldoni has the rights to the sequel.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe tough talk doesn\u2019t stop there. Ange Giannetti, the Sony Pictures executive overseeing \u201cIt Ends With Us,\u201d is at the center of numerous salacious exhibits in the case \u2014 which went before a New York judge on Thursday, as Baldoni filed a motion<\/a> to have Lively\u2019s case dismissed before trial. The judge delayed a ruling to take further advisement. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDeadpool himself, Lively\u2019s husband Ryan Reynolds, showed there was no love lost for Gianetti and one of her Sony colleagues, the documents show. Renyolds called the execs \u201cfucking textbook, ineffectual elderly people with no ideas or thoughtful communication skills. Just blunt instruments with six catchphrases and about 5 key words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGiannetti had some thoughts of her own. In a lengthy deposition taken by Baldoni\u2019s lawyer Bryan Freedman, she admitted to referring to Lively as a \u201cterrorist.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Sony executives are far from the only power players ensnared by this evidence dump. Taylor Swift, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper and more were wooed by Lively to endorse her cut of \u201cIt Ends With Us,\u201d after Sony agreed to consider versions from both director and star.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe New York Judge\u2019s decision to move to trial is expected in the coming days. Sony Pictures had no comment on the matter. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of text and email conversations from the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni PR dumpster fire have become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[17860,6491,96,17859,33459,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-385608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-blake-lively","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-justin-baldoni","12":"tag-sony-pictures","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}