Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds will not be appearing at the 2025 Golden Globes on Sunday, despite the latter's film being nominated.
Deadline first reported the news that the celebrity couple will sit this one out, along with Hugh Jackman, who stars alongside Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine. The Marvel film was nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of cinematic and box office achievement after it grossed more than $1.33 billion worldwide.
The timing of the couple's absence from a very public event comes amid Lively's legal battle with It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni. Deadline reports that they made the decision not to attend the Golden Globes “well in advance” of the sexual harassment lawsuit and has nothing to do with the legal troubles.
Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni last month alleging on-set sexual harassment, along with launching a smear campaign against Lively during the film's promotion. The suit was reported on in full by the New York Times and since then, Baldoni has filed a $250 million suit against the newspaper, claiming they cherry-picked certain text messages, emails, and other exchanges in the report.
In a statement, the New York Times defended its reporting, writing: “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well. We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
In the original lawsuit, Lively's legal team compiled thousands of text messages and emails showing Baldoni's representatives creating a plan to “bury” Lively and increase public scrutiny against her after she accused Baldoni and It Ends With Us lead producer Jamey Heath of alleged inappropriate behavior. According to the suit, Lively took part in a meeting during production to address her claims and demands, which included: “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others," and more.
In Baldoni's lawsuit, he claims Lively created her own “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign against him, accusing her of using “false sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production.”
“The Times story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives,” Baldoni's suit reads.
Despite the box office success of It Ends With Us, including its Netflix run, it has been marred with controversy due to the rumors about an on-set feud, along with criticisms about Lively's handling of the story's domestic abuse subject matter. The film was not nominated for any Golden Globes this year.
