Justin Baldoni Slams Blake Lively’s ‘Ryle You Wait’ Drink at ‘It Ends With Us’ Premiere Afterparty

Among the many claims in his $400 million lawsuit, Justin Baldoni went after the allegedly “harmful and irresponsible” way that Blake Lively promoted It Ends With Us.

In court documents obtained by Us Weekly, Baldoni 40, claimed that Lively, 37, named a drink at the premiere afterparty “Ryle Can Wait.” (Baldoni played Ryle in the film, who abused Lively’s character, Lily.)

“Lively’s disastrous marketing efforts and tone-deaf press interviews and appearances backfired and led to widespread criticism of Lively’s promotional approach to the Film’s highly sensitive focus on domestic violence,” the docs state. “Past videos of Lively resurfaced online — videos that appeared to solidify public perception that Lively was an insensitive ‘mean girl’ who cared more about peddling her products than acknowledging the domestic violence survivor community. Social media commenters quickly pointed out that her tie-in of her alcohol beverages was in particularly poor taste, given the World Health Organization estimates that 55 percent of domestic violence incidents are linked to alcohol. Unbelievably, Lively made this harmful and irresponsible message worse by naming a drink at her premiere afterparty ‘Ryle You Wait.’”

“The suggestion that Wayfarer caused the online backlash against her is absurd given the evidence of her own insensitivity,” the court documents continued, denying Lively’s own claims that Baldoni and his production company attempted to tarnish her reputation.

In addition to acting in It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, Lively also served as an executive producer. Baldoni, meanwhile, was the movie’s director.

In the suit, Baldoni also repeats claims that he was uninvited to the It Ends With Us afterparty and he organized a separate bash for his team in the basement of the movie theater.

“The Wayfarer afterparty, held separately from the celebrity event and attended by crew, family, and other Wayfarer friends, was a ‘dry’ gathering, in part to acknowledge the known negative relationship between alcohol and domestic violence,” the court filing reads. “It was attended by the entire Wayfarer team from Los Angeles and their friends and family. The atmosphere and tone of the Wayfarer afterparty were aligned with Baldoni’s vision for the Film, focusing on celebration and gratitude, despite being humiliated.”

The lawsuit featured images from the gathering, in which Baldoni, wife Emily and other colleagues were posed with their to-go drink cups of nonalcoholic beverages.

News broke in December 2024 that Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment and fostering a hostile work environment on the film set, in addition to attempting to besmirch her reputation. He vehemently denied the allegations.

In his recent court documents, Baldoni further refuted Lively’s allegations by citing their different perspectives to promote the film.

“Lively’s disastrous marketing efforts and tone-deaf press interviews and appearances backfired and led to widespread criticism of Lively’s promotional approach to the Film’s highly sensitive focus on domestic violence,” the filing reads. “Past videos of Lively resurfaced online — videos that appeared to solidify public perception that Lively was an insensitive ‘mean girl’ who cared more about peddling her products than acknowledging the domestic violence survivor community. Social media commenters quickly pointed out that her tie-in of her [Betty Booze] alcohol beverages was in particularly poor taste, given the World Health Organization estimates that 55% of domestic violence incidents are linked to alcohol.”

According to Baldoni, the criticism “could have been avoided” had Lively agreed to meet with the movie’s domestic violence partner organization, nomore.org. He allegedly offered Lively the option, but she refused.

In Lively’s filing last month, she claimed that promoted the film as agreed upon.

“Ms. Lively and other cast members were under a contractual obligation to render promotional services in accordance with the Marketing Plan,” her filing reads. “The Marketing Plan directed the cast to ‘focus more on Lily’s strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence’ and to ‘avoid talking about this film that makes it feel sad or heavy [sic] — it’s a story of hope.’”

Lively later shared a list of resources on her social media pages after the film was released in August 2024.

The publicists named in Lively’s suit and Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman released separate statements on Thursday, January 16.

“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” Freedman said in the statement. “It is clear based on our own all-out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real-time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret. Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”

He continued, “Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power. Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action.  We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”

The publicists, meanwhile, noted in part: “It is devastating that we are forced to answer this viciously selfish ongoing litigation littered with documented and provable lies in the midst of the tragedy impacting California where we reside. “Five months ago, Ms. Lively chose to promote a film about domestic violence in a way that caused instant negative and organic backlash due to her own highly publicized actions. Instead of accepting responsibility, she decided to cruelly blame us. This malicious attack on private individuals by Ms. Lively and her team in which they chose to spoon-feed The New York Times with doctored, out of context and edited text messages in an effort to paint herself as a victim set off a chain of events that has been harmful beyond measure.”

Lively has not publicly addressed Baldoni’s latest claims but previously denounced similar accusations.