The "It Ends With Us" saga refuses to end quietly.
On Monday, a federal judge set a trial date of March 2026 for the dueling lawsuits between Blake Lively and her co-star-turned-adversary Justin Baldoni — and if you thought the headlines had peaked, the pretrial maneuvering suggests we're only getting started.
For those who somehow missed the last year of tabloid chaos: Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment on set and of orchestrating a retaliatory smear campaign against her.
Baldoni countersued for defamation and extortion, seeking a reported $400 million.
It's the rare Hollywood feud where the deposition schedule alone could fill a miniseries.
What's new is the discovery phase, and it's already messy.
Lively's team is pushing to unseal a trove of text messages and communications between Baldoni's publicity camp and crisis PR veterans — the kind of receipts that have a way of going viral one screenshot at a time.
Baldoni's lawyers, meanwhile, argue the messages are being cherry-picked to paint a narrative rather than tell the whole story.
The fashion angle here isn't incidental, by the way.
Lively's press tour wardrobe for the film — the floral Dominik gowns, the Blake Brown haircare rollout timed to the premiere — became its own cultural event, and the contrast between that glamorous rollout and the behind-the-scenes allegations is part of why this story keeps metastasizing.
Hollywood loves a beautiful surface with something roiling underneath.
There's also the Ryan Reynolds of it all.
Lively's husband has stayed publicly tight-lipped, but his name has surfaced in filings, and the internet has done what the internet does.
Every red carpet appearance by either star is now a Rorschach test.
At a recent event, Lively smiled for the cameras and said nothing.
The trial date matters because it locks everyone into a two-year grind of motions, depositions, and leaks.
Studios are watching nervously — the case has become a referendum on how power, publicity, and #MeToo-era accountability collide in the streaming age.
Agents are reportedly cautioning clients to keep their group chats clean.
For Lively, the stakes are reputational and financial.
For Baldoni, they're existential — a defamation loss could reshape his career.
It's the messiest, most watchable legal drama since the last one, with better outfits. **Our take:** Hollywood lawsuits are rarely about justice alone — they're about narrative, and both sides know it.
Final Thoughts
The one who controls the story usually wins the court of public opinion long before a verdict lands.