Blake Lively claimed Colleen Hoover was “reluctant” to hire a man to direct the film adaptation of It Ends With Us, before eventually agreeing to let Justin Baldoni take the helm.
In documents seen by Us Weekly on Thursday, December 4, Lively, 38, and her legal team argued that Hoover, 45, originally planned for a woman to direct the movie.
As part of their argument that Baldoni, 41, and his production company Wayfarer “curated a misleading feminist brand,” Lively’s legal team alleged that, “Hoover was reluctant to option the Film to a man, but agreed to sell the rights to Wayfarer.”
The documents also claimed that before Baldoni was on board, “Hoover explicitly requested that a woman direct the Film.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Baldoni, Lively and Hoover’s representatives for comment.
The legal back-and-forth between Lively and Baldoni began in December 2024, when Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment. At the time, she claimed his alleged behavior on set of the film caused her “severe emotional distress.”
In response, Baldoni’s lawyer claimed that the accusations were “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” and further alleged that Lively filed the suit to “fix her negative reputation” and “rehash a narrative” about the film’s production. Baldoni went on to file his own lawsuit against Lively in January, which was later dismissed in June.
A trial is tentatively scheduled to begin in March 2026.
Hoover recently broke her silence on the legal drama between the former It Ends With Us costars in an interview with Elle.
Justin Baldoni. (Photo by John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images)
“It feels like a circus,” Hoover told Elle in an interview published on November 20. “When there are real people involved, with real feelings and emotions.”
Hoover, who was preparing to give a deposition within a few weeks at the time that the interview was conducted, also called the drama “sad.”
She added that she felt the legal issues had overshadowed the story’s core theme of domestic violence and female empowerment, which was inspired by a real-life story close to her heart.
“The book was inspired by [my mother’s] story, and now it gives us PTSD to think about it,” Hoover said. “I feel awful because I almost feel like she’s gone through more with the aftermath of this film, more pain than she went through with my dad, just seeing the ugliness of it.”
Cindy Ord/Getty Images It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover has returned to Instagram after deactivating her account amid the ongoing legal drama between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Hoover, 45, left the social media platform in late January. Lively, 37, and Baldoni, 41, first clashed on the set of the film adaptation of Hoover’s […]
Hoover continued: “I can’t even recommend it anymore. I feel like [the lawsuit] has overshadowed it. I’m almost embarrassed to say I wrote it. When people ask what I do, I’m just like, ‘I’m a writer. Please don’t ask me what I wrote.’”
When Lively initially accused Baldoni of sexual harassment in December 2024, the author praised the actress via a social media post.
“Blake Lively you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met,” Hoover wrote via an Instagram post shortly after the news broke. “Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
However, she then deleted her Instagram account and kept mostly tight-lipped about the saga until the Elle interview.
