The murky waters surrounding the It Ends With Us (2024) sexual harassment controversy are getting murkier. On March 18, Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds asked a court to dismiss actor-director Justin Baldoni’s $400 million defamation and extortion suit against him, his actor-wife Blake Lively, the New York Times, and Vision PR’s Leslie Sloane. The Deadpool star said that Baldoni cannot sue him over “hurt feelings.”

A memorandum of law filed by Reynolds’ attorney says, “The entirety of Plaintiffs’ defamation claim appears to be based on two times that Mr Reynolds allegedly called Mr Baldoni a ‘predator.’ But, the FAC alleges no plausible facts that suggest Mr Reynolds did not believe this comment to be true.”
For context, Baldoni accused Reynolds of bullying him by satirising his “woke feminist” image through the character of Nicepool in Deadpool & Wolverine. Baldoni had sent a notice to Disney CEO Bob Iger, Marvel President Kevin Feige, and director Tim Miller on January 7, demanding they preserve documents related to the development of Nicepool.