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Judd Apatow is evidently not a fan of It Ends With Us.
The Bridesmaids director, 57, took aim at the 2024 film, which stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, at the 77th Annual Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards on Saturday, February 8, while presenting the event’s opening monologue.
Apatow’s speech also referenced the legal drama surrounding Lively, 37, and Baldoni, 41, which first arose on December 20 of last year when Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni alleging “invasive, unwelcome, unprofessional and sexually inappropriate behavior” by him on-set. (Baldoni filed his own lawsuit against Lively on January 16, 2025).
“I loved Wicked. I saw it four times in the first four days,” Apatow told the crowd at the DGAs. “It was the highest-grossing movie musical of all time. Do you know that? Usually to make that much money, you have to sue Blake Lively.”
According to People, Apatow added in his speech that there has been a large amount of attention made “over such a terrible movie.”
The ongoing legal battle between Lively and Baldoni was complicated most recently when Baldoni’s crisis PR team, specifically Jed Wallace and his company, Street Relations Inc., sued Lively earlier this month. According to legal documents obtained by Us Weekly on Wednesday, February 5, Lively was accused of including Wallace’s company in accusations made against Baldoni in December, alleging that “damage was done.”
The recent lawsuit is one of several that have been filed against Lively after her December filing. In response to the latest, Lively’s legal team provided a statement to Us, which read, “Another day, another state, another nine-figure lawsuit seeking to sue Ms. Lively “into oblivion” for speaking out against sexual harassment and retaliation. This is not just a publicity stunt—it is transparent retaliation in response to allegations contained within a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint that Ms. Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department. While this lawsuit will be dismissed, we are pleased that Mr. Wallace has finally emerged from the shadows, and that he too will be held accountable in federal court.”
Lively’s initial lawsuit was filed after months of a reported rift between Lively and Baldoni. According to the first lawsuit, obtained by TMZ and The New York Times, and further reported on by The New York Times, Baldoni’s alleged behavior caused Lively “severe emotional distress.”
The lawsuit alleged that there was a meeting conducted to address Lively’s claims that there was a “hostile work environment” on set. The meeting was attended by numerous people, including Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, called the allegations “categorically false” at the time. However, Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, was dropped by talent agency WME, which also represents Lively and Reynolds, 48. Two days later, the cohost of Baldoni’s feminist “Man Enough Podcast” left the show.
On New Year’s Eve, Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times, reporting that the outlet “cherry-picked” and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.”
A few weeks later, Baldoni filed a federal lawsuit accusing Lively, Reynolds and their publicist of defamation, claiming the power couple steamrolled him while filming It Ends With Us and that Lively plotted to destroy his career.
