The Moment
We finally got the receipts on one of Hollywood’s most self-branded nice cliques, and they are not pretty. Unsealed documents from the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni legal fight over their film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us dropped this week, and buried in the legalese are pages of texts and emails that read like a lost season of a very expensive teen drama.
According to those filings, as reported by a U.K. tabloid columnist, Blake Lively texts Taylor Swift about her director and co-star Justin Baldoni as a ‘doofus’ and a ‘clown,’ asking Swift to come by and help her handle him. Swift replies with some version of: she will do anything for Blake. Later, Lively gushes over Swift for supposedly spinning stories about camera lenses during a meeting, calling her ‘heroic’ and ‘the greatest friend ever.’
The documents also include Lively emailing Ben Affleck, who directed her in the 2010 film The Town, asking him to look at her cut of It Ends With Us after a reported power struggle with Baldoni over the movie. She flatters Affleck, name-drops husband Ryan Reynolds’s admiration for him (including his work in a fast-food coffee commercial), and even asks if Jennifer Lopez might weigh in. In a separate group chat, Matt Damon and his wife Luciana reportedly tell Lively they will help however they can and invite her to direct a future project at Artists Equity, the company Damon co-founded with Affleck.
Oh, and Hugh Jackman, once loudly marketed as Ryan Reynolds’s best buddy, is now being described by some outlets as keeping his distance while all this plays out. The group chat vibes have shifted, to put it mildly.
The Take
I am not shocked the rich and famous complain about co-workers in private. I am, however, a little stunned at just how high-school this all sounds on paper. For years, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have sold us the playful marriage, the cheeky social media banter, the ‘we are just like you, only prettier’ shtick. Taylor Swift built an empire on vulnerability, sisterhood, and ‘my friends are my chosen family’ messaging.
Now, in black and white, their behind-the-scenes tone around a colleague reads less like wise, seasoned adults and more like the popular table laughing about the theater kid who dared sit down. Baldoni is mocked as a clown and a doofus; Swift is cast as Blake’s secret weapon, swooping in to dazzle and disarm. Affleck and Damon, whether they meant to or not, end up looking like the guidance counselors the cool girls call when they want the principal on their side.
Here is the uncomfortable part: a lot of us talk like this in private. We vent about bosses, co-workers, and that one person who makes the group project unbearable. The difference is that our worst texts do not usually get labeled as exhibits and dropped into a public court file. So I am not clutching pearls over celebrity group chats existing. I am looking at the gap between the brand and the behavior.
Swift’s public image is all about championing women, fighting the ‘mean girl’ narrative, and standing up for the underdog. Lively and Reynolds have leaned hard into being the funny, self-aware couple who punch up, not down. When the curtain gets yanked back and the banter is aimed at a co-worker trying to make a movie, it hits different. It is like walking into a motivational seminar and finding out the life coach has been subtweeting their staff all year.
The real damage here is not legal; it is reputational. Hollywood will forgive feuds. It is less forgiving when the emails make everyone else in town wonder, ‘What have they said about me in that group text?’ If you are a director, screenwriter, or co-star, are you racing to sign up for the next Lively-Reynolds production after reading this? Or are you quietly hitting mute?
Receipts
Shocking leaked texts have revealed fresh details in Blake Lively’s legal drama with her former director Justin Baldoni. Full story: https://t.co/fkHmypqBkk pic.twitter.com/rNdAHmSivp
— news.com.au (@newscomauHQ) January 24, 2026
- Confirmed (via court filings and multiple news summaries): Recent unsealed documents in the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni legal dispute over the It Ends With Us film include text messages where Lively refers to Baldoni as a ‘doofus’ director and a ‘clown’ while texting Taylor Swift, asking her to come by a meeting and help deal with him. Swift replies in strongly supportive language, offering to help. Lively later sends admiring messages to Swift about how she handled the meeting and calls her an extraordinary friend. The filings also include an email from Lively to Ben Affleck asking him to review her preferred cut of the film, heavy on flattery and references to Ryan Reynolds’s admiration. Separate text exchanges show Matt Damon telling Lively he and his wife will help however they can and inviting her to direct a future movie with Artists Equity.
- Unverified or reported interpretation: Claims that Hugh Jackman is intentionally distancing himself from Reynolds, that Lively and Reynolds are permanently ‘done’ in the court of public opinion, or that Affleck and Damon have rescinded any informal offers are commentary and speculation in the celebrity press, not confirmed by public statements or legal documents from the people involved.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
If you are not on BookTok, here is the crash course. Colleen Hoover is a mega-selling romance and contemporary fiction author; her novel It Ends With Us became a juggernaut thanks in part to social media. Actor-director Justin Baldoni, best known for starring in the series Jane the Virgin, bought the rights to adapt the book (and, reportedly, related works) for film. Blake Lively later signed on as the lead and producer, with Baldoni directing and co-starring. That is a lot of creative power under one roof, and tensions over control and vision eventually spilled into court, where these texts surfaced.
Meanwhile, Blake Lively is married to actor Ryan Reynolds, of superhero and snarky-ad-campaign fame. The two are close friends with Taylor Swift, who has been photographed with them at everything from Fourth of July parties to NFL games during her much-discussed relationship with football star Travis Kelce. Add Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Jennifer Lopez to that call sheet, and you are looking at one of the densest clusters of A-list connections in modern Hollywood.
What’s Next
From here, a few things matter. First, the legal case itself: more filings could drop, bringing even more private conversations into public view. Every new document is a potential screenshot waiting to happen. Second, the movie. Whether this iteration of It Ends With Us ever fully sees the light of day or not, its story is now welded to this behind-the-scenes drama. Even if audiences love the final cut, people will be watching with these texts in the back of their minds.
Third, the image rehab. Swift, Lively, and Reynolds have all built careers on being not just talented but likable. Do they ignore the leaks and hope the news cycle moves on, or does someone eventually sit down and say, ‘Yes, we vented, yes, it looks bad, here is what we learned’? A simple acknowledgment that colleagues deserve better than being mocked in group chats might go a long way with fans who value authenticity over perfection.
Hollywood at large should be paying attention too. The era of emails and texts living forever is not new, but the speed at which private snark turns into public narrative keeps accelerating. Studios, streamers, and A-listers may start thinking twice about slang-filled threads that could one day sit in a courtroom, ready for the rest of us to read over coffee.
Sources
- Unsealed court documents filed in the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni dispute over the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us, released in January 2026.
- Column by Maureen Callahan published January 26, 2026, in the U.S. edition of a U.K. tabloid, summarizing and quoting from those filings.
Where do you land on this leak: normal private venting that should have stayed private, or a genuine red flag about how this Hollywood circle treats the people they work with?
Comments