Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively show up in matching outfits for first day of court showdown

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni came face-to-face in a New York City courthouse on Wednesday as their legal battle over ‘It Ends With Us’ continued, and it was their outfits that first caught attention.

The co-stars attended a court-ordered settlement conference to determine whether their dispute could be resolved outside of court before their scheduled May 18 trial.

In an awkward twist, both actors arrived wearing coordinated olive and pink ensembles.

Coordinated courthouse appearance turns heads

Lively, 38, stepped out in an olive-green suit paired with a pale pink collared shirt peeking through. Just moments later, Baldoni, 42, arrived in a long olive-green wool coat and a pale pink scarf - a color combination strikingly similar to his co-star’s.

The visual coincidence did not go unnoticed, especially given the tension surrounding the case.

Baldoni was seen walking hand in hand with his wife, Emily Baldoni, as they entered the courthouse. Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, did not appear to be present for the hearing.

The settlement conference is a standard procedure in federal civil litigation, aimed at determining whether both sides can reach an agreement before proceeding to trial. If no settlement is reached this week, the case is set to move forward in May.

S*xual harassment lawsuit and $400M countersuit dismissal

The legal clash began when Lively filed a lawsuit accusing Baldoni, who also directed the 2024 romance drama and the film’s producers of s*xual harassment and orchestrating a campaign to damage her reputation.

Baldoni has strongly denied all allegations.

In response, he previously filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively for extortion and defamation. However, that lawsuit was dismissed.

Last month, an attorney representing Baldoni asked a federal judge to throw out Lively’s s*xual harassment and retaliation claims, arguing that the case amounted to nothing more than “petty slights.”

Lawyers for Lively sharply pushed back on that description. They alleged that Baldoni and other defendants fostered a s*xually charged work environment during production, one that marginalized women. They also claimed that after Lively raised concerns, she was publicly attacked.

Private texts and testimonies reveal behind-the-scenes tension

The courtroom drama follows months of depositions that have exposed alleged tensions behind the scenes of ‘It Ends With Us’.

Jenny Slate, who played Baldoni’s on-screen sister in the film, described the production as “really gross and disturbing” in private text messages to Lively.

During testimony, Slate revealed she wrote about Baldoni: “I honestly have never ever encountered anything like this dude. He’s the biggest clown and the most intense narcissist. Lots of lessons learned!”

Other depositions have brought forward Lively’s text exchanges with Taylor Swift and emails to Ben Affleck, as well as communications with Sony Pictures executives.

Among the messages highlighted was an August 2024 private text exchange between Jameela Jamil and her publicist Jennifer Abel, who also represented Baldoni at the time.

The pair were reacting to criticism Lively faced during the film’s press tour, when some viewers felt her remarks were not serious enough, given the film’s domestic abuse theme.

“She’s a suicide bomber at this point,” Jamil reportedly texted. “I’ve never seen such a bizarre villain act before.”