{"id":68946,"date":"2025-04-11T02:14:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T06:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/?p=68946"},"modified":"2025-04-30T02:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T06:15:10","slug":"brandon-sklenar-steps-back-from-blake-lively-justin-baldoni-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/brandon-sklenar-steps-back-from-blake-lively-justin-baldoni-drama\/68946\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Sklenar Steps Back from Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" data-start=\"188\" data-end=\"475\"><em data-start=\"188\" data-end=\"205\">It Ends With Us<\/em> actor Brandon Sklenar is stepping back from the growing legal battle between his co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. While he once seemed to publicly support Lively, the actor is now choosing to keep things neutral and focus on the bigger message behind the film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"477\" data-end=\"730\">Sklenar was recently spotted at an airport, where he addressed the situation briefly, encouraging everyone to \u201clead with love and compassion.\u201d His calm, diplomatic response stands in contrast to the heated legal war unfolding between Lively and Baldoni.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"732\" data-end=\"1264\">Back in December 2024, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni\u2014who also directed the film\u2014accusing him of sexual harassment on set and claiming he attempted to ruin her reputation. Baldoni strongly denied the allegations and hit back with a massive $400 million lawsuit of his own. He accused Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and her longtime publicist Leslie Sloane of defamation and extortion. He also sued <em data-start=\"1142\" data-end=\"1162\">The New York Times<\/em> for publishing Lively\u2019s side of the story. The newspaper has said it will fight the lawsuit in court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1266\" data-end=\"1670\">Sklenar, 34, had initially appeared to take Lively\u2019s side, sharing the <em data-start=\"1337\" data-end=\"1353\">New York Times<\/em> article about the case on Instagram with a message urging fans to read it. But as the situation intensified, he seemed to pull back. During a February 2025 interview on <em data-start=\"1523\" data-end=\"1537\">CBS Mornings<\/em>, when asked whose side he was on, he smiled and replied, \u201cI\u2019m Team <em data-start=\"1605\" data-end=\"1622\">It Ends With Us<\/em>,\u201d avoiding any direct support for either party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1672\" data-end=\"1958\">At the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscars party, Sklenar reflected on the controversy, calling it \u201ca tough situation\u201d and reminding people that the movie\u2019s core message is about love, healing, and supporting women\u2014especially those dealing with domestic abuse, which is a central theme of the film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1960\" data-end=\"2185\">In a later interview with <em data-start=\"1986\" data-end=\"2010\">The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>, he expanded on that idea, saying, \u201cThis movie has helped so many people. That\u2019s what matters to me. It\u2019s about love, it\u2019s about helping women, and that\u2019s where my focus is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2187\" data-end=\"2431\">While Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are set to face each other in court in March 2026, Sklenar is clearly staying out of the legal crossfire, instead choosing to stand behind the film\u2019s message and calling for kindness during difficult times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It Ends With Us actor Brandon Sklenar is stepping back from the growing legal battle between his co-stars Blake Lively\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":68947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[26274],"class_list":["post-68946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-news","tag-brandon-sklenar"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}