Over the past eight months, Justin Baldoni has been the star of gossip tabloids. Starting with his box office hit “It Ends With Us” he has not been able to stay out of the public eye. The initial issue with the movie was surrounding his co-star Blake Lively. Lively came off as selfish to fans who believed she was using the movie to promote her own brands rather than bring awareness to domestic violence. Here, Baldoni was seen as the outspoken hero who was on the side of the fans. He advocated for victims’ stories to be heard and was empathetic.
Later that same year, Lively came out claiming that Baldoni had sexually harassed her during the filming of the movie. This put Baldoni in a horrible light, leading to him losing sponsorships and awards. Baldoni said that these allegations were completely false and tried to rally the fans behind him. Opinions were split and people began to take sides. This only leads to even more speculation over what truly happens.
Eventually, Baldoni pushed back against Lively and the New York Times with lawsuits. He claimed that they created a smear campaign against him intending to tarnish his name. In return, Lively opened up a suit against Baldoni. He is now currently involved in at least four lawsuits.
To add to his legal issues, Baldoni has made the bold move to sue himself and his legal team for getting him in such a predicament. He is currently suing himself for 300 million dollars in damages. He claims the damage to his reputation is irreversible. He wants to have enough to cover his past legal expenses and have additional money to pay for new counsel. He told ABC News, “It was time to teach myself a lesson and learn to keep myself out of unnecessary drama.”
His biggest motivator for suing himself was publishing the behind-the-scenes video of Lively to the public. Originally, he posted them to show that Lively’s claims were false. Now, he believes it was wrong to try and write his own narrative outside of the courtroom. He also regrets immediately attacking Lively in response to her accusations. He realizes that it was childish and only puts him in a darker light. He told MTV that he is not dropping his lawsuit against Lively, and is adamant that those claims are false. He is simply frustrated by his initial reaction to the articles.
Baldoni is suing his legal team because he believes they should have advised him to not post the video. Instead, they actually helped him find an outlet to publish it. He feels that if they were responsible lawyers, they would have never let him go through with it. This firm has not yet made an official statement to the public on how they will handle this case.
Like me, many of you may be wondering how it would even be possible to sue yourself. Baldoni’s case is special. He claims that his past self was a different man. This in turn causes the entire court case to have an abnormal process to it. The defense team can now only use past video or written evidence from Baldoni. He will not be allowed to go up on the stand as both the plaintiff and defendant. This saves him from potentially perjuring himself.
The lawsuit was enacted on February 28. This means that any videos, texts, emails etc. from before that date will be collected as evidence. The court will have a lot of information to go through to try to form a verdict on “past” Baldoni.
If he wins, some funds will come from the law firm he is suing, but a larger portion will come from his past investments. Any money he made before February 28th is eligible. He told Entertainment Television that a large portion will be coming from his crypto investments. He explained to MTV that the ultimate goal in this case is not money, but to clear his name from the “foolishness he was associated with.”
His case has a long way to go in the courtroom before any verdict will be made. Many are skeptical it will be successful. Baldoni is hopeful that his case will be an example to other celebrities to take accountability for their past.
Colin Tomczak 
Eva Whited