Blake Lively tore into The Hollywood Reporter for what her team calls its “sexist” cover image, an illustration showing the actress as the Biblical David attacking Justin Baldoni’s Goliath with a sling loaded not with a stone, but a smartphone.
The cover story, “Blake vs. Baldoni: An Exclusive Look Behind the Battle Lines of Hollywood’s Uncivil War,” was published Friday and written by Peter Kiefer. It delves deeply into Baldoni’s strong Baha’i faith, a universalist religion founded in what’s now Iran in the mid-19th century, and how its culture might have influenced the now-infamous feud.
“The Hollywood Reporter should be ashamed of itself,” a spokesperson for Lively told the Daily Mail late Friday. “The framing in this picture is outrageously insulting as it plays into every sexist trope about women who dare file a workplace complaint, turning them into the aggressor, and suggesting they deserve the retaliation that comes their way. In addition, the story is extremely offensive as it incredibly seems to explain away documented examples of sexual harassment and retaliation by calling them ‘cultural misunderstandings.’”
The background of the image shows Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds as Nicepool – whom Baldoni says was created to “bully” him – and Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s bulldog barrister. Going by Lively’s statement and reactions on X, the issue lies with the depiction of Lively as attacking Baloni while runs away with a copy of the bestselling book upon which the ill-fated romantic dramedy is based.
A spokesperson for Penske Media Corp., parent company of THR, did not immediately return a request for comment Saturday.
The bitter back-and-forth began last year with Lively’s workplace complaint filed with state regulators, but soon spiraled into the courts as competing civil lawsuits. Lively last week filed an amended complaint in a New York federal court, alleging she has corroboration for her original claims of sexual harassment and untoward behavior from two unnamed female cast members.
Lively’s breach-of-contract lawsuit, which also names Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios production company and his PR team, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, was filed New Year’s Eve within hours of Baldoni and his team suing The New York Times for $250 million over its “defamatory” reporting on Lively’s Dec. 20 sexual harassment complaint. The cases have since been consolidated and a federal judge last month scheduled a March 2026 trial date.
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