It Ends With Us: Justin Baldoni makes a key move in a speculative feud with Blake Lively

The alleged feud between Blake Lively and her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni has escalated.

What started as online sleuths noticing a distinct distance between Lively and Baldoni at the premiere of the romantic drama, has ramped up to Baldoni’s hiring of a crisis expert, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Baldoni has recruited PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan as the speculation of bad blood between him and Lively reached a fever pitch.

Baldoni has been hit with negative press as social media users continue to trawl for clues after he and Lively failed to pose for group photos together at the film’s New York premiere on August 6.

Adding fuel to the flame is the fact that while Baldoni follows Lively, author Colleen Hoover whose bestselling book upon which the film was adapted, and other cast members on social media, they don’t follow him back.

Those two things alone wouldn’t be evidence enough of a beef but Lively and Baldoni didn’t do any joint interviews or press conferences during the press tour, which is very unusual for a romantic drama where the studio would be keen to promote the chemistry between its leads.

Soon, unsourced leaks dribbled out, with the most damning piece being a titbit fed to The Hollywood Reporter that there had been competing edits of the film. According to those sources, Lively, who was also a producer, had commissioned her own edit of It Ends With Us from Shane Reid, who was the editor of Deadpool & Wolverine, which starred her husband, Ryan Reynolds.

However, the completed film has listed as its editors Oona Flaherty and Robb Sullivan.

Lively also revealed that Reynolds had written the film’s rooftop scene, a signature piece of the story, and added that Reynolds works on everything she does and vice versa. “I mean, he’s all over this film,” she told E News.

For his part, when Baldoni was asked by Entertainment Tonight if he would be up for directing a sequel, he told it, “I think there are better people for that one. I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct”.

There are two ways to read this comment. One is that he is genuinely supportive of giving his co-star opportunities to lead, and Lively has previously directed a music video for Taylor Swift.

The other more common reading of his comment in the context of everything else is that was Baldoni subtly shading Lively, the argument being that she perhaps tried to exert too much control over the production.

Jamey Heath, the chief executive of Baldoni’s production outfit, Wayfarer Studios, told Puck that the director and actor didn’t mean the comment the way it has been interpreted.

Further comments he gave to Elle UK didn’t help matters. He said, “It’s very challenging to act and direct, and especially with a project like this. There was a lot of pressure playing such a complex role like Ryle and, of course, as a filmmaker, you’re always navigating personalities.”

He also hinted at “friction” and things happening “every day on set”. He added, “And look, we created something so beautiful and so magical, and it was hard, and it was worth it at the same time”.

Other publications including Page Six, Daily Mail and People have published articles citing unnamed sources that Baldoni had been “difficult” on set. In response, former colleagues including Tiffany and Caleb Remington, who collaborated with Baldoni on Five Feet Apart, came to his defence and said that he was a “caring man”.

Despite — or maybe because of — the swirling feud speculation, It Ends With Us had an unexpectedly bumper opening weekend.

The movie opened to $US80 million in its first few days, well above expectations. That number included $US50 million in North America where 84 per cent of the audience were female.

In Australia, it opened to $6 million this past weekend, an impressive result for a mid-level drama with a $US25 million production budget.