Blake Lively claims she stole rough cut of It Ends With Us to screen without studio permission in now-viral video

A resurfaced video of Blake Lively shows her claiming to have stolen a rough cut of the It Ends With Us film to screen at Colleen Hoover’s Book Bonanza last year.

In footage, taken at the book festival, the actress, 37, teased that she would show an unfinished version of the movie, seemingly without permission from Wayfarer, which was cofounded by Justin Baldoni, or Sony. 

While speaking to the crowd of more than 2,000 in Grapevine, Texas about the movie, Lively says: ‘This is not a bit, it’s literally not done.’ 

She continues: ‘To be honest, what really happened is we were like, “We’re going to show the movie,” and the studio was like, “No, no, you’re going to show 20 minutes.” We’re like, “No, we’re going to show the movie,” and they’re like, “It’s not done.” And I was like, “They don’t f**ing care.”‘

‘They were like, “If everything’s not perfect and it’s not done and what if we’re going to change things…,”‘ Lively told the crowd. ‘I was like, “These are the people who authored the success of the book.” You guys are what matter, you guys seeing the movie is so important to us.’ 

Hoover, who write the It Ends With Us book, chimed in to say they would be showing the audience ‘an early, early cut.’ 

‘We’re so excited,’ the author added. ‘You know, bussing 2,000 people to a movie theater sounds like a chaotic nightmare, so I just need you all to be excited and patient. This is a huge honor. We want it to go well.’ 

Lively, then, alleged that she ‘literally brought the movie on an airplane’ via a ‘folder and a disc’ on a hard drive. 

The Gossip Girl star went on to start talking about her plans to wear the ‘cutest jeans’ to the screening. 

‘Not sponsored, but they’re really, really cute and they’ve got flowers on them and they’re cut out. Colleen saw my jeans and she was inspired ‘cause she loves me and she [also] got these cute flower jeans. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to be jean influencers. 

Under the now-viral footage of Lively’s speech, uploaded to digital creator Katie Paulson’s Instagram over the weekend, social media users were quick to reflect on her remarks, made months before accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment.

‘Why isn’t Sony suing her over this?’ one asked. 

Another wrote: ‘Seriously, she did what she wanted and did not respect anyone. I would have fired her in a second. Rather shoot the whole movie again without her and let her pay the damage she caused.’ 

‘Colleen doesn’t look comfortable!!!’ a third pointed out.  

A fourth fired: ‘Blake lively NEVER rubbed me the right way- always entitled and meandering in interviews!’ 

‘Who do you think you are? You don’t own the rights, you aren’t the producer, and you aren’t the director. Stop pretending it’s YOUR movie,’ another Instagram user asked. 

It is unknown if Lively ultimately got the greenlight to show the film in advance or she was joking about giving the public an early look, despite being explicitly warned not to.  

DailyMail.com has reached out for Lively’s rep for comment.  

In December 2024, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, in which she alleges he sexually harassed her and fostered a hostile work environment on the set of It Ends With Us. 

On Saturday, Baldoni launched his own website dedicated to defending himself against Lively’s sexual harassment allegations. 

In an attempt to share his side of the story, the actor, 41, who is seeking to offer transparency to the public amid his legal battle, shared a website containing his amended complaint and a timeline of relevant events related to the case.

The decision to publish the site comes after the star amended his $400 million suit accusing Lively of giving The New York Times advance access to her sexual harassment complaint.

Baldoni referenced Lively’s appearance at Book Bonanza in his amended lawsuit. 

On Page 87, he alleged that she screened her own cut of their film ‘at Book Bonanza, Colleen Hoover’s annual convention hosting authors and fans from around the world, an event that Baldoni had long been excited to attend.’ 

Ultimately, the star says he was ‘not even allowed to review the final cut before it was shown to the world.’ 

On Friday, Baldoni attorney, Bryan Freedman, told DailyMail.com that Baldoni chose to amend his lawsuit due ‘to the overwhelming amount of new proof that has come to light.’

Despite wanting to attend the event, the actor claims ‘Sony made it known to Wayfarer that, per Lively, Baldoni could not attend, notwithstanding the obvious promotional and PR risks.’ 

‘This fresh evidence corroborates what we knew all along, that due to purely egotistical reasons Ms. Lively and her entire team colluded for months to destroy reputations through a complex web of lies, false accusations and the manipulation of illicitly received communications,’ Freedman continued.

He concluded: ‘The ongoing public interest in this case online has ironically shed light on the undeniable facts pertaining to The New York Times and how heavily Ms. Lively and her representatives were not only deeply involved in the attempted take down and smear campaign of Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and their teams but that they themselves initiated it.’

Earlier this month, in a filing DailyMail.com, obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, it was reported that Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, were doubling down on their efforts to gag Baldoni and his lawyers.

In a letter to the judge presiding over the case on Monday, the couple’s attorney urgently requested a conference to highlight their ‘growing concerns’ over what they describe as Freedman’s alleged ‘extrajudicial misconduct’.

The filing cites Freedman’s recent media appearances as well as a report of a new website being created by Baldoni’s team to ‘strategically release selected documents and communications’ between the two feuding co-stars.

The report, published by the Daily Mail last week, revealed Baldoni’s lawyers are in the process of building a website on the case that will allow anyone to see numerous snippets of unedited footage from the film, including anything which ‘speaks to’ Lively’s original complaint about the actor.

Freedman has publicly warned: ‘We have all the receipts – and more.’

But the couple’s attorney Michael Gottlieb has claimed the website and Freedman’s public comments are part of a campaign to ‘influence proceedings and the public perception’ of the case with ‘inflammatory content’.

‘He further has made it clear that his priority is to “torpedo Blake Lively’s career for good” by, among other things, creating a website to release strategically selected documents and communications between Ms. Lively and Mr. Baldoni,’ Gottlieb states in the letter.

‘The planned website will release what Mr. Freedman self-servingly proclaims will be “full unedited WhatsApp, text and email exchanges between Lively and Baldoni,” although neither the media nor public will have any way of knowing which communications Mr. Freedman has selectively omitted from disclosure, including communications that Mr. Freedman and his clients may have deleted.’

Gottlieb goes on to argue that the website will ‘presumably not include’ communications that Freedman and Baldoni have had with media sources, meaning it will be ‘incomplete, biased, and prejudicial by design’.

He also claims Freedman’s ‘efforts to spin’ Lively’s request for a gag order as an attempt to silence them out of fear, in a bid to ‘impugn’ her character.

A source familiar with case claimed that the website will promote transparency in the case and denied it would contain selective material.

‘There is nothing that will be selective on the website. The aim here is to do the exact opposite of what they did – to not be selective, to not cherry pick, and to not doctor text messages which they did when they gave them to the New York Times,’ the source told DailyMail.com on Monday.

Lively and Baldoni’s feud first emerged in rumors of discord on the set of the domestic abuse drama that heated up during the promotional campaign that accompanied its release last August.

According to Baldoni, the bitterness between the film’s two stars was so bad he and his family were banished to a cinema basement for the premiere on Lively’s orders.