Insiders spill on the real reason Ryan Reynolds ditched Blake Lively on the red carpet amid Anna Kendrick beef

Thrust high in the air, a giant ‘Justice for Justin Baldoni’ placard quashed any hopes Blake Lively may have had of forgetting her legal woes for the night.

Nonetheless, the embattled actress, in a tight pink PVC coat and matching dress, slapped on her best Hollywood smile as she braved the red carpet at the premiere of her new film, Another Simple Favor, at the SXSW film festival in Los Angeles on Friday night.

It was one of just a handful of public appearances she’d made since filing a bombshell lawsuit against Baldoni, alleging sexual harassment, in December last year.

Baldoni responded with a defamation countersuit in January. Both parties deny all allegations – but since then, the PR battle has become an almighty mess.

And so, Another Simple Favor director Paul Feig and Lively’s co-star Anna Kendrick – who has reportedly found the distraction from the film to be irritating – played happy families in LA as they posed with Lively and tried to ignore the noise from a few pro-Baldoni protestors.

But where was Lively’s husband of 13 years, Ryan Reynolds?

The Deadpool actor is usually a familiar presence at his wife’s side.

In fact, just weeks ago, the pair appeared together at the SNL 50th anniversary show, at which Reynolds, 48, made an arguably ill-advised joke about the Baldoni drama. (During an audience-participation segment of the show, Reynolds was asked by host Tina Fey how he was doing and replied sarcastically, ‘Why, what have you heard?’)

Now, an insider tells the Daily Mail that blunder – which was met with fierce backlash in some quarters – was the reason for his absence on Friday.

‘SNL was a test to see how fans would react to them,’ the insider said. ‘It was their first outing together since Blake filed and it did not bode well for them. Ryan and Blake both 1741651188 realize that, if their careers are to survive, they cannot be involved in the same projects because everything will be heavily scrutinized.’

Really, it’s about protecting their separate incomes, the source explained: ‘Blake is unsure about the future of her career because of the backlash she has received. She does not want to have a family with no income, and she knows that Ryan’s career has so far survived the fallout.’

A spokesperson for Reynolds told the Daily Mail: ‘[The Another Simple Favor premiere] was a resounding success, both fans and critics in attendance loved the movie. Blake attended with her cast and filmmakers and had a great time. Several other actors attended premieres at SXSW without their spouses or significant others.’

The couple have weathered a growing wave of hostility ever since Lively, 37, accused her co-star and director Baldoni, 41, of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us.

Baldoni has hit back by suing Lively and Reynolds for $400 million, which just happens to be their estimated joint net worth.

In Baldoni’s 224-page countersuit is the claim that Reynolds and Lively called him to a meeting at their New York City apartment in January last year to discuss script changes.

‘Reynolds launched into a tirade, berating Baldoni in what Baldoni later described as a “traumatic” encounter, stating he had “never been spoken to like that in his life”,’ the complaint alleges.

Also contained in the filing are alleged texts from Lively to Baldoni in which she compares herself to the Game of Thrones character Khaleesi, and refers to Reynolds as one of her ‘dragons’.

At the It Ends With Us premiere in New York in August last year, Lively told fans: ‘The iconic rooftop scene… my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that.’

Reynolds’s contribution reportedly came as a surprise to Baldoni, and not least because he had no formal role in the production.

Whatever Reynolds’s reasoning for not attending Friday’s premiere, Anna Kendrick, 39, certainly put aside any of her own sour feelings.

Sources told the Daily Mail ahead of the premiere that Kendrick was infuriated by how Lively’s drama was overshadowing their movie.

‘There is a gigantic pink elephant in the room that no one is acknowledging,’ a source close to Kendrick said at the time. ‘The backlash to initial promo has been brutal. There are people protesting and refusing to see it.’

Last week, another source said that ‘friction’ has been brewing between the actresses, who have already allegedly fought over who would get top billing.

‘[Blake] fought, through her reps to get top billing over Anna, who refused to bow to Blake’s demands,’ the source said.

But all that was put aside on Friday, after the two lead actresses were said to have been told to plaster over the cracks with ‘happy faces’ at the premiere.

When one reporter, from Variety magazine, tried to ask Kendrick if she felt the film had been impacted by ‘everything going around in the world’, she shrugged it off, saying: ‘Why, what happened? I did ayahuasca and the last year of my life is just gone, but I heard the movie is amazing.’

As for Lively, our insider said the actress found the evening challenging.

‘Her team is trying to shield her the best they can but it was hard when there were signs with the words “Blake lied” written on it,’ the source said. ‘It wasn’t easy with Ryan not there, but she kept a brave face, and he is proud of her.’