Justin Baldoni flaunts muscular body in Hawaii after putting aside Blake Lively controversy

Justin Baldoni showed off his buff physique as he holidayed in Hawaii this week amid his ongoing Blake Lively drama.

The actor from It Ends With Us, aged 41, is currently in a legal battle with his former co-star, Lively, aged 37. There are reports of a power struggle on set and allegations of sexual harassment. Despite the ongoing feud, he was seen smiling casually while enjoying the sunny weather.

Baldoni displayed his muscular frame and ripped arms in a pair of blue swimming trunks as he went surfing.

Escaping the escalating drama, the actor has gone on a trip with his wife Emily and their two young children. Both Baldoni and Lively have refuted each other’s claims of misconduct.

This comes a talent agency executive confirmed he fired Baldoni from his roster and spoke out in support of Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, 48.

During a recording for the Freakonomics podcast, Ari Emanuel, the CEO of Endeavor, the parent company of WME, praised Lively and Reynolds, referring to them as ‘incredible people’ according to People.

He confirmed of Baldoni – who he dubbed Justin ‘Bologna’ – ‘I fired him’ and quipped: ‘I am a ride-or-die.’ 

WME notably dropped Baldoni in December on the same day that Lively sued him for sexual harassment. 

Emanuel said of Lively and Reynolds: ‘They’ve never had any bad mojo out there or treated people badly.’

He added if Lively’s lawsuit claims are true, then those involved are ‘really bad people.’

Emanuel said: ‘These are good people who have been in the business for decades and have never had any bad press about them. And all the people they’ve worked with like them.’

DailyMail.com has contacted Baldoni’s representatives for comment. 

Lively and Baldoni recently rejected mediation due to both parties agreeing settlement talks would be ‘inappropriate’ at this stage.

After Lively’s initial lawsuit was filed, The New York Times later released a story based on Lively’s legal filing that accused him and his publicists of orchestrating a smear campaign against her.

Baldoni is now countersuing both Lively and her husband Reynolds for $400million, claiming the Hollywood couple conspired to trash his reputation.

He also accused her of using her friend Taylor Swift to intimidate him at a meeting with Reynolds about edits she had made to a rooftop scene in their film.

Earlier this month, he published a website that his legal team alleged had all of the ‘receipts’ for his and Lively’s court battle. 

All parties have vehemently denied the allegations.

A trial is scheduled for March 9, 2026.

Lively alleged he improvised unwanted kisses while filming and spoke to her frequently about his past sexual encounters and pornography addiction. 

Last week, Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, raised new allegations in their hotly contested case against Baldoni in court on Monday. 

Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, pleaded with the judge to move the case forward as quickly as possible because his client was ‘suffering greatly.’

Lively’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb, however, vehemently denied the claim that Lively was purposely dragging her heels in the lawsuit.

Judge Lewis Liman denied a move from Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds to gag Team Baldoni following the series of bombshell claims made by his legal team.

But Gottlieb said they intend to hit Baldoni with fresh allegations in Lively’s sexual harassment case, and insisted that protecting the couple’s celebrity friends was going to be ‘very important.’

Gottlieb told the court during the hearing that they intend to add ‘both claims and parties’ to a revised complaint which will be filed by Valentine’s Day.

Last week, Baldoni updated his own complaint in his $400 million defamation case against the Gossip Girl star which accused Lively of giving The New York Times advanced access to her complaint of sexual harassment during the filming of the movie It Ends With Us.

Gottlieb attacked Freedman for making statements outside of court which had challenged the ‘character, integrity and truthfulness’ of Lively.

After complaining, Lively’s lawyers were told was that ‘we (Lively) started it’ with the New York Times article, Gottlieb said.

Gottlieb cited an interview in People magazine in which Freedman accused Lively of a ‘pattern of bullying.’

In another statement Freedman claimed that if Lively really was sexually harassed she wouldn’t have returned to the film.

A skeptical Judge Liman said: ‘isn’t that what’s stated in his complaint?’

Gottlieb said no and that lawyers were ‘not supposed to launch attacks on another party’s character’.

He added that the leaking of raw footage from It Ends With Us was ‘particularly concerning’ because it could start an ‘arms race’ whereby lawyers have to appear in the media to fire back at every disclosure.

‘If there’s no guard rails in place….we (the attorneys) have to and go out on shows arguing on shows what a particular document or video means’.

Freedman fired back that the statements had ‘not been a one way street’ and tried to walk the court through a number made by Lively’s lawyers.

After listening to them, Judge Liman said Freedman ‘went a little bit further’ than Lively’s lawyers.

The judge said that he was adopting rules for lawyers known as Rule 3.6 which bars both of them from making extrajudicial statements that could influence the jury.

Judge Liman said he was ‘hesitant to adopt it’ but after both sides agreed to it, he changed his mind.

He said: ‘My expectation is the parties will comply with their ethical obligations. I don’t expect this case to devolve into satellite litigation over the comments of a lawyer.

‘Both have said a lot in the pleadings that give the public plenty to feast upon’.

Freedman tried to protest and said: ‘Not to sound like a four year old fighting a four year old with ‘but they started it’ but once someone says something it becomes fact, there’s no way to fight against it.

‘You start to lose things without the ability to have the court’s adjudication. This was not started by us.’

Judge Liman also warned that if both sides didn’t behave themselves he could move the date of the trial forward from March next year.

He said: ‘I’m not going to do that, I’m convinced the parties need the time for discovery.

‘But if it turns out that this ends up being litigated in the press in a way that would prejudice the opportunity of a fair trial…one of the tools the court has is to accelerate the date of the trial.

‘That’s something that is out there. I don’t want to do that.’

Earlier in the hearing, Gottlieb, who also represents Reynolds, said that he would be seeking a protective order through the court for future filings to protect the couple’s celebrity friends.

While he did not name Taylor Swift, she would likely be one of those affected as she was referred to in Baldoni’s complaint.

Gottlieb said: ‘We do believe there will be provisions in a protective order that will be appropriate in this case given the nature of the allegations and the high profile nature of some of the individuals who will be involved.

‘There is a significant number of high profile individuals on both sides.

‘In particular addressing the interests and needs of third parties is going to be very important in this case.’

Gottlieb said he would plan to ‘seek protections we believe will be very important particularly in a case where there’s been a significant amount of leaking materials.’

He said: ‘We do intend to propose a protective order in this case.’

Judge Liman agreed and said that even before the other parties were named ‘you already got a lot of high profile people’ involved.