Ryan Reynolds ex Scarlett Johansson drawn into Blake-Baldoni lawsuit

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal battle has dragged another A-lister into the matter — Ryan Reynolds’ ex-wife, Scarlett Johansson.

The Black Widow star became part of the ongoing case when a newly unearthed audio included her name, dropped by an executive at Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios.

Steve Sarowitz, Wayfarer co-founder, was heard showering praise on Johansson while conversing with writer and director Claire Ayoub.

The actress recently worked with the studio head on her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, while the latter appeared to be positively comparing that experience against the one he had with Lively.

“I love this women’s empowerment. We have another first-time director we supported,” he said.

While Ayoub jokingly replied, “A woman named Scarlett Johansson? I’m so excited for her!”

“She was so cool, calm, collected and confident… and nice,” the Wayfarer man added. “It’s so interesting because you work with so many people. Almost everybody is nice, and then there’s Blake — she is totally different than everyone else. Not to say anything bad about her, but she’s different.”

“I think for the most part most people see what we are doing, see we’re nice, and they’re nice back. Even if they weren’t perfectly nice. I just think some people forgot to learn how to be nice.”

The recording, discovered by Us Weekly, was reportedly submitted by Lively’s legal team. While Ayoub had previously worked with Baldoni’s firm on her 2024 film, Empire Waist.

She had described the experience of working with Baldoni and his company as “repeated, negative interactions”, also claiming that she faced “verbal abuse” in the process.

Meanwhile, Scarlett Johansson was married to Ryan Reynolds between 2008 and 2011. While the Canadian-born actor married Blake Lively shortly after their divorce was finalised, in 2012.