Justin Baldoni has escalated his legal battle against Blake Lively, filing an amended lawsuit that introduces fresh allegations concerning The New York Times’ handling of metadata while also accusing Ryan Reynolds of ridiculing him through the character of Nicepool in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Late Friday night, Baldoni’s legal team submitted an extensive 224-page complaint, accompanied by a detailed 168-page timeline outlining their case. Alongside this, they launched a website to publicly share the legal documents, marking another step in what has been an intense six-week clash over It Ends with Us, the film in which Baldoni directed and co-starred with Lively.

Among the latest claims, Baldoni’s team asserts that metadata from The New York Times website indicates the publication had access to Lively’s civil rights complaint significantly earlier than previously disclosed. The lawsuit alleges that the complaint was first uploaded on December 10—11 days before The Times published its explosive December 21 exposé, “We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” The article accused Baldoni and his PR representatives of orchestrating a campaign to damage Lively’s reputation in retaliation for her allegations of on-set sexual harassment.

Baldoni has filed a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, Lively, and Reynolds, arguing that their actions distorted reality by misrepresenting his text messages. His updated filing claims that additional metadata suggests The Times had been developing its report as early as October 31, well before December’s official revelations.

In response, The Times dismissed these claims as inaccurate.

“The Baldoni/Wayfarer legal filings are filled with falsehoods regarding The New York Times,” a spokesperson for the publication stated on Saturday. “For instance, the claim that The Times had early access to Ms Lively’s state civil rights complaint is completely untrue. Mr Baldoni’s legal team has relied on incorrect conclusions drawn by amateur internet detectives, who have misinterpreted the metadata. These online sleuths suggest a version of the Lively complaint posted by The Times carries the date ‘December 10,’ despite the complaint not being officially filed until more than a week later. The reality is that this date is automatically generated by Google software and has nothing to do with when The Times obtained or uploaded the document.”

Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, sees the metadata differently, arguing that it validates his client’s claims.

“This new evidence confirms what we suspected all along—that Ms. Lively and her team, purely for self-serving reasons, engaged in a calculated effort over months to manipulate the narrative, spread false accusations, and misuse private communications to destroy reputations,” Freedman told Variety in a statement.

Further fuelling the controversy, the lawsuit states that a video accompanying The Times’ article was created on December 12, nine days before publication. Additionally, the complaint alleges that The Times first sought a response from Baldoni’s camp late on December 20, granting them only 14 hours to issue a statement before the article was released at 10:11 a.m. the following morning.

The legal dispute extends beyond The Times and Lively, as Baldoni also takes aim at Reynolds’ portrayal of Nicepool in Deadpool & Wolverine. The amended lawsuit contends that the character was designed as a personal attack, depicting a “woke” feminist caricature who ultimately meets a violent end at the hands of Ladypool, a character voiced by Lively.

Baldoni alleges that the scene, filmed in January 2024, was Reynolds’ way of publicly mocking him. The lawsuit further claims that the filming took place shortly after an alleged confrontation at Lively and Reynolds’ home, during which Reynolds is said to have aggressively demanded an apology from Baldoni over accusations he maintains are false.

Lively’s legal team has not yet responded to these latest developments.

Both parties are set to appear in federal court on Monday for an initial hearing. Meanwhile, Lively’s team has requested judicial intervention to limit Freedman’s public statements, arguing that his online efforts—including the newly launched website—risk prejudicing potential jurors.

However, Baldoni’s camp maintains that the website solely contains documents that were officially filed in court on Friday, all of which are also accessible via CourtListener, a public legal records database.