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It Ends With This: Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively Settle Lawsuit

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Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have reached a settlement in the epic legal battle of retaliation and sexual harassment that was scheduled to go to trial this month.

Lively had alleged that Baldoni, following the release of their 2024 film “It Ends With Us,” engaged in a retaliatory smear campaign led by a crisis PR designed to damage her reputation on social media. She had also accused Baldoni and other producers of the film of sexual harassment on set, but a judge tossed 10 of 13 of those claims in Lively’s suit last month.

Now that a settlement has been reached, the long legal battle will avoid going to trial.

Lawyers for both Lively and Baldoni released a joint statement on Monday. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

“The end product – the movie ‘It Ends With Us’ — is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life,” their reps said. “Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind. We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard. We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.”

The drama between Lively and Baldoni dates back to December 2024, when Lively spoke to The New York Times about accusations of sexual harassment and shared private messages that outlined an alleged “social combat plan” of planted social media posts designed to tarnish Lively’s reputation. Though “It Ends With Us” was a box office success, it was surrounded by online drama regarding the power dynamics on set and Lively’s attitude towards the film’s themes of domestic violence and abuse.

After the New York Times article, Baldoni sued Lively in a defamation suit for $400 million and the New York Times for $250 million, but both suits were later tossed by a judge. He had claimed that Lively’s PR team, as well as naming Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, in the suit, was responsible for their own smear campaign and that the New York Times had intentionally overlooked key context from his side of the leaked private conversations. The ongoing drama that escalated over the last year plus involved claims that Reynolds may have been secretly trying to insult Baldoni with a character in “Deadpool and Wolverine,” and that even Taylor Swift might have needed to be subpoenaed.

Lively had also accused Baldoni and his partner at production company Wayfarer Studios that Baldoni discussed with Lively his sex life without her consent, that he had improvised unwanted kissing, that he repeatedly entered her trailer while undressed or breastfeeding, and that producer Jamey Heath showed her a video of his wife naked (Baldoni’s legal team had denied all those accusations). However, last month, a judge ruled that her claims did not meet a legal standard, and she would only have been able to use her complaints about those incidents as a basis for potential retaliation.

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Robert Pattinson’s Batman Would Be Tough to Exist in James Gunn’s DCU

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Robert Pattinson doesn’t see his version of Batman interacting with other DC superheroes within James Gunn‘s cinematic universe.

While Batman and Superman have one of the most famous friendships in DC Comics, the Primetime star recently explained to LADbible why it would be “tough” for director Matt Reeves’ version of Bruce Wayne to exist in Gunn’s DCU, such as with David Corenswet’s Superman.

“I think it would be kind of tough to have this version of Bruce outside of that world. It’s one of the only characters, I guess because of the length of the shoots but also it’s such a specific kind of [style], the tone of it gets inside you,” Pattinson said. “I remember that happened to me the last time I did it, it took a while. You’re just in the dark, the whole time. Both mood-wise and light-wise, I can’t see anything for like months. It does affect you; like you feel strange afterwards.”

Reeves’ The Batman, released in 2022, is a darker take on the iconic character, as it’s a grounded psychological crime noir rather than a typical superhero action pic. The film sees Pattinson’s Batman investigate Gotham’s hidden corruption after a sadistic serial killer begins murdering key political figures.

Pattinson reprised his character for Reeves’ The Batman Part II, which is currently in production and set to hit theaters on Feb. 18, 2028.

The Odyssey actor recently teased to Collider that the sequel is “a real left turn from the first” movie, adding that “it’s so ambitious.”

“The first one was a different take on a Batman movie, and this one is another… It’s a real left turn from the first one, but somehow it keeps elements of the kind of feel of it,” he explained. “But it just feels really ambitious, and I’m excited to see how it turns out.”

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Bill Gates Warns AI Could “Cause A Billion Deaths”

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As Trump brushes off the need for additional guardrails around artificial intelligence, Bill Gates is sounding the alarm.

In a recent interview, the Microsoft co-founder urged the U.S. government to implement regulations around the development of AI, following a meeting with CEOs of several of biggest AI companies, who agreed it’s necessary to slow down the pace of the growing tech.

“No one thinks self-regulation is enough,” he said on NBC News’ Meet the Press. “You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like. And that has to be a required thing. And it will be a little bit of overhead for the industry, but not a dramatic slowing of what they’re doing.”

Gates added, “AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths. You know, so even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100%, there’s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools.”

Following recent warnings from those working in AI, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order this month to fast-track stringent oversight and control of AI. Convening “a group of world-leading experts” within the next 60 days, the order lays out a discussion of “safety plans” and “an emergency shutoff, or ‘kill switch,’ for frontier models.”

On a federal level, Trump has brushed off concerns about AI as “a hoax,” insisting the U.S. government “already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power” over AI companies.

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Jeff Probst Says “Nothing Changed” On ‘Survivor’ After CBS Scrapped DEI

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Although Paramount was one of several companies to roll back their DEI initiative when Trump was re-elected, Survivor continues to operate by it.

Host Jeff Probst recently noted that “nothing has changed” with how the reality competition series approaches diversity, equity and inclusion, noting that it was “one of the biggest positive changes ever” for the CBS show that launched in 2000.

“And if you watch our show, you know that we’re so diverse — and it’s not just skin color or ethnicity. It goes much deeper than that. It’s one of the biggest positive changes ever,” he told The New York Times. “Our stories are so much more interesting now because we have people from completely different walks of life.”

Probst continued, “I feel no pressure. No one ever says, can you count the numbers again? But Jesse Tannenbaum, who runs our casting team, knows: There’s no stopping, not because we’re told to do it. This is what we need. We need diversity. It’s for narrative. All those differences matter in the story when you throw people together and force them to rely on each other while conspiring against each other. The more diverse, the more interesting.”

In 2020, Paramount implemented a DEI initiative to make CBS and its other brands more inclusive, which the company rolled back last year amid the Trump administration’s attacks on such programs. Months later, Skydance pledged there would be no DEI policies under the Ellison’s reign as they sought the FCC’s approval of the merger.

Following its milestone 50th season, Probst returns to host Survivor for Season 51, airing Wednesdays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS and streaming live on Paramount+.

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