Justin Baldoni makes decision over Scarlett Johansson movie ahead of Cannes

Justin Baldoni made a shocking decision over attending the upcoming Cannes Film Festival with Scarlett Johansson.

Amid his ongoing legal drama with her ex-husband Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, the 41-year-old actor will not be attending the Cannes premiere of Johansson’s directorial debut film Eleanor the Great.

DailyMail.com has learned that ‘Baldoni will not be attending the Eleanore the Great premiere at Cannes.

‘Wayfarer Studios will continue to champion this film, and will have a presence at the festival to support the cast and filmmakers.’

This comes amid concerns that Johansson’s feature directorial debut could be ‘overshadowed’ by the drama involving her ex-husband Reynolds and Lively — who has been on the press tour for her new movie Another Simple Favor.

Even though his film is in competition, Baldoni is choosing to step back to as he and his production company have been locked in a contentious legal battle with Reynolds and Lively over her and Baldoni’s movie It Ends With Us.

Lively has accused Baldoni and Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath of sexual harassment, and additionally alleged she was subject to a targeted smear campaign in the run-up to the release of It Ends With Us. 

Baldoni then launched a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and the New York Times, which reported her first claim. 

Wayfarer and Baldoni were dropped by their agency amid the mounting drama, which sources close to him say cost him ‘three jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars,’ via the Hollywood Reporter. 

Late last month, famed attorney Lisa Bloom has exclusively told DailyMail.com how the swirling publicity around the feud could potentially splash back on Johansson’s movie. 

‘The success or failure of this Baldoni produced film will be highly relevant in court,’ Bloom observed of Johansson’s new project.

‘If it flops, Baldoni will blame the Blake Lively lawsuit and point to the failure as an example of the millions of dollars in damages he is seeking,’ she noted.

‘If it succeeds, his theory that he just can’t make it in Hollywood because of Blake Lively will be obliterated,’ Bloom added.

‘And expect ScarJo and other big names on the film to be subpoenaed to testify at the Lively-Baldoni trial as to the money he makes from the film, and whether the case really cost him as much as he says.’

The attorney, whose mother is the vaunted feminist lawyer Gloria Allred, said: ‘I also suspect the film’s release will be overshadowed by press questions about the Lively-Baldoni legal fight, which slogs on.’

Bloom is no stranger to cases involving sexual misconduct allegations, having served as an attorney for women who accused Bill O’Reilly of harassment.

She also controversially advised Harvey Weinstein as the claims against him first began to gather steam ahead of the outbreak of the Me Too movement.

Bloom has represented five alleged Jeffrey Epstein victims and two plaintiffs who say they were sexually assaulted by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, who has strenuously denied the cascade of accusations against him.

In 2018 she acted as counsel for Janice Dickinson, who sued Bill Cosby for defamation after his lawyer said she was lying when she accused the comic of having drugged and raped her in the 1980s.

The defamation case ended in what Bloom hailed as an ‘epic’ settlement, saying Dickinson would be ‘fully compensated for being called a liar,’ via CNN.

Reynolds and Johansson married in 2008 and announced their split in 2010, two years before he tied the knot with Lively, with whom he now has four children.

Johansson, who is now married to Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost, has made her feature film directorial debut with Eleanor The Great.

The movie stars 95-year-old June Squibb as the title character, a nonagenarian woman who moves back to New York from Florida after her best friend dies.

With a cast that includes 12 Years A Slave lead Chiwetel Ejiofor, Eleanor The Great is slated to premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in May.

Johansson has not publicly addressed the Lively-Baldoni drama, but her husband made a joke about it on Saturday Night Live last month.

During a comic riff on Donald Trump’s explosive Oval Office argument with Volodymyr Zelensky, Jost quipped that the Ukrainian president ‘said he thinks he can still salvage his relationship with President Trump, which is like Justin Baldoni saying: ‘I’d love to work with Blake again.”