Ryan Reynolds sort of confirmed a suspicion about Nicepool but did it in a kind of hilarious way.
Justin Baldoni, who starred in and directed It Ends With Us that also starred Reynolds’ wife Blake Lively, is in a legal battle with the couple. Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and even went as far as to ask for a protective order. In return, Baldoni released strange voice memos he sent to Lively at 2 in the morning.
The back and forth ended up bringing Deadpool & Wolverine into the mix. Baldoni claimed that Nicepool, the infamous version of Reynolds’ Deadpool character who is super “feminist” and yet says things that are just weird enough to make you uncomfortable, was about him. Baldoni willingly admitted to thinking that character was him. Why would you do that?!
Now, Reynolds used his time in court to ask for the judge to dismiss the inclusion of the Nicepool side of things. Reynolds said that Baldoni could not sue him over “hurt feelings.” I’ll take it one step further and say that parody is perfectly legal so if Nicepool was really a knock at Baldoni, there isn’t anything wrong with making fun of the man who allegedly sexually harassed his wife.
Reynolds and his team did not deny Baldoni was the inspiration for Nicepool but instead focused on Baldoni’s “thin-skinned outrage” over the comparison. According to Variety, Reynolds’ lawyers held nothing back while coming for Baldoni.
The motion to dismiss claimed that the “allegations suggest that Mr. Reynolds genuinely, perhaps passionately, believes that Mr. Baldoni’s behavior is reflective of a ‘predator.’ (T)he law establishes that calling someone a ‘predator’ amounts to constitutionally protected opinion… While Mr. Baldoni ‘may not appreciate being called’ a predator, those hurt feelings do not give rise to legal claims.”
Well we know why Ryan Reynolds is Wade Wilson and not Nicepool…
Out of all of the claims that Baldoni made in his own lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds, it was the Nicepool complaint that never made sense to me. At the bare minimum, it is parody. Reynolds and company would be mocking Baldoni in a satirical way and there are parody laws that protect that kind of thing.
Baldoni also did not need to tell the world that he thought he was Nicepool. That probably didn’t help any and now, with Reynolds not admitting to it but also not denying the Nicepool theories, it really just makes Baldoni look like someone crying wolf.
Reynolds is standing up for his wife and her allegations against Baldoni. In what world would I be team Baldoni in that case? Reynolds is defending his wife as he sees fit. For a man like Baldoni, who claims he is all for supporting women, to constantly bring up nonsense things like this when there is literal proof (provided BY Baldoni) that he said he will continue to do things that made Lively uncomfortable is….well, uncomfortable!
In the audio that Baldoni himself released, he gave what felt like an insincere apology to Lively and said that he would end up doing what he did again. It was, seemingly, his way of being like “I make mistakes” but it came across as a man ignoring that a woman said something made her uncomfortable. That’s not an apology and so to see him still following through with the Nicepool stuff is….well, just weird. Good on Reynolds for standing up for his work and his wife.
Published: Mar 19, 2025 8:46 PM UTC