Ryan Reynolds Jokes About Having ‘Been Around Lawyers’ at Cannes Event

Ryan Reynolds seemingly made a humorous reference to spending time around lawyers during a recent event in Cannes.

The Deadpool & Wolverine actor, 48, appeared during a Cannes Lions 2025 panel on Thursday, June 19, where he made light of his recent legal situation as he handed out water bottles to audience members, per Page Six.

“I’m not throwing this [water bottle],” he told a fan. “I’ve been around lawyers.
You can walk up here and grab it.”

Reynolds was seemingly nodding to his wife Blake Lively’s ongoing legal battle with her It Ends With Us director and costar Justin Baldoni. Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment on the film’s set and orchestrating an alleged smear campaign against her in a December 2024 lawsuit.

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Baldoni denied Lively’s allegations and countersued the actress, her husband and publicist Leslie Sloane for $400 million, accusing them of civil extortion, defamation and more. Lively and Reynolds denied those accusations.

Baldoni’s countersuit against Lively, Reynolds and Sloane was ultimately dismissed earlier this month, though Judge Lewis J. Liman did allow Baldoni’s lawyers to amend their claims for breach of implied covenant and tortious interference with contract. Baldoni’s legal team was given a deadline of June 23 to revise their claims.

Lively’s attorneys Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb characterized the June 9 ruling as a “total victory and a complete vindication” for Lively, Reynolds, Sloane and “those that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties dragged into their retaliatory lawsuit.”

“As we have said from day one, this ‘$400 million’ lawsuit was a sham, and the Court saw right through it,” Lively’s legal team told Us Weekly. “We look forward to the next round, which is seeking attorneys’ fees, treble damages and punitive damages against Baldoni, Sarowitz, Nathan and the other Wayfarer Parties who perpetrated this abusive litigation.”

However, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman insisted to Us that “Ms. Lively and her team’s predictable declaration of victory is false.”

“While the Court dismissed the defamation-related claims, the Court has invited us to amend four out of the seven claims against Ms. Lively, which will showcase additional evidence and refined allegations,” he said. “This case is about false accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation and a nonexistent smear campaign, which Ms. Lively’s own team conveniently describes as ‘untraceable’ because they cannot prove what never happened.”

Nevertheless, a source close to Lively and Reynolds exclusively revealed to Us that the couple felt “relief and vindication” over Baldoni’s countersuit being dismissed, at least temporarily.

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“Blake is feeling a sense of pride that she continued to use her voice and stand strong and the counterattacks will now no longer be given more air,” the insider explained.

Reynolds’ lighthearted reference to his legal ordeal at Cannes was not the first time he poked fun at the situation. He took part in a Q&A segment with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler at the SNL 50 Anniversary Special in February, where the comics asked him how he was doing in light of recent events.

“[I’m doing] great. Why, what have you heard?” Reynolds asked the duo.

Saturday Night Live’s cue card operator, Wally Feresten, later claimed the joke changed between rehearsal and the live show, with Reynolds “pitching” the line that eventually ended up on air.

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“That was his idea to do it,” Feresten said. “We wouldn’t want to do anything too controversial unless they were in on it. So yeah, that was his line. That was his idea to do it.”

An SNL spokesperson later clarified Feresten’s version of events was “not true.”

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​Us Weekly

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