Blake Lively has accused her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment. In a bombshell complaint, the actress alleges that Baldoni attempted to mount a smear campaign against her and claims his behavior caused her and her family “severe emotional harm,” according to a copy obtained by Variety. Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, fired back at Lively’s complaint in a statement. He called it “shameful” and full of “categorically false accusations.”
According to the complaint lodged with the California Civil Rights department, a meeting was held during the making of “It Ends With Us” to address Lively’s claims and her demands for returning to work on the film after the actors and writers strikes had ended. Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, was reportedly in attendance at the meeting.
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The complaint states that Baldoni improvised kissing scenes, discussed Lively’s weight with her trainer, and talked about his sex life in inappropriate ways. It also states that Jamey Heath, one of the producers of the film, showed Lively a video of his wife naked. Lively also alleged that both Baldoni and Heath entered her makeup trailer without getting her permission first, “including when she was breastfeeding her infant child.” It goes on to state that “the concerns [Lively] raised were not only for herself, but for the other female cast and crew, some of whom had also spoken up.”
Lively allegedly also demanded Baldoni not add any more sex scenes outside of what was in the script of the movie that she had approved before filming began. The film’s distributor, Sony Pictures, reportedly approved Lively’s requests, according to the complaint, but it goes on to accuse Baldoni of “social manipulation” and launching a campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation afterward. Variety has reached out to representatives for Sony Pictures for comment.
In the filing, Lively claims that Baldoni and Heath engaged in unprofessional behavior, including describing “their past sexual relationships” to her and speaking to her about their “previous pornography addiction.” Lively also alleges that Baldoni claimed he could communicate with the dead, including her father, Ernie Lively, who died in 2021. “It was off putting and violative for Ms. Baldoni to claim a personal relationship with her recently deceased father,” the complaint reads.
A spokesperson for Lively referred Variety to a statement the actress gave to The New York Times in which she said: “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Baldoni’s legal team pushed back on Lively’s claims. “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions,” Freedman’s statement to Variety about the complaint reads.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” Freedman contiues. “Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met. It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address.”
The statement concludes: “The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
The complaint filed by Lively includes text messages and emails from Baldoni and his publicity team that detail plans and a social media strategy to push back if the actress’s issues on the set with her director and go star became public knowledge. “Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates embarked on a sophisticated press and digital plan in retaliation for Ms. Lively exercising her legally-protected right to speak up about their misconduct on the set, with the additional objective of intimidating her and anyone else from revealing in public what actually occurred,” the complaint reads.
The spin operation included retaining subcontractors who “weaponized a digital army around the country from New York to Los Angeles to create, seed, and promote content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums,” the complaint alleges.
Rumors of a set feud between Lively and Baldoni were rampant during the press tour for “It Ends With Us” last August, as the two never did any promotion for the movie together. The film ended up being a box office hit for Sony, earning $350 million at the worldwide box office. “It Ends With Us” is based on a bestselling novel by author Colleen Hoover, who penned a sequel novel titled “It Starts With Us.” A source told Variety after the movie’s release that a film version of the sequel was unlikely to take place because “there’s probably no world where these two will work together again.”
The filing also includes text messages between members of Baldoni’s PR team celebrating a social media response that appeared to side with the filmmaker and against Lively. In one exchange included in the complaint, Baldoni’s publicist writes in an email to another member of his publicity team that the filmmaker “doesn’t realise [sic] how lucky he is right now we need to press on him just how fucking lucky.”
The New York Times was the first to publish Lively’s complaint in its entirety, while TMZ broke the news that a complaint had been filed on Friday.
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