Blake Lively and Justin Bladoni's feud in full from 'PR smears to lip biting and fat-shaming'

Actress Blake Lively has accused her co-star Justin Baldoni and a lead producer on It Ends With Us of sexual harassment. Here, we take a closer look at the film set plagued with problems

Romantic drama It Ends With Us was a box office smash hit which generated £240 million dollars worldwide, but off-screen the movie was plagued by rumours of on set tensions.

Eyebrows were first raised when fans noticed a curious lack of interaction between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who did not pose together on red carpets despite playing a married couple in the film.

Lively played florist Lily Bloom who suffers domestic abuse at the hands of her neurosurgeon husband Ryle Kincaid, portrayed by Baldoni - who also directed the film. After its release, Lively was branded 'tone deaf' when she urged female viewers to 'grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to see it', in a nod to the film's style aesthetic, seemingly ignoring the dark subject matter.

Worse was yet to come - a throwback clip of the actress being interviewed by Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa in 2016, which saw her react 'snarkily' to being congratulated on her 'little bump', went viral. Rumours began to swirl about every 'problematic' aspect of the actress's life, including the fact her 2012 wedding to film star Ryan Reynolds had taken place on a former slave plantation in South Carolina.

But now Lively has hit back with a bombshell legal complaint revealed this week, levying a series of explosive claims at her co-star. According to a sexual harassment lawsuit filed to the California Civil Rights Department on Friday, the backlash against Blake wasn't an organic reaction to the star's conduct but a heavily orchestrated campaign against her. Negative stories, it is alleged, had been deliberately planted in an attempt to 'bury her'.

Excerpts from text messages and emails have been published by the New York Times, which Lively says she acquired through a subpoena. They involved PR gurus Jennifer Abel of PR firm RWA Communications and Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group PR, plus Baldoni himself and appear to date between May 15 and August 18 this year.

These include quotes for PR packages, one for £175k for three months and another for £19k a month for a minimum of three, which involve the 'creation of social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change the narrative and stay on track'.

One message shows Abel tell Nathan she was 'having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible Blake is to work with'. In another, Nathan claims 'you know we can bury anyone' in another message. And in a third, Abel acknowledges, 'it's actually sad because it just shows you have people really want to hate on women'.

While Blake emerged as the villain of the press tour in the eyes of the public, her newly filed complaint claims Baldoni and a lead producer on the movie, Jamey Heath, embarked on 'repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behaviour' against her.

This includes claims that Justin engaged in impromptu and unwanted kissing with Lively, along with making sexual comments, while Jamey, 55, is accused of showing her pictures of his wife naked and watching her while she was topless and getting her make-up removed, even when asked to look away.

Reference is made to a meeting which saw all parties agree to a jaw dropping 30 point code of conduct in order for production to resume, with most of the requirements related to sex. According to the New York Times, the requests included 'no more showing of nude videos or images of women, including the producer's wife' to Blake or her employees and a plea for people to stop discussing Justin and Jamey's previous 'pornography addiction'.

There was also a ban on Justin, 40, and Jamey from describing their genitalia and discussing their sex lives, including 'personal times that physical consent was not given in sexual acts, as either the abuser or the abused'. The 'biting or sucking' of Blake's lips without consent was banned, referring to impromptu kissing in scenes, and only 'working actors', rather than just friends of the director and lead producer, were allowed to watch filming moments involving nudity.

Speaking to the actress's personal trainer to learn how much she weighed was placed off the table, along with a bizarre request Justin stopped 'pressing' any of Blake's employees to 'sage', in reference to the ancient ritual to cleanse a space of negativity and promote healing.

The men also agreed in writing not to retaliate against the star but New York Times investigative journalist Meghan Twohey said, referring to Blake's lawsuit: "As the release of the movie approached, they hired a crisis PR manager who orchestrated a smear campaign against Lively."

Justin's lawyer Bryan Freeman has called the newly emerging allegations 'false, outrageous and intentionally salacious'. In a statement he said: "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."

He added: "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."