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In an extensive complaint detailed in a New York Times story, Blake Lively accused her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment. Filed in court on Friday with the California Civil Rights department, Lively’s legal complaint also lists accusations of retaliation, negligence, breach of contract, and intentional infliction of emotional distress among other claims.
Lively and her attorneys allege that after issues of sexual harassment arose on set, Baldoni worked to mount a smear campaign against the actress — hiring a crisis PR firm to blast social media with negative posts about her. In a statement published by Variety, Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, took umbrage with Lively’s complaint, calling the suit “shameful” and full of “categorically false accusations.”
Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, is also involved in the suit, as he was reportedly in attendance at a meeting held during production on “It Ends With Us” discussing facts key to the complaint.
“[Lively] claimed Mr. Baldoni had improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life, including encounters in which he may not have received consent. [Producer Jamey] Heath had shown her a video of his wife naked, she said, and he had watched Ms. Lively in her trailer when she was topless and having body makeup removed, despite her asking him to look away,” the complaint reads. “She said that both men repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.”
As a result, Lively alleges, she also insisted no more “sex scenes, oral sex, or on camera climaxing” be added to the film by Baldoni outside what was already featured in the script and agreed to before shooting. The complaint states that these requests were approved by the film’s distributor, Sony Pictures, but claims that following the movie’s release Baldoni nevertheless engaged in an effort to “destroy” Lively’s reputation.
In a statement given to The New York Times, Lively 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 disagrees with Lively’s claims. In a statement published in Variety, Freedman 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.”
In response to Lively’s claims that Baldoni hired a crisis PR firm to get back at her for actions taken while filming, the statement responded, “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. 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.”
Included in Lively’s complaint are communications between Baldoni and his publicity team that detail a “social combat plan,” as per exhibits shared with IndieWire by Lively’s PR team at Vision PR. The complaint further alleges that media operation hired 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” to harm Lively, as part of a carefully planned revenge strategy.
While Lively and Baldoni promoted “It Ends with Us” separately, they never participated in any interviews or press together — giving credence to rumors of an on-set feud between the two. Despite these negative stories circulating, the film proved to be one of Sony’s major box office hits this year, bringing in a worldwide box office of $350 million. Colleen Hoover, who wrote the novel “It Ends with Us” is based on, also penned a sequel called “It Starts with Us,” though a source told Variety back in August it was unlikely a film version would come to fruition as “there’s probably no world where these two will work together again.”
TMZ broke the news that a complaint had been filed on Friday, but The New York Times was the first to publish Lively’s full filing.
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