It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover has thrown her support behind Blake Lively after she sued co-star and director Justin Baldoni over sexual harassment allegations while on the set of the film adaptation of Hoover's bestseller.
Hoover has broken her silence after Blake, 37, accused Baldoni, 40, of organising a PR takedown of the actress, allegations which Baldoni has denied. On the day that the lawsuit became public, Hoover posted on Instagram a message of support for Blake.
The author wrote alongside a photo of her with Blake in a warm embrace: "@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive, and patient since the day we met. Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt." Hoover also added a link to an article detailing the allegations Blake has made against Baldoni.
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CTMG, Inc./Nicole Rivelli. All Rights Reserved)Following months of rumours about a fallout between the leading stars, Blake has now accused her co-star and director of a co-ordinated effort to destroy her reputation, in legal papers seen by US outlet TMZ. Baldoni has furiously denied the allegations.'
In text messages revealed in the lawsuit documents, Blake has alleged that Baldoni and his team had been inspired by a case against Hailey Bieber, with Blake alleging that they planned to take her down in a similar vein.
In a statement given to the Mirror, from the attorney of Justin Baldoni, Bryan Freedman, described Blake's allegations are described as 'shameful.'
The statement reads: "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.
"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.
"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 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.”
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