Actor Justin Baldoni has put on a united front with his wife amid his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively issuing a lawsuit and sexual harassment complaint against him.
Baldoni, 40, stepped out with his Swedish actress wife Emily Baldoni in Beverly Hills following the bombshell legal complaint revealed this week. The couple, who wed in July 2013, were seen dropping their children off before heading to an office meeting. The actor looked tense as he kept his head down and walked alongside Emily.
She kept one hand of his back as they walked into the same building, appearing supportive of Baldoni. The Jane The Virgin actor wore a plain grey T-shirt with blue jeans and carried a black rucksack on his back. Emily donned a grey sweater with light-wash denim jeans and brown boots, in photos seen by the Daily Mail.
Lively and Baldoni reportedly had a contentious time working together on the Hollywood movie, It Ends With Us, which was released in August. She is now suing Baldoni for “sexual harassment" on the set of the film, alongside claims that the actor made a concerted effort to “destroy her reputation.”
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Getty Images)Image:
WWD via Getty Images)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.
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 also viral. According to a sexual harassment lawsuit filed to the California Civil Rights Department on Friday, the backlash against Lively 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.
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 Baldoni engaged in impromptu and unwanted kissing with Lively, along with making sexual comments, while Heath, 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.
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Sony Pictures)Reference is made to a meeting which saw all parties agree to a 30 point code of conduct in order for production to resume, with most of the requirements related to sex. There was also a ban on Baldoni and Heath 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 Lively'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. Baldoni'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."
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