Justin Baldoni has major award rescinded amid Blake Lively's It Ends With Us lawsuit

It Ends With Us star and director Justin Baldoni's award which recognised his advocacy on behalf of women and girls has been rescinded amid Blake Lively's lawsuit against him

The backlash against Justin Baldoni following Blake Lively 's lawsuit continues, seeing a major award revoked.

Baldoni, 40, has come under fire last week after his It Ends With Us co-star Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit claiming the actor and director had sexually harassed her on set and initiated a smear campaign against her during the promotion of the film. The lawsuit, filed with the California Civil Rights Department last Friday, made many explosive claims and included text messages and emails that Lively obtained through a subpoena.

While Baldoni has denied all claims, he is facing consequences in Hollywood, including being dropped by his agency and, most recently, having the Voices of Solidarity Award from charity Vital Voices rescinded. Baldoni received the award on December 9 after being recognised for his advocacy on behalf of women and girls.

Sharing a statement to Instagram, Vital Voices, who awards the honour to "remarkable men who have shown courage and compassion in advocating on behalf of women and girls", said after learning about the "disturbing" claims against Baldoni and reading the communications between him and his publicity team and seeing the "PR effort they indicate" resulted in the decision to revoke his award. The statement said the acts are "contrary to the values of Vital Voices and the spirit of the Award", noting that they have informed Baldoni of their decision. Baldoni has not publicly responded to the decision.

Lively's lawsuit comes after she emerged as the villain of the press tour in the eyes of the public, with many critiquing her light-hearted approach to the promotion of the domestic violence-based flick. However, 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. At the same time, 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.

According to the New York Times, the filing states an all-cast and crew meeting was held in January following Baldoni's disturbing behaviour on set and resulted in many requests being made, including "no more showing of nude videos or images of women, including the producer's wife" to Lively or her employees and a plea for people to stop discussing Baldoni and Heath's previous' pornography addiction'.

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.

The men also agreed in writing not to retaliate against the star, but New York Times investigative journalist Meghan Twohey said, referring to Lively'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."

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