Blake Lively Sues It Ends With Us Co-Star Justin Baldoni for Sexual Harassment
Blake Lively has filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni outlining sexual harassment and manipulation on set of It Ends With Us, which is now streaming on Netflix.
According to TMZ who obtained the lawsuit, allegations against Baldoni include discussing his former “pornography addiction,” his sexual conquests, the cast and crew’s genitalia, Lively’s weight and her dead father, and showing Lively nude videos or images of women.
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The suit alleges that Lively raised concerns over sexual misconduct during filming and that after the film’s release she was targeted for speaking out. Lively claims her allegations resulted in a coordinated effort to ruin her reputation in a kind of online influence campaign called “astroturfing.”
“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,” Lively told The New York Times.
Meanwhile, Bryan Freedman, attorney for Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and all its representatives, denied Lively’s claims in a statement obtained by TVLine, calling the suit “shameful” and filled with “categorically false accusations.”
After news of Lively’s lawsuit broke on Saturday, Baldoni’s talent agency WME dropped him as a client, according to our sister site Variety. The group continues to represent Lively.
On Sunday, actors American Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel released a statement on Instagram supporting their former Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-star.
“As Blake’s friends and sisters for over 20 years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the reported campaign waged to destroy her reputation,” it read. “Throughout the filming of It Ends with Us, we saw her summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set, and we are appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice. Most upsetting is the unabashed exploitation of domestic violence survivors’ stories to silence a woman who asked for safety. The hypocrisy is astounding.”
The cast of the Colleen Hoover adaptation allegedly explicitly addressed poor behavior by Baldoni — who directed the film in addition to playing Lively’s on-screen love interest — and the hostile work environment in an all-hands-on-deck meeting during filming. Lively’s husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, was present at the meeting.
During filming, Lively also demanded that there be “no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on-camera climaxing by [Lively] outside the scope of the script [Lively] approved when signing onto the project.” Adding to the alleged hostile work environment, Lively disagreed with Baldoni about the direction of her character, with Lively advocating for a focus on resilience instead of domestic violence.
Freedman’s statement on behalf of Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios 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,” he continues. “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.”
Freedman concludes: “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.”
The film, which made its theatrical release in August, follows Lily Bloom, an aspiring florist (played by Lively) who begins dating Ryle Kincaid, a charming neurosurgeon (Baldoni). Over time, the pair’s relationship becomes dark, as Ryle begins to show signs of physical and emotional abuse. Their lives become further complex when Lily’s former flame (1923′s Brandon Sklenar) reappears in her life.
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