Counterattack! Blake Lively Quickly Rebukes “Unethical” Justin Baldoni For Releasing ‘It Ends With Us’ Footage To Denigrate Her Sexual Harassment Claims
Once again, Blake Lively and her team have made it very clear they understand that timing is a big part of everything in Hollywood, on and off camera, and especially when lawyers are involved.
Very quickly after Justin Baldoni and his Bryan Freedman-led legal team dropped footage today from the filming of It Ends With Us to counter his co-star’s claims of sexual harassment on the movie, Lively came back to both chastise and mock the director of the flick based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 domestic abuse novel.
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“Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning,” said Lively’s Manatt, Phelps & Phillips attorneys and Willkie Farr & Gallagher legal team to Deadline Tuesday.
The release of the obviously edited footage (which you can see here) comes as Baldoni has taken Lively, Ryan Reynolds and others to court in a January 16 $400 million defamation and extortion action and the New York Times for $250 million action filed on New Year’s Day. Following her December 20 sexual harassment and retaliation complaint to California’s Civil Rights department, Lively hit Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios and his PR team of Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel with an official lawsuit of her own.
Today, as various suits and statements fly between the two in the courts, the media and over at Disney (a.k.a. – home of Reynolds’ blockbuster Deadpool franchise) Lively’s crew took direct aim at Baldoni and gang’s latest public stance.
With the caveat that this is more Crisis PR on the part of all concerned, Lively’s well paid attorneys went for the jugular. Seeking to turn Baldoni’s own intent against him, and likely to follow that up with a move to seek a protective order to shut down Freedman, sources tell me, Lively’s lawyers today said:
Every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what Ms. Lively described in Paragraph 48 of her Complaint. The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character. Every moment of this was improvised by Mr. Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance, and no intimacy coordinator present. Mr. Baldoni was not only Ms. Lively’s co-star, but the director, the head of studio and Ms. Lively’s boss.
The video shows Ms. Lively leaning away and repeatedly asking for the characters to just talk. Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort. They will recognize her attempts at levity to try to deflect the unwanted touching. No woman should have to take defensive measures to avoid being touched by their employer without their consent.
This matter is in active litigation in federal court. Releasing this video to the media, rather than presenting it as evidence in court, is another example of an unethical attempt to manipulate the public. It is also a continuation of their harassment and retaliatory campaign. While they are focused on misleading media narratives, we are focused on the legal process. We are continuing our efforts to require Mr. Baldoni and his associates to answer in court, under oath, rather than through manufactured media stunts.
Sending the ball back over the net, Baldoni’s team did not respond to Deadline’s request over Lively’s response to the footage release today. If they do, this post will be updated.
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