Happy Almost New Year! Blake Lively Officially Sues Justin Baldoni & PR Team For Sexual Harassment & “Unconscionable” Retaliation On Same Day ‘It End With Us’ Co-Star Sues New York Times
Never think for a second that anything like New Year’s Eve could get in the way of some old-fashioned Hollywood legal fireworks.
Eleven days after Blake Lively filed a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint with California’s Civil Rights department against Justin Baldoni and his team over what went down during production of It Ends With Us and the film’s aftermath, the much A-lister supported actress has formally sued her co-star and director in federal court in New York.
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“As laid out in this Complaint, the Baldoni-Wayfarer-led public attack of Ms. Lively was the intended result of a carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out about the hostile environment that Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath created,” the 13-claim complaint states of the Jane the Virgin vet and his Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath.
“As such, it was not only unconscionable and a breach of contract, but also illegal under both state and federal law,” the jury trial seeking filing adds. “Ms. Lively brings this action to hold Wayfarer and its leaders, Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and Mr. Sarowitz, accountable for the ongoing retaliation threats and harm they have caused Ms. Lively, other cast and crew, and all of their families,”
Looking for unspecified damages, Lively’ text message illustrated suit pretty clearly implies that it aims to see Baldoni or his minions never say or type Lively or husband Ryan Reynolds’ names every again.
To that end, and reiterating much of what was in the original December 20 complaint, Lively’s action today against Baldoni, the Wayfarer Studio CEO, PR mavens Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, and others comes on the same last day of 2024 that the defendants in this matter became plaintiffs in their own Bryan Freedman filed $250 million suit against the New York Times for its detailed December 20 “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside A Hollywood Smear Machine” piece about the supposed BS BTS on IEWU.
In his own legal action, Baldoni calls out Lively and the NYT for their use of texts between his PR team that “cherry-picked and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead”
Even though the previously almost reputation pristine Lively was suddenly attacked relentless online in the weeks leading up to IEWU’s August release, Baldoni has insisted that he did nothing to Lively. His PR people have also insisted that while they had a number of combative strategies in place to blunt any allegations against their C-list client from A-list Lively, they never implemented them “because the internet was doing the work for us.” Rejecting any notion of an active Lively smear campaign, Abel did admit in a now deleted Facebook post that “as the texts show, we sophomorically reveled and again joked privately to each other about the internet’s feedback to the woman whose team was making our lives incredibly difficult over the course of the campaign.”
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“Ms. Lively never sought out conflict with Wayfarer, Mr. Baldoni, or Mr. Heath, but instead consistently attempted to speak up for a safe and respectful workplace privately in the hopes of protecting herself, as well as the cast and crew, without jeopardizing a Film that she believed could make a difference in peoples’ lives,” Livley’s Manatt, Phelps & Phillips attorneys and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP filed NYE suit says of the domestic abuse movie based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel and the fallout that has pulled back the sordid veil on Crisis PR in America. “In response, Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and those working for them, sought to destroy Ms. Lively and anyone else who knew the truth. Ms. Lively’s discovery of the full extent of the retaliatory campaign launched by the Wayfarer parties and their associates, left her with no choice. Ms. Lively exhausted jurisdictional prerequisites to filing this lawsuit including by timely filing a complaint regarding the behaviors identified herein with the California Civil Rights Department.”
RELATED: Blake Lively Files Sexual Harassment Complaint With CA Civil Rights Department
To that end, as numerous lawsuits from numerous parties in this dirty business swirl and more seem likely, Lively’s lawyers told Deadline Tuesday that: “Earlier today, Ms. Lively filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios and others in the Southern District of New York. Ms. Lively previously sent her California Civil Rights Department Complaint in response to the retaliatory campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns.”
They go on to say: “Unfortunately, Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court. Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.”
So, we’ve gone below the tip of the iceberg now, but, with at least three lawsuits before the courts over It Ends With Us, this is so far from having reach rock bottom.
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