Fallout Continues For Justin Baldoni As Bart Johnson, Former Collaborators & More Support Blake Lively Amid ‘It Ends With Us’ Complaint
Fallout has continued over the holidays for Justin Baldoni as more speak out in support of Blake Lively, following her filing of a complaint alleging a targeted smear campaign in retaliation against her addressing of sexual harassment on the set of their film It Ends With Us.
Among those stepping up for Lively include her brother-in-law and High School Musical actor Bart Johnson, who wrote on X Dec. 23, “He’s a fraud. He puts on the “costume“ of a hero, man bun and all. Used all of the trendy catchphrases & buzz words for his podcasts. None of it’s genuine. It’s all theater. And everyone fell for it. For years. Rewatch his videos with a more critical eye and watch him compliment and praise himself with faux humility and self deprecation. What a performance.”
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Johnson, who recently appeared on Yellowstone, previously stood in solidarity with Lively over the summer, following the romantic drama’s Aug. 9 premiere. “I can promise you the truth has not come out yet,” Johnson said in part, defending the actress/producer over comments that she was being insensitive to the message surrounding themes of domestic violence in the Colleen Hoover adaptation. “Blake worked harder on this film than anything I’ve seen her do my entire life. Because it meant so much to her.”
The Dec. 23 statement online also follows comments made previously in the replies of the New York Times‘ Instagram post breaking news of the complaint: “Her complaints were filed during the filming. On record. Long before the public conflict. The cast unfollowed him for a reason. Read this article before spiting [sic] ignorance. His PR team was stellar. Gross and disgusting but highly effective. Read the article, their text message exchanges and his PR campaign strategy to bury her by any means necessary. No one is with out faults. But the public got played,” Johnson wrote.
Separately, writer and podcaster Elizabeth Day — with whom Baldoni recently sat down for an interview — scrubbed an episode of her How to Fail podcast in light of the allegations: “I have made the decision to remove the recent How to Fail interview with Justin Baldoni from all platforms while the distressing allegations made against him in Blake Lively’s recent [filing] are fully investigated. Every individual has a right to a safe workplace. Every woman has the right to dignity in that workplace. Every form of abuse should be called out and I salute the individuals who have the courage to do so,” she wrote in a brief note posted to Instagram.
Per People, the episode in question, released Dec. 4, saw Baldoni discussing the ADHD diagnosis he received at 40, as well as the taxing toll being the filmmaker of It Ends With Us took on him, saying he “had a near breakdown” following shooting a particular scene, given the movie’s intense subject matter.
New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof, who worked with Lively on a 2015 PBS documentary about sex trafficking in the U.S., wrote of his experience: “I found her authentic, delightful and committed … She wanted to use her celebrity to help chip away at misogyny and oppression,” adding that, “I suspect that the last thing Lively wants is for us to be discussing people leering at her while she was naked. This suit prolongs the humiliation. But the only way to end impunity is to speak up.”
Ensuing consequences from the 10-claim legal complaint filed by Lively late last Friday have been rapid and dizzying: Numerous collaborators, A-Listers and It Ends With Us cast have backed Lively in recent days, as have film distributor Sony, SAG-AFTRA and Amber Heard (herself a previous target of a wave of misogynistic online vitriol). Since the filing, Baldoni has been dropped from WME, which mutually represented him, Lively and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds. His Man Enough podcast co-host Liz Plank quit the enterprise in the wake of the complaint and the award given to him concerning male allyship of women was rescinded.
On Christmas Eve Day, Baldoni was also hit with a defamation suit by former publicist Stephanie Jones, who alleged his Wayfarer Studios, reps Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel “secretly conspired for months to publicly and privately attack Jones and Jonesworks,” as well as breach contracts and steal clientele.
The original complaint from Lively, a potential precursor to a lawsuit filing, includes description of Baldoni’s “disturbing” behavior, which Lively claims led to a “hostile work environment” that almost “derailed production of the Film,” and in turn resulted in a coordinated “astroturfing” campaign by him & co. in retaliation for Lively’s speaking up against sexual harassment — including claims that Baldoni improvised kissing during filming and added sex scenes without Lively’s agreement, failed to close the set during the shooting of intimate scenes, made lewd and sexual remarks toward her, showed her nude images/videos of women, discussed a previous pornography addiction and past romantic experiences in which consent was not given, repeatedly walked in on her in her trailer (including while breastfeeding), said he could communicate with her late father and more.
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