Months after a reported rift between It Ends With Us costars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, she sued him for sexual harassment.
In the lawsuit, which was filed on Friday, December 20, and obtained by Us Weekly after it was reported on by TMZ and The New York Times, Lively accused Baldoni of launching a “social manipulation” campaign against her to “destroy” her reputation.
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, called Lively’s accusations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” in a statement to Us, claiming that Lively filed the lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation” and “rehash a narrative” about the film’s production.
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Freedman further alleged that Lively made “multiple demands and threats” while filming It Ends With Us, including “threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.”
Us reached out to Lively’s rep for comment but did not immediately hear back. In a statement to The New York Times regarding her lawsuit, Lively said, “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.”
Scroll down to see Lively’s accusations against Baldoni:
Adding Sex Scenes
Per the lawsuit, Lively expressed concerns about Baldoni at the beginning. Before they began filming It Ends With Us, she objected to sex scenes he wanted to add — which she considered gratuitous.
The lawsuit also requested that there be “no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project.”
Lively alleged that Baldoni improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life, including times when he may not have received consent.
“Mr. Baldoni improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed with Ms. Lively, with no intimacy coordinator involved,” the docs state. “For instance, Mr. Baldoni discreetly bit and sucked on Ms. Lively’s lower lip during a scene in which he improvised numerous kisses on each take. Mr. Baldoni insisted on shooting the full scene over and over again, well beyond what would have been required on an ordinary set, and without advance notice or consent.”
Another example of alleged attempts to add nudity to the script includes one of the final scenes of the movie when Lively’s character gives birth. “Mr. Baldoni insisted to Ms. Lively that women give birth naked, and that his wife had ‘ripped her clothes off’ during labor,” the docs read. “ He claimed it was ‘not normal’ for women to remain in their hospital gowns while giving birth. Ms. Lively disagreed, but felt forced into a compromise that she would be naked from below the chest down.”
Blake Lively Sues It Ends With Us’ Justin Baldoni for Sexual Harassment
Alleged Pornography Addiction and More
The lawsuit alleges that there was a meeting held in January to address some of Lively’s concerns about It Ends With Us’ production.
The meeting was attended by Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and some of her demands that were addressed included “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”
Lively claimed that producer Jamey Heath showed her a video of his wife naked and watched Lively in her trailer while she was topless and having body makeup removed — after she asked him to not look. Lively alleged that both Heath and Baldoni entered her makeup trailer while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.
Per the lawsuit, Wayfarer agreed to the terms she sought and acknowledged that, “Although our perspective differs in many aspects, ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount.”
Lively allegedly told the people she worked with that the men’s behavior had improved by the Spring with the new protections.
Everything Justin Baldoni Has Said About Working With Blake Lively
Breaking Character
In the docs, Lively alleged that Baldoni broke character during a slow dance scene on the rooftop. “He leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘It smells so good.’ None of this was remotely in character, or based on any dialogue in the script, and nothing needed to be said because, again, there was no sound — Mr. Baldoni was caressing Mr. Lively with his mouth in a way that had nothing to do with their roles. When Ms. Lively later objected to this behavior, Ms. Baldoni’s response was, ‘I’m not even attracted to you.’”
Body-Shaming
Lively accused Baldoni of body-shaming her on set. “Mr. Baldoni also routinely degraded Ms. Lively by finding back channel ways of criticizing her body and weight,” the docs claim. “A few weeks before filming began and less than four months after Ms. Lively had given birth to her fourth child, Ms. Lively was humiliated to learn that Mr. Baldoni secretly called her fitness trainer, without her knowledge or permission, and implied that weight in two weeks. Mr. Baldoni told the trainer that he had asked because he was concerned about having to pick Ms. Lively up in a scene for the movie, but there was no such scene.”
Inside Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s Intense ‘Creative Struggle’
‘Social Manipulation’ Campaign to ‘Destroy’ Her Reputation
Lively accused Baldoni of launching a “social manipulation” campaign against her to “destroy” her reputation.
In the lawsuit — which included “thousands of pages of text messages and emails” that Lively obtained through a subpoena — a publicist working with the studio and Baldoni allegedly wrote to a crisis management expert, “He wants to feel like she can be buried.”
“This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR,” the docs state, claiming Baldoni’s team proposed a concept called “‘astroturfing,’ which has been defined as ‘the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.’”
Baldoni would “set the narrative for the social media campaign,” per the docs. One example cited was of an X thread about Hailey Bieber “that had accused another female celebrity of bullying women.” Baldoni wrote in the text, “This is what we would need.”
After “nearly all cast members chose to appear in public separately from Mr. Baldoni given his on-set behavior,” per the docs, he was allegedly “became concerned that the public would discover that “something is much bigger under the surface,” prompting him to change his own social media strategy too.
“After the Film’s premiere, Mr. Baldoni changed his Instagram profile, cancelled lighthearted social media posts, and instructed his team to look for survivors reactions and support — all in an effort to quickly shift his own public narrative to focus solely on survivors and domestic violence organizations,” the docs state, when his team noted that “this shift might be ‘too drastic too soon,” he didn’t care. The docs read: “Still, Mr. Baldoni insisted on a ‘Tik Tok strategy’ and that his promotional activities for the Film should seek to amplify what he described as ‘survivor content.’”
Us Weekly
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