Blake Lively has sued her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment. In a bombshell filing, the actress alleges that Baldoni attempted to mount a smear campaign against her and claims his behavior caused her and her family “severe emotional distress” (per a lawsuit obtained by TMZ). Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, fired back at Lively’s lawsuit in a statement to Variety. He called the suit “shameful” and full of “categorically false accusations.”
According to the lawsuit obtained by TMZ, a meeting was held during the production of “It Ends With Us” to address Lively’s claims and her demands for working on the film. Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, was reportedly in attendance at the meeting. Some of the demands addressed allegedly 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,” according to TMZ.
Lively allegedly also demanded Baldoni not add any more “sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing” outside of what was in the script of the movie that she had approved before filming began. The film’s distributor, Sony Pictures, reportedly approved Lively’s requests, according to TMZ, but the lawsuit goes on to accuse Baldoni of “social manipulation” and launching a campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation afterward.
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Variety has reached out to representatives for Sony Pictures and Lively for comment.
“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,” Freedman’s statement to Variety about the lawsuit reads.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” Freedman contiues. “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.”
The statement 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.”
Rumors of a set feud between Lively and Baldoni were rampant during the press tour for “It Ends With Us” last August, as the two never did any promotion for the movie together. The film ended up being a box office hit for Sony, earning $350 million at the worldwide box office. “It Ends With Us” is based on a bestselling novel by author Colleen Hoover, who penned a sequel novel titled “It Starts With Us.” A source told Variety after the movie’s release that a film version of the sequel was unlikely to take place because “there’s probably no world where these two will work together again.”