Blake Lively sues Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment; his team issues statement

Blake lively and Justin Baldoni

It Ends With Us actress Blake Lively has filed a lawsuit against her director and co-star Justin Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment. The lawsuit, which was filed on Saturday, alleges that Baldoni attempted to smear Lively’s reputation, causing severe emotional distress to her family. Baldoni’s team has vehemently denied the accusations, labeling them as “categorically false.”

According to a report by Variety and a lawsuit obtained by TMZ, Lively claims that during the production of It Ends With Us, a meeting was held to address her concerns and demands regarding her working conditions on the film. The meeting, which was allegedly attended by Lively’s husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, included demands such as:

- No more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake.
- No more mentions of Baldoni’s alleged previous pornography addiction.
- No 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.
- No further mentions of Blake’s deceased father.
- No last-minute changes to intimate or sexual scenes without Lively’s prior approval.

These demands were reportedly approved by Sony Pictures, the film’s distributor. The lawsuit also accuses Baldoni of “social manipulation” and attempting to “destroy” Lively’s reputation.

In a statement to Variety, Baldoni’s team categorically denied the allegations, calling them “completely false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious.” The statement suggested that Lively’s accusations were an attempt to “fix her negative reputation” garnered from her own actions and remarks during the film’s campaign.

The statement read, “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.”

The statement further read, “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. 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 concluded, “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.”

Baldoni’s team further claimed that Wayfarer Studios had proactively hired a crisis manager to handle the demands and threats made by Lively during production. They accused Lively of planting negative and fabricated stories in the media and stated that their crisis management efforts were purely defensive.

The press tour for It Ends With Us had already generated considerable buzz due to visible tensions between Lively and Baldoni. The two promoted the film separately, fueling rumours of an on-set feud.