What’s New
Justin Baldoni’s lawyer called actress Blake Lively’s claims against the actor and director in a recently filed lawsuit “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
Newsweek has reached out to the lawyers of Baldoni and Lively via email for comment Saturday afternoon.
Why It Matters
Baldoni, who positioned himself as a feminist ally in the #MeToo movement, in which survivors of sexual abuse and harassment come forward with their stories, was accused himself of sexually harassing his co-star Lively while they were filming the romantic drama film It Ends with Us, which is based on a best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover.
What To Know
Rumors of tensions between Lively and Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us swirled during the film’s press tour in August. Lively’s lawsuit gives insight into what she claims happened during the production of the film, which included Baldoni allegedly improvising “unwanted kissing” and discussing his sex life, according to a civil complaint filed by the actress’ lawyers Friday.
The lawsuit says that there was an “all hands” meeting to address “the hostile work environment” on set. During the meeting, Lively addressed “inappropriate conduct” that she, her employees and other cast and crew experienced at the hands of Baldoni and Jamey Heath, the CEO of Wayfarer Studios and the producer of the film, according to the suit.
The suit listed conduct that everyone at the meeting agreed would end, including showing nude videos or images of women to Lively and her employees, mentioning Baldoni’s or Heath’s previous “pornography addiction” to Lively and other crew members and discussing personal experiences with sex to Lively and her employees.
“No more personal, physical touching of, or sexual comments by, Mr. Baldoni or Mr. Heath to be tolerated by [Lively] and/or any of her employees, as well as any female cast or crew without their express consent,” read another agreement from the list.
The suit said that Lively and other cast members promoted the film last summer following a marketing plan from Sony, the film’s distributor, which directed the cast to focus less on the story of domestic violence in the film and more on the strength and resilience of Lively’s character who was a survivor of domestic violence.
However, the suit said that Baldoni deviated from the plan “in an effort to explain why many of the Film’s cast and crew had unfollowed Mr. Baldoni on social media and were not appearing with him in public.”
“To that end, he and his team used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image,” the suit said.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Vital Voices Global Partnership
What People Are Saying
Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, of which Baldoni is the co-founder, said in a statement obtained by multiple media outlets on Saturday, “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
Freedman said the claims made in Lively’s lawsuit were an attempt to repair her negative public image.
“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,” he said.
During the promotion of the film, some people on the internet criticized Lively for not focusing on the main premise of the film, domestic violence, and instead, marketing it as a romantic comedy.
Past interviews of Lively resurfaced online during this time, including one from 2016 when the actress made a snide remark to an interviewer who congratulated her on her “little bump” after Lively had recently announced she was pregnant with her second child.
Lively, meanwhile, told The New York Times after the lawsuit was filed, “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.”
What Happens Next
It Ends With Us is set to have a sequel titled after Hoover’s book, It Starts With Us, but with the feud between Lively and Baldoni as well as the lawsuit, it seems unlikely that both stars will appear in the second film.
“There’s probably no world where these two will work together again,” a source told Variety in late August.
