Blake Lively has launched a lawsuit at the California Civil Rights Department against Justin Baldoni, her ‘It Ends with Us’ co-star for sexual harassment. This comes after social media users appeared to note an on-going feud between the pair during the promotional events and premiers of the film, with fans criticising Lively’s floral and positive approach to the premiers of the film, which highlights the troubles of those experiencing domestic violence and abuse.
Lively, who plays Lily Bloom in the Colleen Hoover film adaptation, has claimed that the behaviour of Baldoni during the filming of It Ends with Us has caused her severe emotional distress. The lawsuit continues to explain how Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, Baldoni and both parties’ lawyers attended a meeting during the filming to acknowledge and work through problems that arose during the creation of the film. However, this appears to have failed to be successful following the launch of this filing.
The lawsuit continues to state that in order to begin work on the film, Lively supposedly requested numerous requirements including ‘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.’
While these requests were approved by Sony Pictures, the distributors of the film, Lively claims that following the agreement, Baldoni and his PR team initiated a campaign to ‘destroy’ her reputation in retaliation. The filing includes pages of text messages between May 15th and August 18th of this year that are supposedly between Jennifer Abel, of PR firm RWA Communications, Melissa Nathan, of The Agency Group PR and Baldoni. Lively claims to have obtained them via a subpoena. For further context, the film was released on August 9th, with promotional materials being shown before, during and after the release. These include:
Details of two quotes of PR packages - one costing "£175k" for a "3-4 month period" including "full reddit, full social account takedowns";
Another PR package costing "$25k per month" for "min 3 months" that includes "creation of social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change the narrative and stay on track";
Baldoni asking Ms Abel "What is the TikTok strategy" and saying "I'd like you guys to start posting me ONLY talking about domestic violence and clips and why this movie is so important";
Ms Abel telling Ms Nathan she was "having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible Blake is to work with";
Ms Abel saying: "The narrative online is so freaking good and fans are still sticking up for Justin" and telling Ms Nathan "you did such amazing work";
Ms Nathan telling Ms Abel: "The majority of socials are so pro Justin and I don't even agree with half of them lol";
Ms Nathan replying to Ms Abel: "Narrative is CRAZY good";
Ms Nathan telling Ms Abel: "We can't write it down to him… We can't write we will destroy her";
Ms Nathan adding: "you know we can bury anyone";
Ms Nathan saying to Ms Abel: "Don't worry, I didn't kill her and send her in a box to your house", to which Abel replies: "DAMNIT";
Ms Nathan telling Ms Abel socials are "really really ramping up", to which Ms Abel adds: "It's actually sad because it just shows you have people really want to hate on women".
Alongside the reputational damage that Lively is seeking to prove, she has also claimed sexual harassment from Baldoni. This includes Baldoni pressuring Lively to strip naked from the chest down during a scene that was depicting childbirth. Lively claims she felt coerced into agreeing to the partial nudity, which only offered her a small piece of fabric covering her genitalia.
Additionally, the actress claims that the set was ‘crowded and utterly lacking in standard industry protections’ in that the set was not closed during intimate scenes which allows anyone to walk in and see her, there was no intimacy coordinator present to ensure comfort and safety and the monitors which displayed the scenes were often left on and facing crew members who had personal devices.
The lawsuit continues further to demonstrate the sexual harassment by stating that Baldoni had cast his best friend to play the role of the obstetrician, despite this minor role usually being played by a local actor. Lively stated that Baldoni’s choice of his best friend in the intimate scene made her feel more uncomfortable and humiliated due to the close proximity required between the pair.
Lively released a statement recently discussing the lawsuit by stating; ‘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.’
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