Blake Lively has sued director and co-star Justin Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment during the making of their box office hit “It Ends With Us,” and a subsequent effort to publicly smear her reputation.
Months after rumors first swirled of a behind-the-scenes feud between Lively and Baldoni, the actress is claiming on-set tensions hit such a fever pitch that a meeting was held during which she addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Baldoni and a producer on the film.
In that meeting, attended by multiple people involved in the movie as well as Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, Baldoni was allegedly ordered to alter his behavior.
According to the lawsuit, Baldoni was told to stop showing Lively photos and videos of nude women, stop mentioning his “alleged previous pornography addiction” or prior sexual conquests, and to stop referring to the cast and crew’s genitalia, among other demands.
The complaint says Baldoni was also ordered to stop adding “sex scenes, oral sex or on-camera climaxing by [Lively] outside the scope of the script [Lively] approved when signing onto the project,” according to TMZ, which was first reported the lawsuit.
Following the meeting, Lively claims Baldoni and the studio soon embarked on a “multi-tiered plan” to “destroy” her reputation, including planting news stories and engineering social media campaigns that were critical of Lively.
Amid promotional for the film, production sources told multiple outlets that Lively, a co-producer of the movie, used her celebrity to take creative control over the production from director Baldoni. Lively was accused of bringing in her husband to do last-minute rewrites and of hiring her own editor, resulting in two different cuts of the film.
As those stories were circulating online, the crew appeared to side with Baldoni, as did much of the internet, in part due to his centering of the film’s promotion around domestic violence, while Lively billed the film as far more lighthearted.
During the press tour, many of Lively’s old, often terse and dismissive interviews also surfaced, compounding the public’s negative perception of her.
According to the lawsuit, the “manipulation” campaign caused Lively “severe emotional distress” and harm to her businesses. Despite the Colleen Hoover film adaptation raking in $148.5 million domestically and nearly $351 million worldwide, Lively was widely criticized for making light of a domestic violence story in favor of promotion of her hair and alcohol brands.
The complaint, however, accuses Baldoni of “abruptly pivot[ing] away from” the movie’s marketing plan and “us[ing] domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image.”
In a statement on Saturday, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, slammed the “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” suit, claiming the “Gossip Girl” alum is merely scrambling to “fix her negative reputation.”
Freedman also refuted Lively’s accusations of a smear campaign, saying the studio “proactively” hired a crisis manager “due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production.” He said she threatened to not appear on set and not promote the film “if her demands were not met.”
In her own statement to the New York Times, Lively said she hopes her 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.”
Along with Baldoni, the lawsuit lists Wayfarer Studios and Baldoni’s publicists among the defendants.
With News Wire Services
