By Evridiki Fatolia,
Four months after the movie It Ends With Us premiered, Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment in a lawsuit she filed against him. It Ends With Us was created by Mr. Baldoni’s production business, Wayfarer Studios, which was also named as a defendant in the complaint. In the lawsuit, Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath and Baldoni are accused of “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior.” The complaint claims that some other female members of the cast and crew had also voiced their concerns about their behavior. Additionally, it claims that Ms. Lively, Mr. Baldoni, and other crew members met in January to discuss “the hostile work environment” on the set.
According to the allegations, she was accompanied to the meeting by her spouse, actor Ryan Reynolds. A list of demands was agreed upon at the meeting, including that Mr. Heath and Mr. Baldoni make “no more descriptions of their own genitalia,” that an intimacy coordinator be present on set at all times when Ms. Lively was in scenes with Mr. Baldoni, and that no “friends” of the directors and producers be present on set when Ms. Lively was nude.The list with the demands also claimed that Mr. Heath and Mr. Baldoni had discussed their “pornography addiction” with Ms. Lively and said that Mr. Baldoni had discussed about her weight with her trainer.
Ms. Lively also claims that in the filming process after the meeting, Mr. Baldoni and his group disparaged her public persona. She claims that he utilized a “digital army” to post social media information that portrayed as genuine and hired a crisis manager to lead a “sophisticated, coordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan” against her as part of a scheme to “destroy” her reputation online and in the mainstream media. The lawsuit claimed that The Baldoni-Wayfarer team produced, disseminated, amplified, and enhanced content intended to undermine Ms. Lively’s credibility in order to mitigate the possibility that she would ever divulge the truth about Mr. Baldoni. It continues: “They engaged in the same techniques to bolster Mr Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him”. Ms. Lively claims in the document that this caused “substantial harm” that impacted “all aspects” of her life.
The BBC was informed by Mr. Baldoni’s legal team that the accusations are “categorically false” and that they employed a crisis manager due to Ms. Lively’s threats to halt the movie until her demands were fulfilled. In response to the lawsuit on Saturday, Mr. Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said that it is disgraceful that Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its personnel would be the targets of such grave and blatantly untrue charges from Ms. Lively and her aides.
According to Lively’s lawsuit, Baldoni launched an effort to damage her reputation even after Sony Pictures granted her wishes. Lively said in a statement, “I hope that my legal action helps to protect others who may be targeted and helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about misconduct.” Baldoni is allegedly preparing to file a countersuit, claiming that Lively also launched a smear campaign against him, despite having a list of famous supporters.
References
- Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni: What you need to know. BBC. Available here
- Blake Lively Sues Justin Baldoni for Sexual Harassment… Claims of Wild Behavior on Set. TMZ. Available here
