Blake Lively officially sues Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and ‘smear campaign’
Lawsuit was filed on the same day that Baldoni filed a lawsuit against the New York Times over its coverage of his row with Lively
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Your support makes all the difference.Blake Lively is suing her co-star and director Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her, after going public with allegations of misconduct on the set of their 2024 film, It Ends With Us.
The Hollywood star, 37, initially filed a legal complaint in December that detailed the claims against her co-star and director, with whom she had been rumoured to have clashed while shooting the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling 2016 novel.
In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday 31 January in New York federal court, Lively accused Baldoni, 40, and his public relationships team of organising a sophisticated scheme to undermine her reputation, in retaliation for speaking up about alleged misconduct on set.
The complaint named Baldoni, his film studio Wayfarer, and public relations executive Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan.
“As laid out in this Complaint, the Baldoni-Wayfarer-led public attack of Ms Lively was the intended result of a carefully crafted, coordinated and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out about the hostile environment that Mr Baldoni and Mr Heath created,” the lawsuit said of Baldoni and his Wayfarer CEO, Jamey Heath, Deadline reports.
It added that Lively is bringing the legal action to hold Baldoni and his associates accountable for “the ongoing retaliation threats and harm they have caused Ms Lively, other cast and crew, and all of their families”.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lively said in the lawsuit that she had already expressed concerns before It Ends With Us began filming due to Baldoni allegedly improvising “physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed with Ms Lively, with no intimacy coordinator involved”.
Baldoni allegedly defended a graphic sex scene he wanted to add, in which Lively’s character orgasms on camera, by saying he wanted the characters to “orgasm together on their wedding night”. He apparently said this was important to him because “he and his partner climax simultaneously during intercourse”.
Lively accused Baldoni of proceeding to ask her for personal details about her relationship with her husband, fellow actor and producer Ryan Reynolds.
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She alleged that she had experienced a number of inappropriate interactions with Baldoni and Heath, including the two men discussing their past sexual relationships and “previous porn addictions” with her, and referring to women on set – including her – as “sexy”.
Lively claimed that after several unsuccessful attempts to raise concerns regarding Baldoni and Heath’s alleged conduct, an “all-hands, in person” meeting was held in early January to address “the hostile work environment that had almost derailed the film”, in which she detailed a number of requirements to protect cast and crew members in order for her to continue working.
The lawsuit alleged that the situation took another turn when it came to promoting It Ends With Us. While the cast and crew were reportedly under a contractual obligation to promote the film with a focus on the resilience of Lively’s character, Lily, instead of describing it as a story about domestic violence.
Baldoni is accused of pivoting during promotion to focus on the darker aspects of the story, which Lively’s lawsuit claimed was part of an effort to explain why many of the film’s cast and crew had unfollowed him on social media.
It was around this time, Lively alleged, that Baldoni and his team launched his “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” her reputation.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman, who is also representing his public relations team, denied all of Lively’s allegations made in her initial complaint filed on 20 December 2024.
The Independent has contacted Freedman for comment.
Lively’s lawsuit was filed on the same day that Baldoni sued the New York Timesover its reporting of her allegations against him.
Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs including Nathan and Abel have brought a $250 million lawsuit against the newspaper alleging libel and false-light invasion of privacy.
The suit, which has been seen by The Independent, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and claimed that the Times reporting “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead”.
It argued that “the Times relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative.”
Baldoni is also reportedly planning to counter-sue Lively. Freedman told Deadline last week that “when we file our first lawsuit, it is going to shock everyone who has been manipulated into believing a demonstrably false narrative”.