Blake Lively has filed a lawsuit against It Ends With Us co-actor Justin Baldoni, alleging sexual harassment and planning a campaign to tarnish her reputation.
The complaint obtained by The Associated Press, which The New York Times reported was filed Friday with the California Civil Rights Department, precedes a lawsuit. It names Baldoni, the studio behind the romantic drama It Ends With Us, and Baldoni's publicists among the defendants.
In her legal complaint, Lively accused Mr Baldoni and his studio of orchestrating a multi-step plan to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, addressed repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior by Baldoni and a producer on the movie.
As per the complaint, the plan included planting theories related to Lively on online forums and negative news stories on various social media platforms such as Tiktok, Reddit, and X while simultaneously trying to boost, through his PR and crisis teams, Baldoni's credibility and sink any negative story concerning him.
Meanwhile, Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, rubbished the claims as "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious," adding that Lively threatened to neither show up on set nor promote the film if her demands were not met.
According to the suit, Lively claimed she was in a hostile work environment. Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, had sit-down meetings with Wayfarer Studios to address their demands of Baldoni, which were reported to include "not showing nude videos or images of women to Lively; no more mentions of Baldoni's alleged previous 'pornography addiction'; no more discussions about sexual experiences in front of Lively and others; no further mentions of cast and crew's genitalia; and no more inquiries about Lively's weight."
The demands also stipulated that an intimacy coordinator be present on set whenever Lively was required to do a scene with Baldoni, and the latter was barred from entering her trailer or make-up trailer while she was changing. The conditions also stated that no improvising of kissing or sex scenes outside of the ones she approved of in the script would be allowed.
Baldoni has denied the accusations. The talent agency WME has now dropped Baldoni as a client.
An adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling 2016 novel of the same name, It Ends With Us, released in August, was a surprise box office hit. But soon after, reports of a troubling experience between Lively and Baldoni emerged, raising questions as to what exactly transpired on the sets.
Meanwhile, less than a day after the report of Lively suing Baldoni came out, the New York Times published a report on Baldoni that revealed he sought the help of his studio's PR head Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan to taint Lively's reputation.