The support for actress Blake Lively has been growing strongly in the past few days following her allegations against It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni, who has been accused of sexual misconduct and a smear campaign in a legal complaint recently filed by her.
Writer and podcaster Elizabeth Day has announced that she has pulled down a podcast ('How to Fail') she did with Baldoni after the allegations emerged. In an Instagram post, she wrote: “I have made the decision to remove the recent How to Fail interview with Justin Baldoni from all platforms while the distressing allegations made against him in Blake Lively’s recent [filing] are fully investigated. Every individual has a right to a safe workplace. Every woman has the right to dignity in that workplace. Every form of abuse should be called out and I salute the individuals who have the courage to do so.”
New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof, who worked with Lively on a 2015 PBS documentary about sex trafficking in the U.S., said that his experience with Lively was a positive one. “I found her authentic, delightful and committed … She wanted to use her celebrity to help chip away at misogyny and oppression. I suspect that the last thing Lively wants is for us to be discussing people leering at her while she was naked. This suit prolongs the humiliation. But the only way to end impunity is to speak up.”
A few days ago, Lively was backed by Justin Baldoni's former publicist Stephanie Jones, who filed a lawsuit which said that last August, Baldoni and his production company assigned publicists to tarnish Lively's reputation in light of the allegations.
Among the defendants named by Jones is Jennifer Abel, a former employee, she said, was responsible for the smear campaign against Lively and attempts to tarnish Jones' reputation.