Blake Lively has sued It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment and an alleged coordinated effort to destroy her reputation, per a lawsuit obtained by TMZ.
According to the suit, things got so bad during filming that an all-hands-on-deck meeting was held to address her claims of a hostile work environment.
The demands that were addressed in that meeting, according to the lawsuit, included 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 lawsuit also included demands, like, “No more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project,” according to TMZ, which noted there were other demands as well.
The suit claims the demands were embraced and approved by the studio, but in the end the film flopped, in part because of a huge conflict over how it would be marketed. Blake wanted a more upbeat pitch about her character’s resilience, whereas Baldoni wanted the focus to be on domestic violence.
It also claims that Sony Pictures, which distributed the film, embraced and approved Lively’s demands, but in the end, according to the suit, the film didn’t do as well as expected because there was conflict over how it would be marketed. Lively reportedly wanted a more upbeat promotional pitch about her character’s resilience, according to TMZ, and Baldoni wanted to approach it in a more serious manner because of the domestic violence in the story.
Lively’s additional claims in the suit include that Baldoni and company allegedly engaged in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” her reputation. Per TMZ, it includes texts from Baldoni’s publicist to the studio’s publicist about how he “wants to feel like [Ms. Lively] can be buried,” and “we can’t write we will destroy her.”
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to representatives for Lively, Baldoni and Sony Pictures.
Bryan Freedman, the attorney for Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and all its representatives, released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, slamming Lively’s claims. He began, “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.”
He continued, “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.”
“It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address,” the statement read. “The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
The suit follows months of speculation of some behind-the-scenes drama on It Ends With Us.
More to come.
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