Blake Lively has filed a lawsuit against her former It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni, alleging on-set sexual harassment, along with launching a smear campaign against Lively during the film's promotion.
In the lawsuit, obtained by Teen Vogue on Saturday, December 21, thousands of text messages and emails showed Baldoni's representatives creating a plan to "bury" Lively and increase public scrutiny against her after she accused Baldoni and lead producer Jamey Heath of alleged inappropriate behavior. According to the suit, Lively took part in a meeting during the production of It Ends With Us to address her claims and demands, which included: "no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni's alleged previous 'pornography addiction,' no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew's genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake's weight, and no further mention of Blake's dead father."
"I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted," Lively said in a statement.
A lawyer for both Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios told multiple outlets that his client "did nothing proactive nor retaliated" against Lively, and said that the lawsuit was "another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation."
"These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media," Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, continued. Teen Vogue has reached out to representatives for Baldoni for comment.
The lawsuit states that Baldoni had improvised previously unscripted kissing scenes and had openly spoken about his sex life to Lively and others. Lively also alleged that producer Heath showed her a video of his wife naked and that he and Baldoni would often come into her trailer unannounced while she was changing or breastfeeding.
The lawsuit states that following the aforementioned meeting, the behavior from both men improved under her new requested protections, but once Lively and Baldoni had creative differences about the film, which centers around domestic abuse, tensions arose once more. The lawsuit showed texts and emails between Baldoni and his PR team, planning to create a negative narrative about Lively. In one instance, Baldoni sent a social media thread of celebrities being bullies and said, "This is what we would need." In another message between crisis communications professional Melissa Nathan and publicist Jennifer Abel, Nathan wrote: "I'm having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible Blake is to work with. Just to get ahead of it."