Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation in a bombshell legal battle

In a bombastic legal act It ends with us star Blake Lively claims that his co-star/director Justin Baldoni and a producer of the film hired a public relations team to turn public opinion against her. According to Lively, the alleged smear campaign was a retaliation against Baldoni and the producer Jamey Heath During the production of the film adaptation, “repeated sexual harassment and other disruptive behavior” occurred, the lawsuit says Colleen Hooveris the 2016 novel that was famously plagued by rumors of trouble on set.

The 80-page administrative complaint was filed Friday in California civil court and received by Vanity Fairfollows a filing that Lively’s legal team made to the California Department of Civil Rights the same day. Instead of demanding that state investigators look into the allegations, Lively requested an immediate right to sue. That right was granted, sources familiar with the case say Vanity Fair.

According to the complaint, while filming for It ends with us After disruption caused by the Hollywood strikes in 2023, the film was scheduled to resume. Blake Lively’s lawyers sent a letter to the film’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, demanding an end to what was described in the complaint as a “hostile work environment.” At a subsequent “all-hands” meeting in January of this year, according to the complaint, Lively told a group that included Baldoni, some of the film’s producers and studio executives, and Lively’s husband: Ryan Reynoldsthat Baldoni had improvised additional kisses in scenes. She called for an end to “the addition of sex scenes, oral sex or on-camera climaxes,” the complaint says, and both sides agreed to a series of boundaries before filming resumed.

Although the list of provisions included a prohibition on retaliation against Lively for making these complaints, the complaint alleges that Baldoni, Heath and others hired public relations strategists at Wayfarer to launch a campaign to increase the public’s trust in Undermining Lively, which in this case was a preventive measure Lively’s allegations on set were leaked to the public.

As first reported by The New York TimesText messages and emails obtained by Lively’s team via subpoena include messages between public relations, crisis communications and media management experts that appear to detail a coordinated series of efforts to spread negative stories about Lively in the media and encourage critical posts in the to promote social media about the star. After implementing the strategy, according to the complaint, one publicist wrote to another, “And social media is really taking off…” To his credit, she must be angry. It’s actually sad because it just shows that there are people who really want to hate women.”

Those who have been following the buzz surrounding the domestic violence drama on social media are likely aware of the truth of this observation. Although the film was a box office success, it was also the source of endless fan speculation after Baldoni appeared to be absent from most of the promotions involving the cast, including a video the cast was filming Vanity Fair.