Blake Lively is suing Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment

Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment. In an explosive filing, the actress claims Baldoni attempted to launch a smear campaign against her, claiming his behavior caused her and her family “severe emotional distress” (according to a legal complaint obtained by The New York Times). Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, responded to Lively’s complaint in a statement diversity. He called the lawsuit “shameful” and full of “categorically false allegations.”

According to the complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Commission, a meeting was held during the production of “It Ends With Us” to discuss Lively’s claims and her demands to work on the film. Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds was reportedly present at the meeting. The demands addressed reportedly included: “No more showing Blake nude videos or images of women, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged former ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions of sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no more mentions of the cast” and genitals of the Crew, no further questions about Blake’s weight and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”

Lively also reportedly requested that Baldoni not add any additional “sex scenes, oral sex, or on-camera climaxes” beyond what was in the film’s script, which she approved before filming began. The film’s distributor, Sony Pictures, allegedly agreed to Lively’s requests, the complaint says. However, Baldoni is subsequently accused of “social manipulation” and then launches a campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation.

diversity has reached out to Sony Pictures and Lively representatives for comment.

“It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false allegations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and their representatives in another desperate attempt to ‘repair’ their negative reputation created by their own statements.” actions during the campaign for the film; “Interviews and press activity observed publicly, in real time and unedited, allowing the Internet to generate its own views and opinions,” Freedman’s statement said diversity reads about the complaint.

“These allegations are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with the intent to publicly offend and rehash a narrative in the media,” Freedman continued. “Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the film’s marketing campaign, working with its own representative at Jonesworks, employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the numerous demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production , including: She threatened not to show up on set and threatened not to promote the film, ultimately causing it to fail during release if her demands were not met. It was also discovered that Ms. Lively hired her own agent, Leslie Sloan of Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to spread negative and completely fabricated and false stories to the media before the film had even begun to be marketed another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis expert to begin internal scenario planning for the case they needed to address.”

The statement concludes: “Wayfarer Studios representatives have still not taken any proactive or retaliatory action and have only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and to monitor social activity.” What is in the carefully selected correspondence What is clearly missing is evidence that no proactive measures have been taken with the media or otherwise; only internal scenario planning and private correspondence for strategy development, which is standard procedure for PR professionals.”

Rumors of a feud between Lively and Baldoni began circulating during the It Ends With Us press tour last August, as the two never promoted the film together. The film ultimately became a box office hit for Sony, grossing $350 million worldwide. “It Ends With Us” is based on a bestselling novel by author Colleen Hoover, who wrote a serialized novel called “It Starts With Us.” A source told diversity After the film’s release, he said that it was unlikely that a film adaptation of the sequel would happen because “there probably isn’t a world where these two will work together again.”