Is Blake Lively suing Justin Baldoni? Everything we know

Photo: Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

After a chaotic press tour for the It ends with us Blake Lively filed a complaint against Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, his crisis PR team The Agency Group, Melissa Nathan and others alleging sexual harassment, retaliation and more. On December 21st the New York Just detailed allegations in the document that Baldoni hired the crisis PR firm to “bury” Lively after she complained about Baldoni’s on-set behavior at the studio, which threatened his “feminist” reputation. The complaint alleges that Baldoni’s team successfully damaged her reputation during the film’s press tour because of their work. Here’s everything you need to know about the complaint, including how Baldoni and Co. responded.

In the 80-page statement of claim obtained by Vulture, the complaint, which is a precursor to a lawsuit, details Lively’s issues with Baldoni throughout production, which led Baldoni to retaliate against Lively during the film’s press tour . During production, Lively claims Baldoni “improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed or discussed with her” and attempted to add nudity and graphic scenes that were not in the original script without an intimacy coordinator being present. After she raised concerns about Baldoni’s alleged behavior at the studio, the studio promised to put safeguards in place and, in another contract, promised not to retaliate against the actress for her complaints.

Lively also claims that when the press tour for the film began, Baldoni moved away from the plan the team had originally agreed upon and focused on “female trauma” instead of “female triumph.” The other cast member and author, Colleen Hoover, began holding promotional events without Baldoni. Baldoni’s team reportedly wanted to stay one step ahead of fans who were wondering why Baldoni wasn’t moving up with the others. At that point, Baldoni reportedly hired Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group PR to work on a retaliation campaign against Lively and devised a plan for possible scenarios in the event Lively spoke out against Baldoni. They hired Jed Wallace, who worked on a social media strategy to drum up support for Baldoni and his work on the film. “The online narrative is so insanely good and the fans are still advocating for Justin and these two articles have literally not been picked up, which really shocks me. “But I consider this a complete success, as does Justin,” wrote publicist Jennifer Abel reportedly texted Nathan.

In a statement on Just, Lively shared, “I hope my legal action will help lift the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics used to harm people who speak out about wrongdoing, and help protect others who may be targeted.”

The backlash affected not only the film, but Lively’s businesses as well. The complaint details how the smear campaign impacted Lively’s new hair care line and how “record-breaking” sales plummeted 56% to 78% following the backlash.

Hoover, Lively and co-stars Jenny Slate, Brandon Sklenar and Isabela Ferrer all attended It ends with us Advertising away from Baldoni – none of the film’s stars followed Baldoni on social media, which fans quickly noticed. Throughout the interviews, they were vague about Baldoni’s performances and directing – Slate called taking on dual duties as director and star “intense work” – and all parties seemingly sided with Lively, whatever happened behind the scenes of the drama played out on set. “Colleen and the women in this cast represent hope, perseverance, and women choosing a better life,” Sklenar said in a statement on Instagram as the rumors reached their peak.

Fans of the novel criticized the differences in promotion of the film between Baldoni and Lively – claiming Lively was too laid back and treated the press tour like the campaign for it Barbie and not about a serious problem like domestic violence. People also attacked Lively’s cross-promotion with her hair care line and her husband’s Deadpool movie, which was released around the same time.

Baldoni’s focus on domestic violence throughout the promotional campaign was praised by fans, and people questioned why Lively and the rest of the team didn’t work with him through it all, drawing even more attention to the film’s behind-the-scenes drama.

In a statement shared with Vulture, Baldoni’s attorney claims that there was no smear campaign against Lively and that the internet has generated its own “views and opinions” about Lively based on “unedited interviews.” They also referred to the evidence presented of Baldoni’s PR plan as “internal scenario planning”, a “standard operating procedure with PR experts”.

A full statement from Justin Baldoni’s attorney, Wayfarer Studios and all of their representatives, Bryan Freedman, can be found below:

“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 activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, allowing the Internet to generate its own views and opinions. These claims are completely false, outrageous and deliberately salacious with the intent to publicly offend and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager to work with their own representative at Jonesworks, employed by Stephanie Jones, prior to the film’s marketing campaign, as Ms. Lively made numerous demands and threats during production, which included her heard She threatened not to show up on set, threatened not to promote the film, which ultimately led to its downfall during release if her demands were not met. It was also discovered that Ms. Lively hired her own representative, Leslie Sloan of Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to spread negative and completely fabricated and false stories to the media even before the film began to be marketed was another reason Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis expert to begin internal scenario planning for the case they needed to handle. Wayfarer Studios representatives continued to take neither proactive nor retaliatory actions and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and to monitor social activity. What is conspicuously missing from the carefully selected correspondence is evidence that no proactive action was taken with the media or otherwise; only internal scenario planning and private correspondence for strategy development, which is standard procedure for PR professionals.”