Blake Lively sues Justin Baldoni over ‘It Ends With Us’ dispute

Blake Lively has filed a formal lawsuit against her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director Justin Baldoni.

The actress, 37, sued Baldoni, 40, on Tuesday in federal court in New York for alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and loss of wages, Page can confirm. Six.

The allegations in the lawsuit, which we obtained, reflect those of the complaint filed last week with the California Department of Civil Rights.

Lively claimed in her lawsuit that Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set of her August movie and that after they had a meeting to address his alleged behavior, he allegedly hired a crisis management team to destroy your reputation.

In addition to Baldoni, Lively is suing her crisis manager, Melissa Nathan, her publicist, Jennifer Abel, and Wayfarer Studios, which produced “It Ends with Us.”

“Earlier today, Ms. Lively filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios and others in the Southern District of New York,” her lawyers told us in a statement.

“EM. Lively previously submitted her complaint to the California Department of Civil Rights in response to the retaliation campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns.”

Her lawyers continued: “Unfortunately, Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state laws by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety issues. “Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court.”

Her lawyers concluded: “Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where many of the relevant activities described in the complaint took place, but we reserve the right to take additional actions in other locations and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.” .

Lively claimed in her lawsuit that during the filming of the romantic drama, there had to be a meeting between everyone about Baldoni’s alleged behavior on set.

During the alleged meeting, he was allegedly told to stop showing his co-star “nude videos or images of women,” mentioning his past “pornography addiction” and sexual conquests and mentioning the “genitals of the cast and crew,” according to the demand. .

Baldoni was also allegedly asked not to add any more sexually charged scenes “outside the scope” of the pre-approved script.

Additionally, he was allegedly told to stop asking about Lively’s “weight” and “dead father.”

According to the lawsuit, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, was present at the argument.

Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios’ attorney, Bryan Freedman, previously told Page Six in response to the allegations: “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations.

“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally lewd with the intent to publicly hurt and repeat a narrative in the media.”

Freedman claimed his client hired a crisis manager due to “multiple demands and threats” Lively had allegedly made during production, including “threatening not to show up to set (and) threatening not to promote the film, which ultimately led to her disappearance during the premiere, if Their demands were not met.” “

Lively also alleged in her lawsuit that Baldoni was behind much of the avalanche of negative stories that started circulating over it Shortly afterward he hired said repairman, accusing them of engaging in “social manipulation” to “destroy” his reputation.

The lawsuit included an alleged text message from Abel saying that Baldoni “wants to feel like (Lively) can be buried,” to which Nathan responded, “You know we can bury anyone.”

Lively alleged in the complaint that the Baldoni-Wayfarer team “hired subcontractors… who assembled a digital army across the country, from New York to Los Angeles, to create, seed and promote authentic-looking content on social media platforms.” and Internet chat forums. “

According to the lawsuit, they would “then feed snippets of this fabricated content to unwitting journalists, causing the content to go viral to influence public opinion and thereby cause organic buildup.”

However, Freedman called Lively’s lawsuit “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation, which came from her own comments and actions during the film’s campaign, interviews and press activities that were publicly observed, in time real and unedited, which allowed the Internet to generate its own views and opinions.”

He also accused her of using her publicist to plant negative stories about Baldoni, alleging that her clients’ representatives did not retaliate in response to those reports.

“There were no proactive steps taken with the media or others, just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize, which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals,” Freedman insisted.

Dynamic told the New York Timeswho was the first to report her initial complaint: “I hope that my legal action will help lift the curtain on these sinister retaliation tactics to harm people who report misconduct and help protect others who may be targeted. ”.

He also denied that his team had planted negative stories about Baldoni or Wayfarer.

Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, Baldoni and several others, including Wayfarer Studios, Nathan and Abel, filed his own $250 million lawsuit against the Times for alleged defamation, invasion of privacy by false light, fraud of promise and breach of contract.

“In this vicious smear campaign entirely orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times cowed to the wishes and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, ignoring the journalistic practices and ethics that were once the province of the revered publication through the use of doctored and manipulated information. texts and intentionally omit texts that question the chosen PR narrative,” Freedman told Page Six in a statement.

“In doing so, they predetermined the outcome of their story and aided and abetted their own devastating public relations smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively’s self-induced faltering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism among the online public. The irony is rich.”

He continued: “However, make no mistake, as we all come together to take down the New York Times and not allow it to mislead the public, we will continue this authenticity campaign by also suing those individuals who have abused their power to try and destroy lives.” of my clients.

“While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth and have all the communications to back it up. “The public will decide for themselves as they did when this started.”

In response to the lawsuit by Baldoni and the other plaintiffs, the New York Times said: “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead.

“Our story was reported meticulously and responsibly. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails that we cite with precision and detail in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed out any errors. We also published his full statement in response to the allegations in the article.

“We plan to vigorously defend ourselves against the lawsuit.”