Blake Lively sues 'It Ends With Us' co-star and director Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment, reputational retaliation

Blake Lively has filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, co-star and director of It Ends With Us, for sexual harassment and an alleged organized effort to damage her image, according to a document acquired by Above. Baldoni's legal team responded, criticizing her "shameful," "serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its representatives."

Blake Lively.

RW/MediaPunch/IPx

According to Lively's lawsuit, things were so terrible during production that an all-hands conference was called to discuss her allegations of a hostile work environment.

According to the filing first obtained by TMZ, the demands made at that meeting included not showing nude videos or images of women to Lively; no more mentions of Baldoni's alleged previous "pornography addiction"; no more discussions about sexual experiences in front of Lively and others; no more mentions of cast and crew genitalia; and no more inquiries about Lively's weight.

The complaint also listed additional demands, such as "No more adding sex scenes, oral sex, or on-camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project."

It alleges that Wayfarer Studios supported and endorsed the requests. It Ends With Us' actors and crew were also contractually obligated to market the film in accordance with the conditions, which would focus "more on Lily's [Lively's character] strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence." They were also instructed to "avoid talking about this film that makes it feel sad or heavy [sic]—it's a story of hope."

However, in the days coming up to the film's premiere, Baldoni shifted his attention to the story's more serious themes. According to the document, the actor and his team did so to explain why many of the film's cast and crew stopped following him on social media and refused to appear with him in public. "To that aim, he and his crew exploited domestic violence 'victim content' to safeguard his public image," according to the lawsuit.

Lively further says that Baldoni and company participated in a "social manipulation" operation to "destroy" her reputation. The long document contains 22 pages of texts from Baldoni's publicist to TAG's Melissa Nathan, who leads her own crisis PR agency, about how he "wants to feel like [Ms. Lively] can be buried," to which Nathan responded, "we can't write, we will destroy her."

In a statement to The New York Times, Lively said, "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."

Bryan Freedman, the attorney for Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and all of its personnel, issued a statement publicly criticizing Lively's assertions. He began, "It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions."

He continued, "These claims are completely false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious, with the intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media." Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the film's marketing campaign, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks, employed by Stephanie Jones, due to Ms. Lively's multiple demands and threats made during production, which included her threatening not to show up to set, threatening not to promote the film, and ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met."

"It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address," the statement reads. "Wayfarer Studios representatives did not take any aggressive or retaliatory actions, instead responding to incoming media requests to guarantee fair and truthful reporting and monitoring social activity. What is conspicuously absent from the cherry-picked email is proof that no proactive actions were made with media or otherwise; just internal scenario preparation and private email to strategize, which is usual operational procedure among public relations specialists."

The allegation comes after months of speculation about some behind-the-scenes turmoil involving Lively and Baldoni on It Ends With Us. The rumors began to circulate on TikTok when Baldoni was noticeably absent from joint press events; there were no group photos of the co-stars at the film's New York premiere; and Lively, author Colleen Hoover, and co-star Jenny Slate did not follow the director on Instagram, despite him following them.

While a sequel film based on Hoover's second novel in the series, It Starts With Us, has yet to be confirmed, in most cases it would be a no-brainer. However, the disagreement between the co-stars and co-producers may jeopardize preparations. Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios owns the sequel, so even if he didn't direct and the part of Ryle Kincaid was recast, the two would still have to collaborate in some form.

Since It Ends With Us premiered in cinemas in August, both have received terrible press. Because of the film's severe domestic violence plot, Lively faced criticism for her cheerful interview excerpts and cross-promotion of her new hair-care business. Baldoni, for his part, has been accused of creating an unsettling atmosphere that alienated Lively and the ensemble.