Here Are Baldoni’s Key Allegations Against Lively. Latest: He Claims She Never Read ‘It Ends With Us’ – Forbes
“It Ends With Us” director and star Justin Baldoni has fought back against allegations from co-star Blake Lively that he created a hostile work environment and helped engineer a smear campaign against her, claiming the actress undermined him throughout the filmmaking process, ultimately edited the final cut of the film and tried to have him banned from the movie’s premiere, according to a suit he filed against the New York Times.US actor Justin Baldoni at the New York premiere of “It Ends With Us” on Aug. 6, 2024. Baldoni initially outlined his allegations against Lively in an 87-page lawsuit he filed Dec. 31 against the Times, accusing the newspaper of libel after it published an explosive story into Lively’s claims of harassment and what she called a “smear campaign” aimed at her reputation over the production of “It Ends With Us” (Lively was not named as a party in the lawsuit).Much of Baldoni’s allegations run in opposition to Lively’s claims (which are fully explored in this story).In the lawsuit, Baldoni claims he was steamrolled on set by Lively’s constant attempts to change things about the film, was “aggressively berated” by Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds over a misunderstanding about fat shaming, and said that Lively persistently tried to overstep Baldoni in the editing process.Baldoni’s complaint says Lively’s behavior amounted to a “pattern of vindictiveness” that included an attempt to have him banned from the film’s premiere, and that he was ultimately permitted to attend “under humiliating conditions” (Baldoni was “barred from the exclusive afterparty,” his lawsuit says, and was not photographed with the rest of the cast at the event).The lawsuit also claims Reynolds and Lively, referred to in the complaint as “powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites,” pressured talent agency WME to drop Baldoni, though the agency has since refuted the claim the couple was involved in its decision to separate from the actor.Baldoni also countered claims Lively made in a Dec. 20 civil rights complaint that he created a hostile work environment, instead alleging it was she who threw tantrums on set and issued ultimatums to studio executives, including one that ended in Baldoni’s cut of the film being shelved in favor of a version of the movie she edited.On Jan. 7, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman appeared on Megyn Kelly’s YouTube show, claiming Lively was not sexually harassed on the set of the film and that she was the one who orchestrated a smear campaign against him, promising to release “every single text message, every single document, everything on a website” and let the public decide “whether or not there was sexual harassment.”Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We’re launching text message alerts so you’ll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here.Baldoni’s lawsuit against Lively. Freedman told Kelly he plans to sue Lively “into oblivion,” but wouldn’t say exactly what the countersuit will allege. He said it “is all going to be based on evidence” proving that she “bullied her way through the process to take over the movie and used her PR people to try to destroy Justin.” Freedman didn’t say when the lawsuit will be filed, but promised there will be multiple defendants, including Ryan Reynolds.In a statement Tuesday, Lively’s lawyers repeated their claim that she was retaliated against for “simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set.” The attorneys said her lawsuit against Baldoni and others is “backed by concrete facts,” adding, “This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation.” The statement accused the unnamed “offender” of trying to trivialize her allegations of misconduct by muddying the waters. “A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied,” the statement said. “Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender, and suggest that the offender is actually the victim.”Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on the set of “It Ends with Us” on Jan. 12, 2024.Lively made her initial claims against Baldoni in a Dec. 20 complaint with the California Civil Rights Department and repeated many of the same allegations in a Dec. 31 lawsuit in New York federal court against Baldoni, his publicist, Wayfarer Studios and other defendants for “retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns.” Much of Lively’s lawsuit hinges on bombshell text messages largely sent between Baldoni, his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan that appear to show him encouraging his P.R. team to spread damaging narratives about Lively, flagging social media posts for them to use and showing concern the negative press could be traced back to him and his team. In his lawsuit against the Times, however, Baldoni presents other private communications in which he seems to tell Nathan and Abel he is “more worried about” the perception that they are “planting … stories which is not true obviously” and “How can we say somehow that we are not doing any of this — it looks like we are trying to take her down.” Other messages show Nathan reassuring Baldoni that the negative media about Lively around the release of “It Ends With Us” was inevitable, and that the press and fans had enough ammunition to criticize her without his team’s help. The lawsuit calls the attacks on Lively “self-induced backlash” and says her claims of a smear campaign are a response to her embarrassment and “a dubious attempt to resuscitate her public image.” Lively also claims in her lawsuit that she was subject to sexual harassment, specifically saying Baldoni would enter her trailer without consent while she was undressed and sometimes breastfeeding her newborn baby. The Baldoni lawsuit includes text messages meant to counter Lively’s version of events, including one from the actress in which she invites him to work on a scene, saying, “I’m just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work on our lines.”Baldoni’s lawsuit also accuses the Times of misunderstanding the intent of the upside-down smile emoji, which they say is meant to convey irony or sarcasm. The Times cited a text message in which Abel praises Nathan for influencing an anti-Lively news article in its report, writing, “You really outdid yourself with this piece”—but omitting the emoji that followed—“🙃.” Nathan responded with “That’s why you hired me right? I’m the best.” Baldoni’s lawsuit argues the use of the emoji makes it clear Abel was joking—and Nathan didn’t have anything to do with the story.He says yes. The lawsuit against The New York Times accuses the paper of ignoring that Leslie Sloane, Lively’s publicist, planted her own negative stories about Baldoni, including that he “was a sexual predator.” The lawsuit accuses Sloane of feeding false stories to the Daily Mail and the New York Post, including one article alleging there were multiple HR complaints against Baldoni made during production. In a statement to Deadline, Sloane said claims she was the origin of stories about HR complaints on set are “false.”Lively claimed in her lawsuit that Baldoni repeatedly objectified her on set, including by “finding back channel ways of criticizing her body and weight.” The example she cited was one in which Baldoni “secretly called her fitness trainer, without her knowledge or permission, and implied that he wanted her to lose weight in two weeks,” the lawsuit claims. It went on: “Mr. Baldoni told the trainer that he had asked because he was concerned about having to pick Ms. Lively up in a scene for the movie, but there was no such scene.” In his own lawsuit, Baldoni said he did ask the trainer about Lively’s weight but only to “ensure he could safely perform the lift without injury,” citing bulging discs in his back. Baldoni’s lawsuit claims Lively later “refused to perform the lift scene, even though it had already been rehearsed with a stunt double.”In his lawsuit, Baldoni also claimed that he was the target of an “inappropriate and humiliating berating” from Reynolds in front of other celebrity friends during production. Baldoni said that at a meeting before filming resumed after Hollywood strikes, Reynolds “launched into a tirade” at him over a list of grievances he and Lively had compiled in what Baldoni described as a “traumatic encounter.” He said he had “never been spoken to like that in his life” and that a representative for Sony later expressed regret for not stepping in. Baldoni said Reynolds called for him to apologize for fat shaming his wife, among other demands. Reynolds hasn’t publicly commented on Baldoni’s allegations.Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds attend the “It Ends With Us” New York Premiere at AMC Lincoln Square … [+] Theater on Aug. 6, 2024.While promoting the film, Baldoni said Lively was “involved in every aspect of the film” and called her a “powerhouse of a creative and a wonderful collaborator.” In his New York Times lawsuit, however, he says both Lively and her husband overstepped in their attempts to control the film and that he wasn’t respected as the movie’s director. He cited an interview Lively gave during the movie’s press tour in which she says her husband wrote one of the film’s iconic scenes, and said the interview was the first time he learned Reynolds “made unauthorized changes to the script in secret.” The lawsuit says Lively interfered with his authority in the editing process and despite Baldoni “incorporating seven pages of her notes” into his edit, she allegedly created her own cut of the film and threatened not to promote the film if her version wasn’t seriously considered for release. The studio ultimately agreed to “audience test” both versions of the film under the condition that Lively would support whichever performed better, the lawsuit says, but “despite Baldoni’s cut scoring significantly higher with audiences… Lively reneged on her promise” and the studio “once again conceded.”In his lawsuit against The New York Times, Baldoni said Lively tried to keep him from the film’s premiere and that he was ultimately allowed to to attend “under humiliating conditions.” The complaint said Baldoni was “barred from the exclusive afterparty,” and more details were revealed in his attorney’s interview with Kelly. The clip, posted to YouTube, included a newly released voice note from Baldoni explaining that he was “sent to the basement” of the film’s premiere for over an hour with his friends and family for over an hour after walking the red carpet. In the clip, Baldoni said he was exiled from the event because an unnamed woman “didn’t want me anywhere near her or the rest of the cast.” Kelly didn’t say how she obtained the voice memo.Baldoni’s attorney continued to defend him against Lively’s allegations, specifically fighting back against claims she was sexually harassed and shown pornography on the set of the film. He said that if Lively was sexually harassed, “she wouldn’t have returned to the film,” and said the pornography she said she was shown was actually a video of a home birth brought up while preparing for a birth scene in “It Ends With Us.” Freedman also accused Lively of not having read the book the film was based on, and said she “didn’t understand” some of the content of the movie, leading to confusion on set. Freedman pushed back against claims Baldoni hired Nathan to smear Lively, instead alleging she was hired to fight back against negative stories about Baldoni placed by Sloane. The attorney also commented on speculation that a character in Reynolds’ most recent Marvel film, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” was given lines written to mock Baldoni.Rumors of a rift developing between Lively and Baldoni started to emerge ahead of the film’s premiere and were fueled by the press tour, during which the pair made no joint appearances (an odd arrangement for a film’s star and its director and co-star). Lively appeared to avoid mention of Baldoni in interviews, though he repeatedly praised her work on the film, and the two were never photographed together during promotion. Lively, Reynolds, several cast members and Hoover also all unfollowed Baldoni on Instagram around the time of the movie’s release. As rumors of a feud grew, Baldoni hired Melissa Nathan, a crisis PR manager who had represented Johnny Depp in his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard. At the same time, several unflattering narratives about Lively started to spread on social media. Lively was the subject of intense criticism online targeting how she promoted the film as fans slammed her for upbeat tone on the press tour and said she was attempting to promote the movie as a lighthearted love story, cheapening its serious take on domestic abuse. Lively appeared to respond to the criticism on her Instagram story on Aug. 13, when she shared several posts talking about how the film gets “a message so important out there to the masses” and shared statistics on domestic violence. Lively was also criticized for seeming to promote her newly launched hair-care line, and a resurfaced video clip of a 2016 interaction with an interviewer also drew fresh critique. Lively claimed in her civil rights complaint that the negative narratives were part of the calculated campaign orchestrated by Baldoni. She repeated the claim in the lawsuit against Baldoni, his publicist, Wayfarer Studios and other defendants.One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 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