Blake Lively called intimacy coordinators “critical” ahead of the lawsuit.
Blake Lively Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Before Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against them It ends with us Co-star and director Justin BaldoniAmid allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation and more, the actress addressed the critical importance of intimacy coordinators.
“I think it’s important to have an intimacy coordinator,” Lively, 37, said DigitalSpy in an August 2024 interview published three months before she filed her lawsuit against Baldoni in the Southern District of New York.
“You coordinate stunts, you coordinate dancing, it’s choreography,” she continued. “So it’s about being able to say, ‘This happens here, here and here in a stunt,’ and ‘This happens here and here in a dance,’ but like, ‘Now you put your bodies together and.’ your mouths and whatever’ and just action and editing.”
Lively went on to say that she believes being choreographed during intimate scenes is “crucial for everyone’s safety.”
Lively officially sued Baldoni on Tuesday, December 31, 2024. Us weekly Previously confirmed allegations: sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and lost wages. In addition to Baldoni, Lively is also suing publicists Melissa to Natasha And Jennifer Abeland Wayfarer Studios.
Lively also filed a complaint with the California Department of Civil Rights citing similar allegations.
“I hope my legal action will help lift the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about wrongdoing and protect others who may be targeted,” Lively said in a statement to Us.
In response, Baldoni filed a $250 million payment lawsuit against The New York Times the same day and for reporting on Lively’s sexual harassment allegations. In the lawsuit, Baldoni accuses the publication of defamation and invasion of privacy by false light, alleging the newspaper “cherry-picked” communications and omitted context to mislead readers.
The lawsuit also alleges that Lively waged a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign against Baldoni, using false “allegations of sexual harassment to gain unilateral control over every aspect of the production.”
Baldoni also claims Lively never met with an intimacy coordinator during filming It ends with us.
“In this vicious smear campaign, entirely orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times “They have bowed to the wishes and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites and disregarded journalistic practices and ethics that once belonged to the prestigious publication by using fake and manipulated text and deliberately omitting text that furthered their chosen PR narrative Ask the question,” said Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman. said in a statement to Us on Tuesday, December 31st.
“In doing so, they predetermined the outcome of their story and aided and abetted their own disastrous public relations smear campaign aimed at revitalizing Lively’s self-inflicted, faltering public image and counteracting the organic groundswell of criticism in the online public sphere,” continued Freedman continued. “The irony is rich.”
