Hollywood star Blake Lively has filed a lawsuit against her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni, accusing him of “repeated sexual harassment” on set and an intense smear campaign against her following the film’s release.
Lively filed the complaint, which precedes a lawsuit, with the California Department of Civil Rights on Friday, according to reports from the Associated Press. Baldoni, his publicists and executives at Wayfarer, Baldoni’s studio behind the 2024 film, were all named as defendants in the lawsuit.
“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 reporters .
Baldoni, who is known for speaking out about “toxic masculinity” and supporting women, has not personally responded to the claims. However, his legal team described it as “completely false”.
Here’s what we know about the dispute:
What was the movie “It Ends With Us” about?
The August 2024 drama is based on author Colleen Hoover’s 2016 bestselling novel of the same name. Set in Boston, Massachusetts, the film tells the story of florist Lily Bloom, played by Lively. Lily was raised by an abusive father who often beat her mother and eventually fell in love with and married neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, played by Baldoni.
When her first love, Atlas, played by Brandon Sklenar, comes back into her life, Lily begins to see Ryle’s abusive side. She eventually finds the courage to leave the marriage, strengthened by the need to protect her little girl and the promise that the cycle of violence would end with her.
Lively co-produced the film while Baldoni directed. The film received mixed reviews as some critics accused the makers of romanticizing domestic violence. Still, it was a box office hit, grossing $351 million worldwide while costing $25 million to produce. Other big Hollywood names in the film include Jenny Slate and comedian Hasan Minhaj.
What happened on the film set?
During filming of the film from April 2023 to early 2024, Lively complained that Baldoni and Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath violated physical boundaries and directed sexual, inappropriate comments toward her, according to the legal complaint, obtained by The New York Times.
According to the complaint, Lively expressed concerns about Baldoni before filming began, saying she objected to sex scenes he wanted to add that she felt were unnecessary.
Later, she said, Baldoni talked to her about his sex life, pressured her about her religious beliefs and called her fitness trainer behind her back about her post-pregnancy weight. The actress gave birth to her fourth child in February 2023.
In November 2023, Lively contacted Wayfarer and requested that protective measures be implemented on the film set.
During a meeting with Baldoni, Heath and other producers, she complained that Baldoni had improvised unwanted kisses on set and discussed his sex life, revealing details of encounters in which he may not have received consent.
Lively claimed Heath showed her a video of his naked wife and watched the star in her trailer while she took off her clothes. She added that both men entered her trailer unannounced while she was undressing, including while she was breastfeeding.
Wayfarer agreed that both men would not be allowed into Lively’s trailer and that they would no longer show or speak to Lively nude videos or images of women or sexual experiences, genitals or pornography. Baldoni was forbidden from improvising sex scenes, asking Lively about her weight, pressing her about her religious beliefs or mentioning her late father. The studio also hired an intimacy coordinator to oversee Baldoni and Lively’s scenes.
According to the New York Times, Lively later told people she worked with that the men’s behavior had changed.
Why does Lively say she was subjected to a smear campaign?
However, Lively also claimed in Friday’s lawsuit that Baldoni and Wayfarer targeted her after the film’s release in a “sophisticated and well-financed” plan to damage her reputation in retaliation for her speaking out on set had reported. Wayfarer co-founder Steve Sarowitz was also named in the complaint.
According to a New York Times report, the actress backed up her complaint with thousands of pages of text messages and emails between Baldoni and his team that she obtained through a subpoena.
Lively said in the complaint that Baldoni hired publicists to spread theories about her online and publish news articles criticizing her. Baldoni’s team “created, placed, amplified and amplified content designed to destroy Ms. Lively’s credibility,” the complaint says. “They used the same techniques to bolster Mr. Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him.”
According to text messages included in the complaint, Wayfarer and Baldoni hired Melissa Nathan, a public relations crisis manager with high-profile clients including actor Johnny Depp and rapper Drake.
In their initial communication, Baldoni told Nathan that he wanted a stronger PR plan than the one she had presented. “He wants to feel like she can be buried,” Jennifer Abel, Baldoni’s publicist, later wrote to Nathan, according to documents in the lawsuit.
The PR team later agreed to work on an “unaccountable” social media strategy that would aim to “change the narrative” around Lively, portraying her as a bully on set and portraying Baldoni as her victim. According to the text documents, the team also worked to cover up stories that suggested Baldoni’s allegedly inappropriate behavior on set.
Has Lively’s reputation been damaged in any way?
Lively received negative comments online following the film’s release, although it is unclear to what extent these were manipulated or amplified by external forces. A marketing firm hired by Lively produced a report in August that concluded it was likely the subject of a “multichannel online attack.”
Critics accused her of being “tone deaf” because she wore floral colors that matched her character’s style in several appearances. Many also accused her of failing to speak out against domestic violence in the media campaign for the film.
Social media users began reposting instances of Lively being rude or unkind in the past. In one case, Norwegian entertainment reporter Kjerssti Flaa re-uploaded a 2016 interview with Lively to YouTube. In the clip, Lively snapped at the reporter for commenting on the actor’s baby bump. Flaa has since said her actions were not part of an orchestrated campaign.
What does Baldoni say about the argument?
Baldoni has not personally responded to the allegations. Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing him, Wayfarer and its top executives, has dismissed Lively’s claims, saying they are “completely false, outrageous and intentionally suggestive.”
Freedman said Lively threatened not to show up on set or not promote the film if her wishes were not met. Wayfarer, he added, had hired a crisis manager to respond “proactively” to what he described as “multiple demands and threats.”
Lively’s complaint alleges that Baldoni played a key role in the public relations campaign against her by encouraging his team and flagging sample social media posts for use.
However, texts reviewed by The New York Times showed at times that he also expressed concerns about articles critical of Lively. “How can we somehow say we’re not doing any of this – it looks like we’re trying to take them down,” he said in a text.
Baldoni was absent from several appearances during the film’s media campaign and was never photographed with Lively.
On Monday, global nonprofit organization Vital Voices, which focuses on women’s empowerment, rescinded an award it gave Baldoni on Dec. 9 for his solidarity with women. Baldoni’s podcast co-host Liz Plank also announced Tuesday that she is leaving his Man Enough show.
What do other stars say?
After the film’s release, internet researchers quickly noticed that It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover didn’t follow Baldoni on Instagram. Additionally, Hoover described Lively as “honest, kind, supportive and patient” in a statement posted to the social media site on Saturday. She declined to comment directly on the allegations against Baldoni.
Co-star Sklenar defended Lively in an Instagram post, saying it was “disheartening to see how much negativity is projected on the women in the film,” adding that the negative coverage distracted from the film’s message.
America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel, who starred with Lively in the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, have since also supported her in a joint statement posted to Instagram on Sunday.
“During the filming of It Ends with Us, we saw how she had the courage to ask for safe employment for herself and her colleagues on set, and we are horrified to read the evidence of a deliberate and vengeful attempt , which followed to discredit her “voice,” the statement said.
