Lively is “in contact with her team,” a source tells People, as the actress “knows she’ll have an explosive start to the new year.”
One of the biggest stories to rock Hollywood in 2024 shows no signs of slowing down: Justin Baldoni has filed a $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times for their Dec. 20 story titled, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” The article detailed Blake Lively’s allegations against Baldoni and others over alleged sexual harassment she endured while filming It Ends With Us.
Attorney Bryan Freedman filed the lawsuit on behalf of 10 plaintiffs, including Baldoni. This comes after Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department on Dec. 20, the same day the Times story was published, and accused Baldoni, the star and director of their hit film, of sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and more in a bombshell 80-page document. She claims that she suffered harm to her reputation as the result of a smear campaign. On Tuesday, Lively formally filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, his public relations team and film studio.
In a statement, Freedman told Variety that the Times “cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative.”
This is the first of multiple lawsuits, including a potential one against Lively, that Freedman previously said will expose “those who believe themselves untouchable” and the details will “shock everyone.”
Before news of Tuesday’s lawsuit broke, a source told People that Lively is “in contact with her team” and “knows she’ll have an explosive start to the new year.”
“She still believes she’s doing the right thing. She’s ready to tackle whatever comes her way,” the insider said.
The details in Lively’s complaint were disturbing. She accused Baldoni of improvising intimate moments during filming, adding “gratuitous sexual content” to the script after she signed on — while allegedly telling her he’s not attracted to her — and asking for details about her and husband Ryan Reynolds’s sex life. Baldoni and his producing partner Jamey Heath, who’s named in the complaint, are accused of trying to watch Lively naked when she changed in her trailer.
Baldoni and Heath have denied these “false” claims and their lawsuit against the Times provides text messages that allegedly show Lively and Baldoni had friendly correspondence in June per Variety.
Blake Lively
The actress starred in It Ends With Us and was also a producer on the film. In the complaint, she says she raised concerns about Baldoni’s and Heath’s conduct on set last year. According to the complaint, a meeting took place on Jan. 4, 2024, in which she set forth their alleged inappropriate behavior and all parties agreed to implementing safeguards on the set.
Thirty rules were put in place, including “no more showing nude videos or images of women” to Lively; no more discussion of Baldoni’s and Heath’s prior “pornography addiction”; “no more improvising of kissing”; and “no more entering” Lively’s trailer while she’s naked. The rules also prohibited Baldoni from adding new “sex scenes, oral sex, or on camera climaxing” outside of the previously approved script and required that an intimacy coordinator be on the set for all scenes involving nudity
However, the part of Lively’s complaint that especially reverberated through the entertainment industry was the alleged smear campaign orchestrated by Baldoni’s publicists against Lively, which seemed to expose the cutthroat tactics of the crisis PR world.
Baldoni has accused Lively and her team of planting negative stories in the press, which they have denied.
On Dec. 31, Lively formally sued Baldoni and others claiming she was subjected to “further retaliation and attacks” after the New York Times report.
“Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns,” she said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court. Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.”
Leave a Reply