Blake Lively sues ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment, campaign to ‘destroy’ her reputation
They starred in “Ends With Us,” but their legal battle has only just begun.
Blake Lively has filed a bombshell lawsuit against co-star Justin Baldoni, alleging he sexually harassed her on the set of their hit movie. TMZ writes that.
According to the legal documents, the actress accuses Baldoni – who also served as the director of the film – of “a coordinated effort to destroy her reputation” after the film’s release.
She says the smear campaign caused damage to her business and caused her family to experience “severe emotional distress.”
“It Ends With Us,” a domestic violence drama based on the bestselling book by Colleen Hoover, was released in theaters last summer.
At the time, rumors swirled of a feud between Lively and Baldoni, who refused to appear to promote the film.
Lively also suffered a barrage of bad publicity and was dubbed a “mean girl” after a journalist claimed an unpleasant interview with the star prompted her to quit her job.
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, has hit out at Lively’s new lawsuit, telling TMZ it’s an attempt to “fix her negative reputation,” adding that the allegations are “false, outrageous, and intentionally malicious with intent to hurt publicly.”
He added that she was a “nightmare” on set.
But according to TMZ, which obtained the legal documents, Lively claims it was Baldoni who made things unbearable while filming the drama.
She claims that “things got so bad during filming that there was an all-hands-on-deck meeting to address what she claims was a hostile work environment.”
Her superstar husband, Ryan Reynolds, attended that meeting.
As part of the tense sit-down, Lively and Reynolds demanded that there would be “no more showing of nude videos or pictures of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged past ‘pornography addiction’ and no more discussions of sexual conquests in front of Blake.”
They further stipulated that Baldoni “should not make inquiries about Blake’s weight” and “not make any further mention of her dead father.”
Lively also demanded that “no more on-camera sex scenes, oral sex or climaxes be added” outside of the script she approved when she signed on to the project.
According to the lawsuit, the allegations of the claims were approved by Sony, the studio that produced the film.
However, Lively and Baldoni later clashed over how the film would be marketed.
TMZ reports that Lively “wanted a more upbeat pitch about her character’s resilience, while Baldoni wanted the focus to be on domestic violence.”
Lively subsequently claims that Baldoni and his allies “engaged in a ‘social manipulation’ campaign to ‘destroy’ her reputation.”
As evidence, she includes texts from Baldoni’s publicist to a studio publicist saying the actor “wants to feel like (Ms. Lively) can be buried.”
The film, which opened in the US in August, received mixed reviews, but ironically, the Lively/Baldoni feud fueled the rumored interest in the film.
It ultimately helped garner publicity for the film, which went on to become a blockbuster, grossing more than $350 million worldwide.