Blake lively complaint against Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment

Blake Lively has accused her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment. In a bombshell filing, the actress alleges that Baldoni attempted to launch a smear campaign against her, claiming that his behavior caused her and her family “severe emotional distress” (per a legal complaint obtained by the New York Times). Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, fired back at Lively’s complaint in a statement to Black. He called the case “disgraceful” and full of “categorically false accusations.”

According to the complaint filed with the California Department of Civil Rights, a meeting was held during the production of “It Ends With Us” to address Lively’s allegations and her demands to work on the film. Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, was reportedly present at the meeting. Some of the demands addressed reportedly included “no more showing Blake nude videos or pictures of women, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged past ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussion of sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mention of the cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”

Lively also reportedly demanded that Baldoni not add any more “sex scenes, oral sex or climax on camera” outside of what was in the script for the film, which she had approved before filming began. The film’s distributor, Sony Pictures, reportedly granted Lively’s requests, according to the complaint, but it continues to accuse Baldoni of “social manipulation” and launched a campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation afterward.

Black has reached out to representatives for Sony Pictures and Lively for comment.

“It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false allegations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation, which was harvested by her own remarks and actions during the promotion of the film; interviews and press activities that were observed in public, in real time and unedited, allowing the Internet to generate their own views and opinions,” Freedman’s Statement to Black if the complaint sounds.

“These allegations are completely false, outrageous and deliberately malicious with the intent to publicly injure and revive a narrative in the media,” Freedman continues. “Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the film’s marketing campaign, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the many demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production, which included including her threats not to appear on stage, threatening not to promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met discovered that Ms. Lively hired her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with the media even before marketing had begun for the film, which was another reason , that Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to begin internal scenario planning for the case they were addressing.”

The statement concludes: “Representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive or repressed, responding only to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is clearly missing from the selected correspondence is the evidence that no proactive measures with media or otherwise; only internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize, which is standard operating procedure with PR professionals.”

Rumors of a permanent feud between Lively and Baldoni abounded during the press tour for “It Ends With Us” last August, as the two never did any promotion for the film together. The film ended up being a box office hit for Sony, earning $350 million at the worldwide box office. “It Ends With Us” is based on a bestselling novel by author Colleen Hoover, who has written a sequel novel titled “It Starts With Us.” A source said Black after the film’s release, a film version of the sequel was unlikely to take place because “there’s probably no world where these two will work together again.”