Blake Lively has accused Justin Baldoni of using Hailey Bieber as inspiration to ‘destroy’ her reputation as details from the lawsuit are released.
The two actors starred together in this year’s It Ends With Us film, which is based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover.
While the romantic drama hit cinemas back in August, fans immediately noticed that the pair were seemingly not doing press together, sparking rumors of a feud.
Yesterday (December 21), it was revealed that Lively had filed a lawsuit (obtained by the New York Times), alleging sexual harassment and that Baldoni attempted to create a smear campaign against her, which she says caused ‘severe emotional distress’ for both her and her family.
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Baldoni's lawyer has responded to the claims made in the lawsuit, calling them 'categorically false' as well as accusing her of planting fake stories in a 'desperate attempt to fix her negative reputation'.
Lively has continued to deny that she or her representatives spread negative information about Baldoni or Wayfayer Studios and told The New York Times: "I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
The New York Times has since obtained a copy of the compliant, which includes a number of alleged text messages.
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In her suit, Lively claims that before August 2, Baldoni hired a crisis management expert called Melissa Nathan. She then made-up part of a PR team that also contained publicist Jennifer Abel.
Together, the pair allegedly go on to enact Baldoni’s wishes by flipping the narrative using social media.
In her lawsuit, Lively shared alleged texts that Baldoni purportedly sent Abel which shows his apparent inspiration.
It contained a screenshot of an Twitter thread about bullying allegations Bieber was embroiled in very recently with the words: “This is what we would need.”
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In response, Able claimed that she had just ‘spoke to Melissa about this…about what we discussed last night for social and digital', adding: "Focus on reddit, TikTok, IG."
According to the lawsuit, the team then allegedly 'engaged in a sophisticated, coordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan' by retaining subcontractors whose job was to 'create, 60 7 seed, and promote content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat 8 forums'.
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On August 2, Abel wrote that she was 'having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week about how horrible Blake is to work with', adding: "She's putting us through hell."
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And on August 10, a text message from Nathan's team suggested that they were 'starting to see a shift on social', with Nathan later following up to claim that the 'majority of the socials are so pro Justin and I don't even agree with half of them'.
Elsewhere in the complaint, it was alleged that Lively had made certain requests following a meeting about an alleged environment being fostered on set - with some of the supposed demands 'being no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project'.
Other alleged requests also included: "No more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”
UNILAD contacted Justin Baldoni's representatives for comment, and has also previously contacted Sony Pictures, Lively's and Baldoni's reps for comment.
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Film and TV, Social Media
Britt Jones