Justin Baldoni’s lawyer has accused Blake Lively of having ‘false stories planted with the media’.
This comes after the Green Lantern actor filed a lawsuit against the actor and director.
The pair starred alongside each other in the summer release, It Ends With Us. And building up to the film landing in cinemas, rumours circulated of an on-set rift between them.
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That now seems to have been somewhat validated as Lively has sued Baldoni for sexual harassment and alleging he attempted a ‘social manipulation’ campaign against her.
Obtained by the New York Times, the legal complaint alleges his behaviour caused ‘severe emotional distress’ for both Lively and her family.
Allegations in the suit include the star demanding Baldoni didn’t add any more ‘sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing’ to the film outside of what was in the script she had initially approved.
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A meeting reportedly held was also attended by her husband Ryan Reynolds, as various claims and demands from Lively were addressed. These allegedly included: “No more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake,” and “No more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others.”
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told Variety the suit is full of ‘categorically false accusations’ as it also claims the star mounted a smear campaign to ‘destroy’ Lively’s reputation.
The legal rep slammed the ‘shameful’ complaint and accused her of making a ‘desperate attempt to fix her negative reputation’.
His statement said: “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.
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“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.
“It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address.”
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The statement concluded: “The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
Lively told The New York Times in a statement: “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 star also denied that she or any of her representatives planted or spread negative information about Baldoni or Wayfarer.
LADbible has contacted Sony Pictures, Baldoni and Lively’s reps for comment.
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, TV and Film, Celebrity
Jess Battison