Why does Blake Lively claim there is a smear campaign against her? | Entertainment news

Hollywood star Blake Lively has filed a legal complaint against Justin Baldoni, the film’s director and co-star in It Ends With Us, accusing him of “repeated sexual harassment” on set and of waging an intense smear campaign against her after the film was released.

Lively filed the complaint, which precedes the lawsuit, on Friday with the California Department of Civil Rights, the Associated Press reports. Baldoni, his publicists and senior executives at Wayfarer, Baldoni’s studio behind the 2024 film, are named as defendants in the complaint.

“I hope my legal action will help draw the curtain on these evil retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about misconduct, and help protect others who may be targeted,” Lively said in a statement to reporters.

Baldoni, known for his talk of “toxic masculinity” and his support of women, has not personally responded to the allegations. But his legal team called it “completely false.”

Here’s what we know about the dispute:

What movie ends with us?

The August 2024 drama is based on author Colleen Hoover’s 2016 bestselling novel of the same name. The film is set in Boston, Massachusetts, and follows the story of flower seller Lily Bloom, played by Lively. Lily was raised by an abusive father who often beat her mother and ends up falling in love with and marrying neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, played by Baldoni.

When her first love, Atlas, played by Brandon Sklenar, reenters her life, Lily begins to see Rayleigh’s abusive side. In the end, she finds the courage to leave the marriage, strengthened by the need to protect her little girl and the promise that the cycle of violence will end with her.

Lively co-produced the film while Baldoni directed it. The film was met with mixed reviews, with some critics accusing the makers of romanticizing domestic violence. However, it was a huge success at the box office, grossing $351 million worldwide while costing $25 million to produce. Other big names in Hollywood in the film include Jenny Slate and comedian Hasan Minhaj.

What happened on the set?

While filming the film from April 2023 to early 2024, Lively made complaints that Baldoni and Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath were violating physical boundaries and making inappropriate sexual comments to her, according to the legal complaint obtained by The New York Times.

According to the complaint, Lively expressed concerns about Baldoni before filming began and said she objected to the sex scenes he wanted to add and felt they were unnecessary.

She said Baldoni later talked to her about his sex life, pressured her about her religious beliefs, and called her fitness trainer about her weight after the pregnancy behind her back. The actress gave birth to her fourth child in February 2023.

In November 2023, Lively approached Wayfarer, demanding that safeguards be implemented on set.

During a meeting with Baldoni, Heath, and other producers, she complained that Baldoni had improvised unwanted kissing on set and discussed his sex life, revealing details of encounters in which he may not have obtained consent.

Lively claimed that Heath showed her a video of his naked wife and watched the star in her trailer while she was undressing. She added that both men entered her trailer without warning while she was undressing, including while she was breastfeeding.

Wayfarer agreed that both men would not be allowed into Lively’s trailer and would no longer appear or speak to Lively about nude videos, images of women, sexual or genital experiences, or pornography. Baldoni was prohibited from improvising sex scenes, asking about Lively’s weight, pressuring her about her religious beliefs, or mentioning her late father. The studio also brought in a stunt coordinator to monitor Baldoni and Lively’s scenes.

According to The New York Times, Lively later told people she worked with that the men’s behavior had changed.

Why does Lively say she was subjected to a smear campaign?

However, Lively also alleged in the legal complaint filed Friday that Baldoni and Wayfarer targeted her after the film’s release in a “sophisticated and well-financed” plan to damage her reputation in retaliation for speaking out on set. Wayfarer co-founder Steve Sarewitz is also named in the complaint.

The actress backed up her complaint with thousands of pages of text messages and emails between Baldoni and his team, which she obtained through a subpoena, according to a New York Times report.

Lively said in the complaint that Baldoni hired publicists to plant theories about her online and publish news stories critical of her. Baldoni’s team “created, planted, amplified, and promoted content designed to discredit Ms. Lively,” the complaint said. “They used the same tactics to bolster Mr. Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him.”

According to text messages included in the complaint, Wayfarer and Baldoni hired Melissa Nathan, a public relations crisis manager with high-profile clients, including actor Johnny Depp and rapper Drake.

In their initial contact, Baldoni told Nathan that he wanted a stronger public relations plan than the one she presented. “He wants to feel like he can be buried,” Baldoni’s publicist, Jennifer Appel, later texted Nathan, according to records in the legal complaint.

Later, the PR team agreed to work on an “untraceable” social media strategy that would work to “change the narrative” around Lively, portraying her as a bully on set and portraying Baldoni as her victim. The team also worked to bury stories that alluded to Baldoni’s alleged inappropriate behavior during filming, according to script documents.

Has Lively’s reputation been damaged in any way?

Lively faced negative online comments following the film’s release although it is unclear how much of it was engineered or promoted by outside forces. A marketing firm hired by Lively issued a report in August concluding that she was likely the subject of a “multi-channel online attack.”

Critics accused her of being “tone deaf” because in many of her appearances she wore floral colors in keeping with her character’s style in the film. Many also accused her of failing to promote advocacy against domestic violence in the film’s media campaign.

Social media users began reposting instances where Lively had been rude or unkind in the past. In one case, Norwegian entertainment reporter Kirsti Vla re-uploaded a 2016 interview she conducted with Lively to YouTube. In the clip, Lively criticized the reporter for commenting on the actress’ stomach. Fla has since said her actions were not part of a coordinated campaign.

What does Baldoni say about the dispute?

Baldoni did not respond personally to these allegations. Brian Friedman, an attorney representing Wayfarer and its senior executives, has disputed Lively’s claims, saying they are “completely false, outrageous, and intentionally indecent.”

Friedman said Lively threatened not to appear on set or promote the film if her requests were not met. He added that Wayfarer had appointed a crisis manager to deal “proactively” with what he described as “multiple demands and threats.”

Lively’s complaint alleges that Baldoni played a key role in a public relations campaign against her, cheering on his team and flagging a sample of social media posts for her use.

However, at times, texts reviewed by The New York Times showed that he also expressed concerns about articles critical of Lively. “How can we somehow say we’re not doing any of this, it’s like we’re trying to take her down,” he said in one message.

Baldoni missed several appearances during the film’s media campaign and was never photographed with Lively.

On Monday, the global non-profit Vital Voices, which focuses on women’s empowerment, rescinded an award it presented to Baldoni on December 9 for his solidarity with women. Baldoni’s podcast co-host Liz Blank also announced Tuesday that she is leaving his show Man Enough.

What do other stars say?

After the film’s release, internet sleuths quickly noticed that It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover wasn’t following Baldoni on Instagram. Furthermore, in a statement posted on the social media site on Saturday, Hoover described Lively as “honest, kind, supportive and patient.” She stopped short of commenting directly on the accusations against Baldoni.

Co-star Sklenar defended Lively in an Instagram post, saying it was “frustrating to see how much negativity is projected” on women in the film, adding that the negative coverage was distracting from the film’s message.

Meanwhile, America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel, who co-starred with Lively in the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, supported her in a joint statement issued on Instagram on Sunday.

“Throughout the filming of It Ends With Us, we saw her muster the courage to demand a safe workplace for herself and her colleagues on set, and we are horrified to read evidence of a premeditated retaliatory effort that followed to discredit her,” the statement read.