Lively had bad experiences on the set and in the coverage of “It Ends With Us.” Now she’s complaining.
Since the release of the film “It Ends With Us”, based on the novel of the same name by Colleen Hoover, negative headlines surrounding the protagonist Blake Lively have increased. On Friday, December 20th, Lively filed a lawsuit against her co-star and director of the film, Justin Baldoni. The allegations: Sexual harassment and an alleged coordinated effort to destroy Lively’s reputation.
Toxic working atmosphere
The lawsuit states that during the filming of “It Ends With Us,” the situation became so serious that an “all hands on deck” meeting was held. Also at the meeting was Blake Lively’s husband and “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds. The meeting was apparently intended to fix the toxic work environment on set, as Blake Lively was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. “TMZ” continues to report on the demands made by the actress at this meeting: Baldoni should no longer show Lively nude photos and videos of other women, no more discussions about Lively’s sexual experiences, no more mentions of the genitals of the actress Cast members and crew and the actor and director should no longer discuss his former “porn addiction”. And he shouldn’t discuss Lively’s weight anymore either. The letter also contained other demands such as: “No addition of sex scenes, oral sex or climax on camera by Lively outside the scope of the script that Lively agreed to when signing the project.” The demands were made by Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios, which owns the film rights “It Ends with Us” trilogy, allegedly agreed.
Little awareness?
Another point in the 37-year-old’s lawsuit is the systematic reputational damage that Baldoni and his team are said to have carried out against Lively. During the film’s promotional phase, the 40-year-old discussed the seriousness of the film’s core theme, which deals with domestic violence and violence in relationships. Baldoni was compassionate on social media and publicly supported nonprofits fighting domestic violence. Meanwhile, it was denounced online that the “Gossip Girl” actress allegedly acted carefree during interviews about the film and used the media attention to promote her hair cosmetics and talk about fashion. However, Lively’s lawsuit notes that the cast and crew of “It Ends With Us” were contractually obligated to promote the film in a certain way. In this case, that meant focusing more on the strengths of Lively’s character, Lily Blooms. The focus supposedly shouldn’t be on the domestic violence story. They should also “avoid talking about this film in a way that makes it feel sad or heavy – it’s a story of hope.” So how could such a shitstorm happen?
Post from Baldoni on Instagram:
Blake Lively was supposed to be “buried.”
The actress alleges in her lawsuit that the “Jane the Virgin” actor and his team conducted a “social manipulation” campaign against her. The goal was supposedly to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation. The New York Times was able to view chat messages from employees of Baldonis and Melissa Nathan from TAG, who ran her own crisis PR company. There is talk in the news about “burying” Lively. “We can’t write that we’re going to destroy her,” reads one of Nathan’s messages in response to burying Lively.
Lively’s statement of claim contains a total of 22 pages of text messages from Baldoni’s team with Nathan. Mimin had this to say about her legal action in The New York Times: “I hope my lawsuit will help lift the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics that harm people who speak out about wrongdoing and others protect those who could become a target.”
“Another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ their negative reputation”?
Bryan Freedman, attorney for Weyfarer Studios and Justin Baldoni, also made a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. He vehemently denied the Age of Adelaide actress’ allegations: “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false allegations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and their representatives as another desperate attempt to to ‘repair’ her negative reputation created by her own comments and actions while campaigning for the film; Interviews and press activity observed publicly, in real time and unedited, allowing the Internet to generate their own views and opinions.”
In the further statement, Freedman claims that Weyfarer Studios was forced to hire a professional crisis manager due to Lively’s unprofessional behavior, both on and off set. In her opinion, the actress is said to have made up the stories and is trying to actively bring these and other lies to the media with her PR representative Leslie Sloan.
Other Hollywood stars support Lively
Blake Lively’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-stars Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera and Amber Tamblyn spoke out in support of the actress and posted a statement on Instagram on Sunday, December 22nd.
Statement from colleagues:
“As Blake’s friends and sisters for over 20 years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the alleged campaign to destroy her reputation,” the statement reads, “During 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 the evidence of a deliberate and vindictive attempt made in response to her voice to discredit. What is particularly outrageous is the shameless exploitation of the stories of domestic violence survivors to silence a woman who has asked for safety. The hypocrisy is astounding.”