Blake Lively accuses It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni of smear campaign

Blake Lively has filed a legal complaint against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, alleging sexual harassment and a campaign to “destroy” her reputation.

According to the legal filing, she accuses Baldoni and his team of attacking her public image following a meeting in which she brought her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, to address “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Baldoni and a producer. in the movie.

Baldoni’s legal team told the BBC that the allegations are “categorically false” and said they hired a crisis manager because Lively had threatened to derail the film unless her demands were met.

In the romantic drama, Lively plays a woman who finds herself in a relationship with a charming but abusive boyfriend, played by Baldoni.

The meeting between Lively and Baldoni, along with others involved in the film’s production, took place on January 4 of this year and was aimed at addressing “the hostile work environment” on the set, the legal document says.

Lively’s husband, Deadpool star Mr. Reynolds, who did not appear in It Ends With Us, joined her in the confrontation, according to the legal complaint, which is a step before a lawsuit.

Baldoni, 40, attended the meeting in his capacity as co-president and co-founder of the company that produced the film, Wayfarer Studios. He was also the director of the film.

In the legal complaint, Lively’s lawyers allege that both Baldoni and Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath engaged in “inappropriate and unwanted behavior toward Lively and others on the set of It Ends With Us.”

Filing with the California Department of Civil Rights, the meeting presented a list of 30 demands related to the couple’s alleged misconduct to ensure they could continue producing the film.

Among them, Lively, 37, asked that Baldoni and Heath’s previous “porn addiction” be no longer mentioned to Lively or other crew members, that no further descriptions of her own genitals be made to Lively and that “no more adding sex scenes, oral sex or on-camera climaxes by BL (Blake Lively) outside the scope of the script that BL approved when signing the project,” the complaint says.

Lively also demanded that Baldoni stop saying he could talk to his dead father.

Lively’s legal team further accuses Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios of leading a “multi-level scheme” to ruin her reputation.

She alleges that this was “the intended result of a carefully crafted, coordinated and resourced retaliation plan to silence her and others from speaking out about the hostile environment that Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath created.”

In response to the legal complaint, Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said Saturday: “It is disgraceful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false allegations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and their representatives.”

Freedman accused Lively of making numerous demands and threats, including “threatening not to show up to set, threatening not to promote the film,” which would end up “ultimately leading to her demise during the premiere, if her demands were not met.” . .

It alleged that Ms. Lively’s statements were “intentionally lewd with the intent to publicly hurt and repeat a narrative in the media.”

In a statement to the BBC through her lawyers, Ms Lively said: “I hope that my legal action will help lift the curtain on these sinister retaliation tactics to harm people who report misconduct and help protect others. that can be attacked.”

She also denied that she or any of her representatives had planted or spread negative information about Mr. Baldoni or Wayfarer.

The film was a box office success, although some critics said it romanticized domestic violence.

Shortly after the August release date, another co-star, Brandon Sklenar, hinted in an Instagram post at rumors of a breakup between Lively and Baldoni.

Speculation about a fight only grew when they did not appear together on the red carpet.

It Ends With Us tells the story of Boston florist Lily Bloom, played by Lively, as she navigates a love triangle between her charming but abusive boyfriend, Ryle Kincaid, played by Baldoni, and her compassionate first love, Atlas Corrigan, played by Mr. Sklenar.

It is based on a best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover. The 45-year-old author previously said her inspiration was the domestic abuse her mother suffered.

In an interview with the BBC at the film’s premiere in August, Lively said she had felt a “responsibility to serve the people who care so much about the source material.”

“I really feel like we delivered a story that is emotional and funny, but also funny, painful, scary, tragic and inspiring, and that’s what life is, it has all the colors,” said the actress.

Lively, who is also credited as a producer, told the BBC that she felt the film had been made “with a lot of empathy.”

“Lily is a survivor and a victim and while those are huge labels, they are not her identity,” Ms Lively said. “She defines herself and I think it’s deeply empowering that no one else can define you.”