Justin Baldoni mentions Hailey Bieber in Blake Lively’s Astroturfing plan

Justin Baldoni appeared to be using a social media post Hailey Bieber as an example in astroturfing plan against It ends with us costar Blake Lively.

According to text exchanges reviewed in a legal complaint received by My Weekly on Saturday, Dec. 21, Baldoni posted a screenshot of an X thread that unpacked “Hailey Bieber’s history of bullying women,” according to the text, writing, “We need this.”

Lively’s lawsuit alleges that Baldoni’s “plan went far beyond standard crisis PR,” she says Melissa Nathancrisis communications specialist for The Agency Group, suggested “a practice known as ‘astroturfing'”, which was defined as “the practice of posting opinions or comments on the internet, in the media etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but are in fact from a particular society or political group.”

Earlier this year, Lively was the subject of a social media firestorm surrounding the promotion of her film It ends with us when it was reported that she and Baldoni had clashed on set.

“There were two camps on film — Team Blake and Team Justin,” a source exclusively speaking Our film production in August. “This creative struggle set the tone for the negative experience behind the scenes and escalated into them stopping talking.”

Lively also received criticism for the way she answered questions about the film’s themes of domestic violence. Additionally, her behavior was questioned in interviews that appeared years ago. Amid the backlash, Lively shared sources of domestic violence on social media before her completely abandoned social networks.

Lively’s December complaint said “millions of people (including many reporters and influencers) who saw these planted stories, social media posts and other online content” were “unwitting consumers of a crisis PR, astroturfing and digital retaliation campaign” allegedly orchestrated . by Baldoni against Lively.

“This is precisely the goal of the astroturfing campaign,” the lawsuit said. “To light a fire and continue to secretly fuel conversations, blur the line between authentic and manufactured content, and create viral public downloads.”

Lively’s complaint also cited a Scenario Planning document by Baldoni’s team at TAG, which mentioned exploring “the creation of narratives about weaponizing feminism and how people in (Lally’s) circle like Taylor Swift were accused of using these tactics to ‘bully’ to get the what they want.”

Lively filed a trial for sexual harassment against Baldoni on Friday, December 20, claiming that his behavior on set caused her “serious emotional distress.” The lawsuit alleges that a meeting was held during production in January 2024 to address Lively’s claims of a “hostile work environment” on set. Many people attended the meeting, including Baldoni and Reynolds.

According to the lawsuit, Lively’s demands for the meeting included “no further showing of nude videos or images of women to Blake, no further mention of Baldoni’s alleged prior ‘pornography addiction,’ no further discussion of sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mention of cast and crew’s genitalia , no more questions about Blake’s weight, and no more mention of Blake’s dead father.”

Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, addressed Lively’s “completely false, outrageous and intentionally disgraceful” allegations in a statement. Ourclaiming that Lively filed the lawsuit to “correct her negative reputation” and “exaggerate the story” regarding the film’s production.

He further alleged that the actress made “several demands and threats” during the shoot, including “threats not to show up for the shoot, threats not to promote the film, which ultimately led to its demise during the launch if her demands were not met.”

In the statement to The New York Times in December, Lively said, “I hope my legal action will help pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics that hurt people who speak up about bad behavior and help protect others who may be targeted.”

The actress also denied spreading negative information about Baldoni. Our asked Lively’s representative for comment.