Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us director and costar Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the movie and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation in a legal complaint.
The complaint obtained by The Associated Press, which the New York Times reported was filed on Friday with the California Department of Civil Rights, precedes a lawsuit. It names Baldoni, the studio behind the romantic drama It Ends With Us and Baldoni’s publicists among the defendants.
In the complaint, Lively accuses Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Baldoni and a producer on the movie.
Photo: AP
The plan included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign and place news stories critical of Lively, the complaint said.
Baldoni enlisted publicists and crisis managers in a “sophisticated, coordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan” meant to “bury” and “destroy” Lively if she went public with her on-set concerns, the complaint alleged.
“To safeguard against the risk of Ms Lively ever revealing the truth about Mr Baldoni, the BaldoniWayfarer team created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms Lively’s credibility,” the complaint said. “They engaged in the same techniques to bolster Mr Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him.”
Baldoni “abruptly pivoted away from” the movie’s marketing plan and “used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image,” it said.
Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, called the claims “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
He pushed back against Lively’s allegations of a coordinated campaign, saying the studio “proactively” hired a crisis manager “due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms Lively during production.”
Freedman also said Lively threatened to not appear on set and not promote the film “if her demands were not met.”
Those demands were not specified in the statement, but Lively’s complaint lists 30 demands that she said Baldoni and others agreed to after their tense sit-down over her hostile work environment concerns.
Among them: “no more showing of nude videos or images of women” to Lively and others on set and no more discussions about pornography, sexual experiences or genitalia.
She also said Baldoni should not ask her trainer about her weight without her consent, should not press her about her religious beliefs and should make “no further mention of her dead father.”
An intimacy coordinator was also required to be on set whenever Lively shared a scene with Baldoni and he was barred from entering her trailer or the make-up trailer while she was undressed.
The demands also stipulated that there would be “no more improvising of kissing” scenes or adding of sex scenes to the film outside of the ones in the script Lively approved when she signed on.
“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,” Lively said in a statement to the Times.
It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling 2016 novel, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a US$50 million debut. However, the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between the lead pair. Baldoni took a backseat in promoting the film while Lively took centerstage along with Reynolds, who was on the press circuit for Deadpool & Wolverine at the same time.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
RSS