Blake Lively’s public feud with her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni has stepped up, with the actress demanding a gag order after unedited footage from the set was leaked.
The videos, which were made public online, showed the co-stars dancing in a scene for the romantic drama in which they played Ryle Kincaid and Lily Bloom.
Lively’s legal team wrote a letter to Judge Lewis J. Liman, blaming Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, of "improper conduct" by making the footage public. They also referred to the leak as additional evidence supporting their claims against the actor.
“Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning,” Lively’s lawyers told Page Six via a statement on January 21. They added: “The video shows Mr Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character.”
Lively was the first to take legal action when she filed a lawsuit against Baldoni on December 20. The 37-year-old has alleged sexual harassment and claimed the behaviour of her It Ends With Us co-star, who also directed the movie, caused her severe emotional distress.
Baldoni, 40, was dropped by his agent in light of Lively’s lawsuit, according to the Hollywood Reporter, but his attorney denied the allegations made by the former Gossip Girl star. He then filed a lawsuit for libel against the New York Times, which published a detailed report on Lively’s filing and accusations.
Meanwhile, Lively has filed a federal lawsuit against Baldoni in New York on Tuesday (December 31), in addition to the California filing which brought the feud to light.
Here is what you need to know about the case.
Who is Justin Baldoni?
The 40-year-old actor and director has a 20-year career in Hollywood, which has seen him helm films such as Five Feet Apart and Clouds. He also acted in Jane the Virgin as Rafael Solano.
He is married to Swedish actress Emily Foxler, with whom he has two children.
Baldoni was given his biggest project yet in directing It Ends With Us – an adaptation of the 2016 Colleen Hoover novel of the same name. Despite some iffy reviews, the film was a box office smash, grossing $351m (£289m) worldwide against a $25m (£20m) budget after its release in August. This was despite the movie coming out at the same time as Deadpool & Wolverine, a film starring Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
Baldoni also played the character Ryle Kincaid opposite Lively’s Lily Bloom in the film but it was plagued with a scrutinised rollout and accusations of behind-the-scenes tensions.
Read More: Blake Lively and the dark side of PR: Why are we all so keen to hate women?
What has Blake Lively accused him of?
Lively has alleged Baldoni subjected her, along with the cast and crew, to “invasive, unwelcome, unprofessional and sexually inappropriate behaviour”.
In the Blake Lively v. Wayfarer Studios LLC, Lively’s representatives allege that Baldoni bit the actress on the lip during filming, came into her trailer while she was breastfeeding her newborn, tried to discuss pornography with her, and brought his friend on set to play a doctor during a birth scene where Lively was pressured to perform nude.
The full list of allegations is broken down here.
Lively has also accused Baldoni of conducting a smear campaign and hiring Melissa Nathan, a crisis communications specialist used by Johnny Depp, to manage his reputation while damaging hers.
Lively’s second lawsuit, filed in New York on New Year’s Eve, makes similar claims to her first. It alleges Baldoni and the studio behind It Ends With Us built “a carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out”.
Most recently on January 21, Lively’s legal team called out Baldoni for releasing a 10-minute video of the co-stars getting flirty on the set and have filed a gag order.
The lawyers said that “the released footage corroborates” Lively’s sexual harassment allegations.
In a statement to Page Six, her legal team said said: “The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character.
“Every moment of this was improvised by Mr. Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance, and no intimacy coordinator present. Mr. Baldoni was not only Ms Lively’s co-star, but the director, the head of studio and Ms Lively’s boss.”
Lively was “leaning away and repeatedly asking” Baldoni for their characters to “just talk” instead of becoming close, according to Lively's team.
What were the Justin Baldoni texts?
Just days before Christmas 2024, the NYT published a report which, it said, showed texts where Baldoni asked his campaign team to “plant pieces of how horrible Blake is to work with" in the press.
Lively’s lawsuit said the texts had been obtained via a subpoena and showed exchanges between Jennifer Abel, of PR firm RWA Communications, Ms Nathan and Baldoni.
In one, Ms Abel said: "The narrative online is so freaking good and fans are still sticking up for Justin.”
In another, Ms Nathan said: "The majority of socials are so pro Justin and I don't even agree with half of them lol.”
The texts were sent from May to August 18, according to the lawsuit, with the peak of the PR heat coming around the release of the film on August 9.
What has Baldoni said?
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman has released a statement, which read: “It is shameful that Ms Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real-time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
The statement does admit that Wayfarer Studios “made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager” but this was after “demands and threats made by Ms Lively”.
“It was also discovered that Ms Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address.
"The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
What is Baldoni’s lawsuit?
Baldoni is one of 10 plaintiffs listed in a lawsuit against The NYT, which claims the publication “cherry-picked” text messages for its piece on Lively and removed vital context, Variety reported.
The director and the rest of the group - which includes Ms Nathan and Ms Abel - are suing the paper for libel and false light invasion of privacy.
The filing claims the NYT omitted messages which provide context to exchanges about Lively from its report. In one, Ms Nathan responds to negative coverage of Lively with: “None of us would ever do this. It’s organic, she’s blown herself up by her own actions.”
Other messages see Baldoni’s PR team appearing concerned that people will think they have placed negative stories about Lively.
Baldoni’s lawyer Freedman claimed the NYT “cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful 'untouchable' Hollywood elites",
"In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively's self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public," he added. "The irony is rich."
A spokesperson for the New York Times, Danielle Rhoades, said: "Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported."
