Blake Lively has reportedly taken legal action against her former co-star and director Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment, after the duo worked together on the controversial movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s hit novel It Ends with Us. The production, which received mixed reviews, was infamous for off-screen clashes.
In documents acquired by TMZ, Blake accuses Justin of a co-ordinated effort to tarnish her image. Conversely, Justin’s representatives dismissed the claims as disgraceful and called her legal move a desperate bid to clean up her image. His lawyer, Bryan Freedman, lashed out at the lawsuit, denouncing the complaint as a ploy to “fix Blake’s negative reputation,” and described the allegations as “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt.”
(Image: Getty Images)
(Image: Getty Images)
News of the lawsuit comes after months of whispers of tension between Blake and Justin during the making of Hoover’s widely cherished narrative, which sees Lily Bloom (portrayed by Blake) romantically entangled with Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni). Subsequent to the film’s launch, Blake alleges enduring ‘severe emotional distress’ due to Justin’s alleged behaviour.
TMZ reports that a meeting took place to address her grievances and stipulations for participation in the movie, with attendees including her husband, Ryan Reynolds, reports the Mirror.
The lawsuit, as TMZ reports, lists some specific demands: “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Justin’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”
Additionally, “No more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project,” made the list. Allegedly agreed upon by the studio, the film’s eventual flop was attributed to marketing disputes.
(Image: Sony Pictures)
The lawsuit also claims the film’s success was harmed by a huge conflict over how it would be marketed. Blake wanted a positive spin on her character’s resilience, which was at odds with Baldoni who allegedly wanted the focus to be on the issue of domestic violence at its core.
While promoting the film on social media, a clip of Blake when viral as she told fans “Grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to see it” – with some saying her statement was at odds with the dark subject matter of the film.
Responding to the allegations, Justin Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman provided a statement to the Mirror, branding Blake’s claims as ‘shameful.’
“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,” it read.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.”
“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.”
View news Source: https://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-news/blake-lively-sues-ends-co-34357921
