Blake Lively had taken what must be unprecedented action against her recent co-star, Justin Baldoni.
Following months of speculation regarding a feud between the actor and the actress — who played the lead roles this year in the film It Ends With Us — Lively filed a lawsuit this week against Baldoni for sexual harassment.
According to documents obtained by TMZ, Lively alleges that Baldoni he created a hostile work environment on the set of the aforementioned book adaption — and later took part in a campaign against his colleaguel
Specifically, the documents claim that Baldoni caused “severe emotional distress” to Lively as a result of his behavior… included “showing nude videos or images of women to Blake,” along with discussion of Baldoni’s past “pornography addiction” or “sexual conquests.”
At one point, the lawsuit states, Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, even attended a meeting among those involved with the movie to address these topics.
Other topics, per TMZ, included “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.”
(Lively’s dad passed away in 2021.)
Referring to the lawsuit, TMZ reported that the meeting cited above also emphasized that there be “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.”
As previously outlined, there was alleged disagreement over the final cut of It Ends With Us (on which Lively served as a producer), along with disputes over just how the movie would be marketed.
Lively asserts Baldoni and others in his camp then engaged in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation.
The lawsuit even includes text messages from Baldoni’s publicist to the studio publicist that say Baldoni “wants to feel like [Ms. Lively] can be buried, and “We can’t write we will destroy her.”
Baldoni and Lively never appeared on the red carpet together during the promotion for It Ends With Us and never sat down for any joint interviews.
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has fired back at Lively’s lawsuit, claiming it’s an attempt to “fix her negative reputation” and noting it’s “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt.”
Prior to the film’s release, Baldoni told Variety — when asked about It Starts With Us, a potential sequel to the movie based on a book by that same title — that he and production studio haven’t “even begun to think that far ahead. I’m trying to stay in the present as much as I can.”
We’re just gonna go ahead now, however, and make the following not-so-bold prediction:
If a sequel does move forward, it will not star Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.