After Blake Lively’s public filling against Justin Baldoni on Friday (20 December) which has shocked the Hollywood world this past few days, the complaint was later released showing shocking texts from Baldoni and his PR team.
Lively’s filing accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, as well as supposedly starting a ‘smear campaign’ to attempt to ‘destroy’ her reputation after what she claimed is a feud borne out of alleged poor on set behaviour from her It Ends with Usco-star.
Baldoni’s lawyer has called the claims ‘categorically false’, and accused Lively of planting false stories about the actor and Wayfarer Studios, which he co-owns, in a ‘another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation’.
He also denied the accusations of a smear campaign, adding: “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.”
Lively, however, denied the claim that she or her representatives had spread negative information about Baldoni or Wayfarer Studios, telling The New York Times: “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.”
The pair starred together in It Ends with Us, which Baldoni also directed (Sony)
What are the accusations
According to Lively’s complaint, as shared by The New York Times, the Gossip Girl star alleged that Baldoni, who also directed It Ends With Us, and Jamey Heath, the film’s lead producer, had changed the script following her commitment to the movie to include ‘improvised gratuitous sexual content’, as well as having a ‘lack of boundaries’, with Lively also accusing Baldoni of asking her ‘intrusive questions’ about her and her husband, Ryan Reynold’s, sex life.
Other allegations include comments about Lively’s weight and her deceased father, Ernie Lively.
Lively also accused Baldoni and his team of allegedly instigating a ‘social manipulation’ campaign against her, with the complaint featuring messages between the producer and his team.
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Baldoni has been accused of sexual harassment and starting a smear campaign against Lively (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
What did the text messages say
According to the complaint, these texts seemed to show Baldoni’s publicist, Jennifer Abel, allegedly discussing a strategy for a smear campaign against Lively with Crisis management specialist, Melissa Nathan.
The texts also include Abel claiming to Nathan that Baldoni wants to feel ‘to feel like she can be buried’ in an alleged reference to Lively.
Meanwhile, another message from 5 August supposedly shows Baldoni sending Abel a Twitter thread about bullying accusations made towards Hailey Bieber, writing: “This is what we would need.”
And Bieber isn’t the only celebrity named in the complaint, as Taylor Swift also being named an alleged email from Baldoni’s team in a ‘scenario planning’ document.
How they got the texts
As per Variety, the filing by Lively’s team claim that the texts were acquired ‘through legal process, including a civil subpoena’ but didn’t identify the specific source – before later clarifying that it was a subpoena issued by Jonesworks LLC.
They said via The Hollywood Reporter: “The internal documents referred to in the complaint were produced subject to that subpoena. We expect that further details regarding the subpoena process will be disclosed during discovery.”
However, lawyer Bryan Freedman, who is representing Abel, Baldoni, Melissa Nathan, and Wayfarer Studios, has said that none of his clients received a subpoena.
Lively alongside her husband Ryan Reynolds (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
Baldoni’s lawyer’s response
Freedman said that they planned to sue Abel’s former boss, Stephanie Jones, telling Variety: “If all of the text messages were produced in that ‘subpoena,’ then Lively’s team knows the true facts of what actually happened and did not happen.
“The truth is completely different than what has been portrayed in the complaint and they know that.
“The complete set of text messages unequivocally show that there was no smear campaign initiated at all which is why certain texts are incomplete and other texts, which tell the truth, are purposefully excluded.”
An attorney hired by Jones, Kristin Tahler, also responded to this, claiming that her client was being used as a ‘scapegoat’ for having just responded to the subpoena.
“Desperate to shift attention away from their disgraceful sliming of Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni’s team is doubling down on their smears by going after someone who had nothing whatsoever to do with this ugly campaign.” Tahler told Variety.
“Having pushed Steph Jones out of her long-standing business with Baldoni, Jen Abel and Melissa Nathan are now looking to scapegoat Steph for having the temerity to respond to a court-ordered subpoena. Unfortunately for them.
“Steph won’t be bullied – even by paternalistic threats of being sued into oblivion.