Justin Baldoni sues Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds: NPR

Actor and director Justin Baldoni and the company he co-founded, Wayfarer Studios, continued his It ends with us her co-star Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, as well as publicist Leslie Sloane, for $400 million in damages.

The complaint, filed Thursday in federal court for the Southern District of New York, alleges civil extortion, defamation and a series of contract-related claims regarding the film. It ends with us, which premiered in August.

The lawsuit is the latest development in what has become a legal battle following the film’s production and release. In December, Lively filed a complaint with the California Department of Civil Rights, alleging that she was the victim of sexual harassment and other unwanted behavior by Baldoni and Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath, who also was executive producer of It ends with uson the set of the film. She followed up with a lawsuit, alleging that despite written agreements that the behavior would stop and that she would not face retaliation, Baldoni and the studio hired a crisis PR firm that launched a “campaign of defamation” against his image, disseminating content on social networks. and in the press “designed to eviscerate Ms. Lively’s credibility.” Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath, It Ends With Us Movie LLC and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel have all been named as defendants in the case and are plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Thursday.

Baldoni, along with his and Heath’s publicists, as well as a contractor, denied any harassment or wrongdoing and instead described the conflict as a creative struggle for control of the film between its two lead actors. This denial follows a lawsuit against which they filed The New York Times, who reported on Lively’s allegations in December. In a statement to NPR, The New York Times stayed true to their story, calling it “meticulously and responsibly reported.”

“It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails that we cite in detail and in detail in the article,” the statement read. The New York Times confirmed to NPR that they “plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

The lawsuit filed Thursday by Baldoni, Wayfarer and their publicists reiterates the argument that the conflict with Lively arose from a creative struggle., describing how what reportedly began as a positive working relationship between Lively and Baldoni took a turn throughout the production process of It ends with us. The complaint alleges that little by little, Lively exploited her star power to push for creative input beyond what is usually afforded to an actor, including taking charge of wardrobe decisions, rewriting scenes , creating his own edit of the film and ultimately demanding that Baldoni be excluded from promotional materials and events.

The lawsuit vehemently denies that Baldoni, Wayfarer CEO Heath or anyone else on set engaged in sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior toward Lively or her team. Instead, it alleges that Lively and Reynolds carried out a series of “extortion threats” to tarnish Baldoni’s image.

“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of unfalsified evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s disingenuous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team, and their respective companies by releasing grossly altered, unsubstantiated information to the media , new and falsified.” Wayfarer’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement shared with NPR. “It is clear, given our complete willingness to provide all text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and that she will certainly regret.

In addition to Lively and Reynolds, the complaint names Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane and the public relations firm Vision PR — which represents both Reynolds and Lively — as co-defendants. When NPR requested comment on the allegations presented in Wayfarer’s lawsuit, Vision PR shared a statement on behalf of Lively’s legal team that reiterated her initial allegations and added that Lively was not alone: ​​”The evidence will show that the actors and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer,” they wrote.

“This latest lawsuit filed by Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and his associates is another chapter in the abuser’s playbook. It’s an old story: a woman is speaking out with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the attacker tries to turn the tables on the victim This is what experts call DARVO Attack “Wayfarer chose to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to release statements in the media. baseless prosecution and threatening legal action to prevent the public from understanding that what he is doing constitutes retaliation for allegations of sexual harassment.”

Problem on set

A significant portion of the lawsuit filed Thursday focuses on a document Lively included in her own complaint: a list of 30 demands for filming after cast and crew return from the 2023 Hollywood strikes. These included:

• “no further personal, physical contact or sexual comments from Mr. Baldoni or Mr. Heath will be tolerated by BL and/or any of its employees, as well as any female cast or crew without their express consent” ,
• “no more improvisation of kisses”
• “an intimacy coordinator must be on set for all scenes involving nudity and/or simulated sex”

In Thursday’s lawsuit, Baldoni and his co-plaintiffs claim the production team never received or agreed to that list; Instead, they claim they signed a 17-point list of demands that the lawsuit says “were not open to negotiation,” even though the studio disagreed with the implication according to who exhibited inappropriate behavior on set and attempted to make changes. For example, they argue in the lawsuit that an intimacy coordinator was already needed on set.

“Wayfarer should sign the document as is, despite the falsity of his insinuations,” the lawsuit says. “The alternative was losing millions of dollars, causing hundreds of people to lose their jobs after months of unemployment, and destroying their relationship with Sony.”

The lawsuit claims the list of demands marked the start of “a carefully constructed paper trail to destroy Wayfarer, Heath, Baldoni – and the film.”

According to the lawsuit, Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, was not hired or hired to work on the film, but instead became a central part of production conflicts. In an interview with E! NewsLively shared that Reynolds rewrote a crucial scene from the film — which, according to Wayfarer’s lawsuit filed Thursday, was news to the other producers because Reynolds didn’t have permission from Wayfarer. The lawsuit also describes a “traumatic” incident in which Reynolds allegedly berated Baldoni in front of Lively, Heath and others involved in the film, and alleges that Reynolds called Baldoni a “sexual predator” and pressured the agency artistic William Morris Endeavor (WME). to drop Baldoni as a client. NPR reached out to WME for comment and did not receive a response. Although Vision PR provided NPR with a statement on behalf of Lively’s legal team, it provides no further information on these allegations regarding Reynolds.

The “smear campaign” that followed

After the film was completed, Wayfarer alleges that the studio and Baldoni hired a crisis PR firm not to launch a “smear campaign” against Lively, as she claimed in her own lawsuit, but “to be ready in case Reynolds and Lively unleash their wrath on them.”

Lively previously claimed that a marketing plan created by the film’s distributor, Sony, encouraged the actors to focus on the film’s optimistic themes, and that Baldoni and his team privately abandoned that strategy to focus on the film’s narratives. abuse in order to divert attention. against brewing speculation about a rift in casting. In their lawsuit Thursday, Wayfarer alleges that Baldoni never agreed with this marketing plan and that he and Heath continually pushed to refocus the topic of domestic violence. NPR reached out to Sony for comment and did not receive a response.

Wayfarer’s lawsuit claims the sexual harassment and “smear campaign” allegations are an attack not only on Lively and Reynolds, but also on the studio’s former publicist, Stephanie Jones of Jonesworks LLC (who is not listed as co-accused). The lawsuit argues that Jones had a difficult working relationship with Wayfarer and Baldoni at the time It ends with us was released and that due to a personal and professional conflict with her then-employee Jennifer Abel, she turned over private communications between Abel, Melissa Nathan and Wayfarer to Lively’s team as “revenge “. Jones filed his own lawsuit in New York state court against Abel, Nathan, Baldoni, Wayfarer and several unnamed individuals.