Blake Lively alleges Justin Baldoni employed tactics from an ’abuser playbook’ in a $400 million lawsuit

Blake Lively has issued a scathing response after Justin Baldoni filed a bombshell $400million lawsuit amid the ongoing battle over It Ends With Us.
The Jane the Virgin actor served as director and star of the drama last year, alongside the Gossip Girl actress – based on the successful novel of the same name by Colleen Hoover.
Despite the box office success, the flick was plagued by rumors of tension between the cast on set, which ramped up in December when the 37-year-old began legal proceedings against the filmmaker, alleging that he behaved inappropriately on set and accused him of ‘repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior’.
After denying the claims, the 40-year-old’s team filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit in the Southern District of New York yesterday, on his behalf – as well as producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan – suing Lively and her husband and Ryan Reynolds, as well as publicist Leslie Sloane and her PR firm, Vision PR Inc.
According to People Magazine, they allege that Lively, who starred as Lily Bloom, attempted to gain control of the movie by taking certain measures.
He is said to be suing on grounds of ‘civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing’ – as well as ‘Intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage’.

Justin starred in, and directed, It Ends With Us (Picture: Getty)
‘This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,’ a statement given to People by Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman reads.
‘It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret.
‘Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.

The movie was released last August(Picture: AP)
‘Let’s not forget, Ms Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action.
‘We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.’
Lively’s team has now offered a lengthy statement to Metro over Baldoni’s allegations, which reads: ‘This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its associates is another chapter in the abuser playbook.
‘This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.
‘Wayfarer has opted to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch meritless lawsuits, and threaten litigation to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations.’
‘They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr Baldoni and Wayfarer,’ the message continued.
‘The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success.
‘Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing.

Blake previously began legal proceedings against Justin (Picture: Getty)
‘In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.’
In Baldoni’s lawsuit documents, obtained by TMZ, it was alleged that Lively was ‘determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story’, with their ‘battle for creative control’ over It Ends With Us. starting in May, 2023.
His team claimed that he met with his co-star and her husband, Reynolds, at their home to discuss her re-writes of a ‘critical’ rooftop scene, which he felt became an ‘ambush’ – the Deadpool actor reportedly praised her efforts, while her friend Taylor Swift also stopped by to applaud her version.

Justin named both Blake and Ryan Reynolds in his filing (Picture: Getty)
TMZ reports that the pair battled about her character’s wardrobe during filming, while Baldoni alleged that Lively hadn’t read the novel that It Ends With Us is based on.
‘She even tried to Google the color of her character’s hair rather than pick up the book,’ he claimed.
In Lively’s original complaint, she alleged that the atmosphere on set became so uncomfortable that an all-staff meeting was called to try and work through the problems creating a hostile set, where Baldoni obliged by cast and crew demands – including a request for him to stop showing her nude videos and images of women, and stop talking about sexual interactions in front of her.

He submitted his lawsuit in New York yesterday (Picture: Getty)
Although he conceded on most of the demands, he said that she continually threatened to torpedo the film unless she was able to cut her own version of the film, which he claimed scored worse than his own in tests.
Lively’s cut was eventually released instead, but Baldoni was allegedly ostracized from the cast during promotion, red carpet events and interviews.
At the time, the public picked up on the apparent tension, sparking a huge backlash against the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants actress, as people complained about her light-hearted approach to promoting the movie, while also unpacking previous interviews.
He then alleged that her PR team, headed up by Sloane, then attempted to ‘frame her as a martyr and pin the blame’ on himself.
This comes after Lively started legal proceedings of her own, alleging that he treated her like a ‘sexual object’ and that he embarked on a ‘multi-tiered plan’ to damage her reputation – claims he has denied.
In a statement through her attorney at the time of filing, she said: ‘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.’
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