Actor Blake Lively has filed a complaint against “It Ends With Us” co-star and director Justin Baldoni over alleged sexual harassment during production and a purported smear campaign targeting her, according to multiplemediareports.
The complaint, reportedly filed Friday, alleges that production on the 2024 film became so toxic that a meeting was held about Baldoni’s behavior, with Lively’s husband — actor Ryan Reynolds — in attendance. It purportedly included demands for no further “sexual comments” from Baldoni to Lively or any female cast or crew member, as well as no further descriptions of his genitalia to Lively, inquiries about her weight or comments about a “pornography addiction” he allegedly had.
It also demanded that no more nude images of women be shown to Lively, and called for “no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex, or on camera climaxing by BL [Blake Lively] outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project.”
She further accused Baldoni of participating in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” her reputation.
“He wants to feel like she can be buried,” a publicist working with Baldoni allegedly told Melissa Nathan, a crisis management expert hired by the director and producer Jamey Heath, in an August text message. Nathan allegedly wrote that “you know we can bury anyone.”
HuffPost has reached out to representatives for Lively and Baldoni for comment.
In response to Lively’s claims, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios told multiple mediaoutlets, “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni.”
The attorney, Bryan Freedman, said the complaint is a “desperate attempt” from Lively “to ‘fix’ her negative reputation.” He said this reputation “was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film,” adding that these “allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.”
Lively was the subject of unfavorable headlines during that time as she urged people to “grab your friends” and “wear your florals” to go see the movie — remarks that were seen as insensitive while promoting a film about domestic violence. She also offered a joking response at first to an interviewer’s question about people who could relate to the film’s serious subject matter.
Lively promoted her beverage company and hair care line amid the movie’s press tour as well, and prompted wide-ranging backlash from social media users, fans of the Colleen Hoover novel that the film was adapted from, and even political commentators like Meghan McCain.
Lively said in a statement to the media that she hopes the complaint, filed with the California Civil Rights Department, sheds light on “sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
The complaint also accused Heath, the producer, of showing Lively a video of his naked wife giving birth. He and Baldoni are further accused of repeatedly entering Lively’s trailer uninvited while she was in a state of undress, including when she was breastfeeding her child.
In addition, the complaint alleged that Baldoni sought to diverge from the planned marketing for the film by focusing heavily on the domestic violence theme, in contrast to Lively’s intention to emphasize the resilience of her character.
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Ahead of the movie’s Netflix release, Baldoni recently told “Access Hollywood” that “there’s never an excuse to … hurt a woman, physically or emotionally,” and that “men have to step up and figure out how we can be better allies.”
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.