The suit filed in New York federal court by Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios seeks at least $400 million in damages, including lost future revenue. According to the allegations, Lively and Reynolds misappropriated the production and marketing of Never againand manipulated the media to smear Baldoni and other members of the production with false allegations of sexual harassment and other forms of harassment.
“This is a case in which two of the most powerful stars in the world used their enormous power to steal an entire film from the hands of its director and production studio,” the lawsuit reads. “Then, when Lively and Reynolds’ efforts failed to get them the recognition they thought they deserved, they turned their anger on their chosen scapegoat.”
The lawsuit comes about two weeks after Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni and several others connected to the film, alleging they retaliated against her for speaking out about her treatment on set.
Ms. Lively’s lawyers called Baldoni’s retrial “a new chapter in the abusers’ playbook.”
“This is a story as old as time: a woman speaks out with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the attacker tries to turn the situation against the victim.”
Blake Lively’s lawyers via press release
“This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.” (Deny, Attack, Reverse the course of things).
The movie Never againbased on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel, was released in August and exceeded box office expectations with a $50 million start. The film begins as a classic romantic drama before taking a dark turn towards domestic violence. The fallout from the affair made waves in Hollywood and led to discussions about the treatment of actresses on film sets and in the media.
“It is heartbreaking that a film that Justin Baldoni envisioned years ago to honor survivors of domestic violence by telling their stories, with the noble goal of making a positive impact on the world, has now been eclipsed beyond recognition, solely due to Lively’s actions and cruelty,” the suit states.
The allegations of sexual harassment and other forms of harassment followed by retaliation are completely false, according to Mr. Baldoni’s complaint. “Blake Lively was so close and comfortable with Justin Baldoni that she breastfed freely in front of him during meetings.”
She later took moments like those, which she encouraged, and turned them into sexual harassment and misconduct, according to Mr. Baldoni’s lawsuit.
Blake Lively’s lawsuit filed on Dec. 31 came just hours after Justin Baldoni sued the New York Times for defamation, claiming the newspaper had collaborated with Ms. Lively to denigrate him. THE Times said he stands by his information and plans to “vigorously defend” himself against the allegations.
Mr. Baldoni’s new lawsuit also claims that, contrary to Ms. Lively’s allegations, all requests she made for help from an intimacy coordinator for the film’s sensitive scenes were honored. It particularly focuses on a childbirth scene, claiming that Blake Lively’s claims that she was “mostly naked” with non-essential people present, including the film’s financier, were “knowingly false.”
Mr. Baldoni claims that at another point in production, because he has back problems, he privately and politely asked Ms. Lively her weight so that he could work with his personal trainer to be able to lift her safely. safety in the film.
-Ryan Reynolds then “swore at Baldoni and accused him of shaming his wife,” according to the complaint.
“In fact, Blake Lively had previously expressed insecurity about her postpartum figure, and Justin Baldoni did everything he could to sincerely reassure her,” the lawsuit states.
Mr. Baldoni took a step back from promoting the film while Ms. Lively took center stage with Mr. Reynolds, who was on a press tour for Deadpool & Wolverine at the same time.
Backlash against Mr. Baldoni led to him being fired by his agency WME, which also represents Ms. Lively and Mr. Reynolds. According to the complaint, Ryan Reynolds is responsible for this decision, claiming that he approached a WME executive during the premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine and “expressed deep disdain for Justin Baldoni, suggesting the agency was working with a ‘sexual predator’.”
Avant Never againJustin Baldoni starred in the television comedy Jane the Immaculatedirected the film Five feet from you in 2019 and wrote Man Enougha book that challenges traditional notions of masculinity.
“Blake Lively knew full well that these allegations would spell the end of the plaintiffs’ careers, especially since Justin Baldoni has lived his private and public life as a passionate advocate for gender equality and healthy masculinity. », We can read in his legal action.
But Blake Lively’s lawyers said the evidence will show that other members of the team had similar experiences with Baldoni.
“In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim,” the attorneys said. “The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it is doomed to fail.”
Ms. Lively became famous thanks to the film Four girls and jeansreleased in 2005, and reinforced his notoriety in the television series Gossip Girl from 2007 to 2012. Since then, she has starred in films such as The Town et The shallows.
Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit says Blake Lively’s cruelty went so far as to serve his trial documents on Mr. Baldoni and his co-defendants in the days after the complaint was filed, at the start of the fires in forest that ravaged the Los Angeles area, saying that the day they “gathered their children and pets, packed travel bags and monitored evacuation orders while fearing for their homes, Blake Lively – from the safety of his penthouse in New York – deployed bailiffs.
Mr. Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement Thursday that “this is a battle she will not win and one she will certainly regret.”
“Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit victims of real-life harassment solely to protect her personal reputation at the expense of those without power,” he said.
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