After a messy press tour for the It Ends With Us adaptation and damage to her reputation and brands, Blake Lively filed a complaint against Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, his crisis PR team The Agency Group, Melissa Nathan, and others for sexual harassment, retaliation, and more. On December 21, the New York Times detailed the claims in the document that alleged Baldoni hired the crisis PR company to “bury” Lively after she complained about Baldoni’s behavior on set to the studio, threatening his “feminist” reputation. The complaint alleges Baldoni’s team successfully damaged her reputation during the film’s press tour because of their work. Here’s everything you need to know about the complaint, including how Baldoni and co. reacted.
What does the complaint claim?
In the 80-page lawsuit obtained by Vulture, the complaint, which is a precursor to a lawsuit, details Lively’s issues with Baldoni throughout production that influenced Baldoni to retaliate against Lively during the film’s press tour. During production, Lively claims that Baldoni “improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed with” her and attempted to add nudity and graphic scenes that weren’t in the original script without an intimacy coordinator present. After she raised concerns about Baldoni’s alleged behavior at the studio, the studio promised to add safeguards in place for protection and in another contract, promised to not retaliate against the actress for her complaints.
Lively also claims that once the press tour began for the film, Baldoni stepped away from the plan the team originally agreed upon, focusing on “female trauma” instead of “female triumph.” The other cast members and author, Colleen Hoover, started doing promotional events without Baldoni. Baldoni’s team reportedly wanted to get ahead of fans who were questioning why Baldoni was not promoting with the rest of them. This is when Baldoni reportedly hired Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group PR to work on a retaliation campaign against Lively, making a plan for possible scenarios for if Lively speaks out against Baldoni. They hired Jed Wallace, who worked on a social media strategy to garner support for Baldoni and his work on the film. “The narrative online is so freaking good and fans are still sticking up for Justin and there literally has been no pickup of those two articles which is actually shocking to me. But I see this as a total success, as does Justin,” publicist Jennifer Abel reportedly wrote in a text message to Nathan.
In a statement to the Times, Lively shared, “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 backlash affected not only the film but also Lively’s businesses. The complaint details how the smear campaign affected Lively’s new hair care line and how the “record-breaking” sales plummeted 56%–78% after the backlash.
What happened on the press tour again?
Hoover, Lively, and co-stars Jenny Slate, Brandon Sklenar, and Isabela Ferrer all participated in the It Ends With Us promotion away from Baldoni— none of the film’s stars followed Baldoni on social media, which fans were quick to notice. Throughout interviews, they were vague with their comments on Baldoni’s performances and directing— Slate called pulling double duty as director and star an “intense job”— all parties seemingly siding with Lively on whatever behind-the-scenes drama was going on set. “Colleen and the women of this cast stand for hope, perseverance, and for women choosing a better life for themselves,” Sklenar said in a statement on Instagram during the height of the gossip.
Fans of the novel criticized the differences in promotion of the film between Baldoni and Lively— they claimed Lively was too casual and treated the press tour like the campaign for Barbie rather than a serious issue like domestic violence. People also attacked Lively’s cross-promotion with her hair care line and her husband’s Deadpool film, which was released around the same time.
Baldoni’s focus on domestic abuse throughout the advertising campaign was praised by fans, and people questioned why Lively and the rest of the team were not working with him during all of this, drawing even more attention to the behind the scenes drama of the film.
Has Baldoni or Nathan responded?
In a statement shared with Vulture, Baldoni’s attorney claims there was no smear campaign put on against Lively and that the internet generated their own “views and opinions” of Lively based on “unedited interviews.” They also described the evidence presented of Baldoni’s PR plan as “internal scenario planning,” a “standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
A full statement attributed to the attorney for Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and all its representatives, Bryan Freedman is below:
“It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions. These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met. It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address. 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. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
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