Blake Lively‘s feud with It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni explodes publicly

Blake Lively is suing her It End With Us co-star for sexual harassment, but he’s hit back as his agents drop him over the allegations.

Actress Blake Lively is suing her former co-star Justin Baldoni for allegedly sexually harassing her while filming the romantic drama It Ends With Us, months after rumours of an on-set feud between the pair plagued the release of the hit film.

But Baldoni has furiously responded to Lively’s allegations, with his lawyer calling her lawsuit “shameful.”

It’s also been reported today that Baldoni has been dropped by his agents, WME, in the wake of the lawsuit.

Lively, 37, alleged in a new lawsuit obtained by Page Six that there had to be an “all-hands-on-deck meeting” about the film’s lead actor and director’s bad behaviour, in which he was warned to no longer show Lively “nude videos or images of women” and to stop mentioning his past “porn addiction” and sexual conquests. Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, was reportedly present for the discussion.

Baldoni, 40, was also told to no longer make any mentions of “cast and crew’s genitalia,” inquire about Lively’s “weight” or her “dead father,” as well as a request to not add more sex scenes, oral sex or climaxing on camera “outside the scope” of the pre-approved script, per the complaint.

Blake Lively starred as Lily Bloom in It Ends With Us.

She’s now suing co-star Justin Baldoni. Picture: Bryan Bedder/Getty

The former co-stars, however, worked with intimacy co-ordinators on set, which Baldoni once said was “so important” to have so they could “all feel safe” and also ensure that the scenes were “elevated.”

‘Shameful’: Justin Baldoni hits back

Baldoni’s and Wayfarer Studios’ lawyer, Bryan Freedman, issued a blistering statement in response to the lawsuit, saying that “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations.”

“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”

Freedman claimed his client previously hired a crisis manager due to “multiple demands and threats” Lively allegedly made, including “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 reported in August that Baldoni had allegedly made Lively feel “uncomfortable” while they filmed It Ends With Us.

The rift became clear when Lively and her co-star did not attend the movie’s premieres together. Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty

She also reportedly felt Baldoni “fat-shamed” her by asking an on-set trainer how much she weighed since he previously suffered a back injury and had to lift her up in one of the scenes.

However, the rumblings of drama between the co-stars only fuelled more backlash aimed at Lively.

New claim about brutal Lively backlash

When the movie was released, Lively suffered a surprising public backlash. Fans turned on her as past interviews resurfaced online that showed her in a less than positive light. In one such interview, from 2016, she made a snide comment about a reporter’s body.

The actress was also criticised for how she handled questions about It Ends With Us‘s serious central theme: domestic violence.

The New York Times reports that Lively claims in her lawsuit that Baldoni was the mastermind of this wave of negative attention.

Blake Lively (left) made a snide comment about a reporter’s stomach in this 2016 resurfaced interview.

She accused him of engaging in “social manipulation” to “destroy” her reputation.

Her complaint includes a text from Baldoni’s publicist to a studio representative that allegedly stated he “wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried,” to which the other person responded, “You know we can bury anyone.”

They “retained subcontractors, including a Texas-based contractor named Jed Wallace, who weaponized a digital army around the country from New York to Los Angeles to create, seed, and promote content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums,” she also claims.

“The Baldoni-Wayfarer team would then feed pieces of this manufactured content to unwitting reporters, making content go viral in order to influence public opinion and thereby cause an organic pile-on.”

Baldoni has hit back through his lawyer, calling Lively’s lawsuit “shameful.” Picture: AFP

But Baldoni’s lawyer has also hit back at those astonishing allegations: Freedman adds that Lively’s suit is “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.”

He also accused Lively of using her publicist to plant negative stories about Baldoni, claiming his clients’ representatives did not retaliate in response to those reports.

Freedman concluded, “There were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategise which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”

Lively spoke to the New York Times about her lawsuit, saying: “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.”

She also denied to the outlet her team planted any negative stories about Baldoni or Wayfarer.

Despite the ongoing drama, It Ends With Us was a massive box office hit this year, pulling in more than $US350m at the box office against a $US25m sequel. There is an easy sequel to be had, as novelist Colleen Hoover penned a second book, titled It Starts With Us.

Given the feud and now legal action, though, it appears unlikely it would star either Lively or Baldoni.

“This is uncharted territory, and nobody has any idea of what a sequel could look like,” a source told Variety in August. “There’s probably no world where these two will work together again.”

Originally published as Blake Lively‘s feud with It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni explodes publicly