Blake Lively’s lawyers slam Justin Baldoni for new attacks aimed at It Ends With Us co-star

Justin Baldoni’s lawyer has claimed he has evidence of Blake Lively’s alleged bad behaviour, saying she tried to take over the pair’s movie.

Blake Lively’s lawyers blasted the actor’ It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni for launching “more attacks” against her amid their legal battle.

The “Gossip Girl” alum’s legal team said in a statement to People Magazine that Lively’s “serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation” are “backed by concrete facts”, the New York Post’s Page Six reports.

“This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation,” their statement continued.

“As alleged in Ms Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set,” the attorneys added.

“And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Ms Lively since her filing.”

Blake Lively at an Art+Film Gala at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in November last year. Picture: Etienne Laurent / AFP

The lawyers added that “sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry” and that Baldoni is using a “classic tactic” to “distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied.”

“Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender, and suggest that the offender is actually the victim. These concepts normalise and trivialise allegations of serious misconduct,” the statement read.

“Most importantly, media statements are not a defence to Ms Lively’s legal claims. We will continue to prosecute her claims in federal court, where the rule of law determines who prevails, not hyperbole and threats.”

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Justin Baldoni at the Vital Voices 12th Annual Voices of Solidarity Awards in New York ono December 9, just 11 days before Lively filed her sexual harrassment lawsuit. Picture: Bryan Bedder / Getty

Page Six has reached out to Baldoni’s legal team for comment but did not immediately hear back.

On December 20, Lively, 37, filed a complaint against Baldoni, 40, accusing him of sexual harassment while filming It Ends With Us and for engaging in “social manipulation” to “destroy” her reputation.

Lively alleged in the docs that the director made sexual and other inappropriate comments toward her during filming and used a crisis PR expert to launch a smear campaign against her.

In response to the complaint, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, denied the claims in a statement to Page Six, saying: “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”

Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively film a scene in ‘It Ends with Us’ in January 2024. Picture: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin / GC Images

Freedman also said the complaint, which later turned into a formal lawsuit, was “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ [Lively’s] negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film.”

The following day, the New York Times published alleged texts between the Jane the Virgin actor, who was dropped by his talent agency following the complaint, and his publicists.

In response to the article, Baldoni filed a bombshell $250 million lawsuit against the outlet for libel, claiming the NYT “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.”

Blake Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande at a special screening of WICKED in New York on December 3. Picture: Santiago Felipe / Getty

Last week, the Man Enough: Undefining My Masculinity author’s lawyer said his client would “absolutely” be filing a lawsuit against Lively “soon.”

In a new statement to People Magazine, Bryan Freedman said he had “receipts” showing Lively’s alleged “threats to take over the movie”.

He said: “It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponising the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending The New York Times grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint.

“We are releasing all of the evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie.

“None of this will come as a surprise because consistent with her past behaviour Blake Lively used other people to communicate those threats and bully her way to get whatever she wanted. We have all the receipts and more.”

This story was originally published as “Blake Lively’s lawyers blast Justin Baldoni for launching ‘more attacks’ amid legal battle”