Blake Lively files formal lawsuit against Justin Baldoni for emotional distress, lost wages

Blake Lively has filed a formal lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni.

Blake Lively has filed a formal lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni.

The actress, 37, sued Baldoni, 40, on Tuesday in New York federal court for alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and lost wages, Page Six can confirm.

The allegations in the suit, which we obtained, mirror those in the complaint she filed last week with the California Civil Rights Department.

Lively claimed in her lawsuit that Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set of their August movie and that after they held a meeting to address his alleged behaviour, he allegedly hired a crisis management team to destroy her reputation.

In addition to Baldoni, Lively is suing his crisis managers, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, along with Wayfarer Studios, which produced It Ends with Us.

“Earlier today, Ms Lively filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios and others in the Southern District of New York,” her attorney told us in a statement.

“Ms Lively previously sent her California Civil Rights Department Complaint in response to the retaliatory campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns.”

The statement continued, “Unfortunately, Ms Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks. As alleged in Ms Lively’s federal complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court. Ms Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.”

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds attend the It Ends With Us premiere. Picture: Cindy Ord/Getty Images

Reps for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.

Lively claimed in her lawsuit that during the filming of the romantic drama, there had to be an “all-hands” meeting about Baldoni’s alleged on-set behaviour.

During the purported meeting, he was allegedly told to stop showing his co-star “nude videos or images of women”, mentioning his past “porn addiction” and sexual conquests and bringing up the “cast and crew’s genitalia”, according to the suit.

Baldoni was also allegedly asked not to add more sexually charged scenes “outside the scope” of the pre-approved script.

Furthermore, he was allegedly told to stop inquiring about Lively’s “weight” and “dead father”.

According to the lawsuit, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, was present for the discussion.

Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios’ attorney, Bryan Freedman, previously told Page Six in response to the allegations, “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 hired a crisis manager due to the “multiple demands and threats” Lively had allegedly made during production, including “threatening to not showing up to set [and] threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met”.

Lively also alleged in her complaint that Baldoni was behind much of the avalanche of negative stories circulating about her shortly after he retained said fixer, accusing them of engaging in “social manipulation” to “destroy” her reputation.

Lively has accused co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment. Picture: Charly Triballeau/AFP

The suit included an alleged text message from Baldoni’s publicist to a studio rep that stated he “wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried”, to which the other person replied, “You know we can bury anyone.”

Lively alleged in the complaint that the Baldoni-Wayfarer team “retained subcontractors … who weaponised 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”.

According to the lawsuit, they “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”.

However, Freedman called Lively’s suit “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 her of using her publicist to plant negative stories about Baldoni, claiming his clients’ reps did not retaliate in response to those reports.

“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,” Freedman insisted.

When reached for comment, Lively’s reps reiterated the statement she issued when she filed her initial complaint, “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.”

This article originally appeared on Page Six and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Blake Lively files formal lawsuit against Justin Baldoni for emotional distress, lost wages