Blake Lively sues Justin Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment and retaliation

Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the movie and a subsequent effort to ‘destroy’ her reputation.

Lively has accused Baldoni and the studio behind the film of embarking on a ‘multi-tiered plan’ to damage her reputation. Picture: Supplied

Hollywood actor Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the movie and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation.

The legal complaint filed on Friday with the California Civil Rights Department names Baldoni, the studio behind the romantic drama and Baldoni’s publicists among the defendants.

Lively accuses Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behaviour” by Baldoni and a producer on the movie.

The plan, the complaint said, included a proposal to plant ­theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign and place news stories critical of Lively.

Baldoni enlisted publicists and crisis managers in a “sophisticated, co-ordinated, and well-­financed retaliation plan” meant to “bury” and “destroy” Lively if she went public with her on-set concerns, the complaint alleges.

Baldoni’s lawyers called the claims ‘completely false’. Picture: Getty

“To safeguard against the risk of Ms Lively ever revealing the truth about Mr Baldoni, the ­Baldoni/Wayfarer team created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms Lively’s credibility,” the complaint states. “They engaged in the same techniques to bolster Mr Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him.”

The complaint also says Baldoni “abruptly pivoted away from” the movie’s marketing plan and “used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image”.

Bryan Freedman, a lawyer representing Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, called the claims “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious”.

He pushed back against Lively’s allegations of a co-ordinated campaign, saying the studio “proactively” hired a crisis manager “due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms Lively during production”.

Lively’s lawsuit claims she and her husband Ryan Reynolds addressed ‘repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behaviour’ on the set of the film. Picture: Getty

Mr Freedman also said Lively threatened to not appear on set and not promote the film “if her demands were not met”.

Those demands were not specified in the statement, but Lively’s complaint lists 30 demands that she said Baldoni and others agreed to after their tense sit-down over her hostile work environment concerns.

Among them: “no more showing of nude videos or images of women” to Lively and others on set and no more discussions about pornography, sexual experiences or genitalia.

She also said Baldoni should not ask her trainer about her weight without her consent, should not press her about her religious beliefs and should make “no further mention of her dead father”.

The demands also stipulated that there would be “no more improvising of kissing” scenes or adding of sex scenes to the film outside of the ones in the script Lively approved when she signed on.

“I hope 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,” Lively told The New York Times.

It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling 2016 novel, was released in Aug­ust, exceeding box office expectations with a $US50m debut. The movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between the lead pair. Baldoni took a back seat in promoting the film while Lively took centre stage.

AP