Blake Lively is suing ‘It Ends With Us’ director Justin Baldoni in a new lawsuit
Blake Lively has officially filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoniher costar and director in the film It ends with us.
Lively, 37, initiated legal proceedings against Baldoni, 40, on Tuesday, December 31, in the Southern District of New York. We weekly can confirm. In addition to Baldoni, the actress is also suing publicists Melissa Nathan And Jennifer Abeltogether with Wayfarer Studios.
The lawsuit alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and lost wages. The claims parallel those in Lively’s complaint filed last week with the California Civil Rights Department.
“Earlier today, Ms. Lively filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios and others in the Southern District of New York,” Lively’s attorneys said in a statement to Us. Ms. Lively previously submitted her complaint to the California Civil Rights Department in response to the retaliation campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Unfortunately, Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out speaking resulted in further retaliation and attacks.”
The statement continued: “As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal complaint, Wayfarer and her employees violated federal and California state laws 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 filed this lawsuit in New York, where many of the relevant activities described in the complaint occurred, but we reserve the right to take further action in other locations and jurisdictions to the extent appropriate under the law.”
Lively addressed her legal action through a statement on Saturday, December 21 We weekly.
“I hope my legal action will help pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about wrongdoing and help protect others who may be targeted,” she said.
The lawsuit comes on the same day Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit The New York Times for her reporting on Blake Lively’s sexual harassment allegations.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
(Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)Baldoni was one of ten plaintiffs, including publicists Nathan and Abel It ends with us producers James Heath And Steve Saraowitzin the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Dec. 31, in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The plaintiffs are suing for defamation and false light invasion of privacy, claiming that The New York Times “selected” communication and omitted context to mislead readers in the article “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”
The piece, written by Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire And Julie Tate alleged that Lively faced months of sexual harassment from Baldoni and was published on Saturday, December 21.
The lawsuit alleges that Lively waged a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign against Baldoni (rather than the other way around), using false “allegations of sexual harassment to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production.”
After the filing of the lawsuit, Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman called Lively’s allegations published by the New York Times a ‘vicious smear campaign’.
Blake Lively has sued It Ends With Us actor and director Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment. According to the lawsuit filed by TMZ and The New York Times, Baldoni’s alleged behavior caused Lively, 37, “severe emotional distress.” The lawsuit alleges that a meeting took place to address Lively’s claims that there was a “hostile […]
“In this vile smear campaign, entirely orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times cowering to the wishes and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, ignoring journalistic practices and ethics that once suited the respected publication, using falsified and manipulated texts and deliberately omitting texts that would further their chosen PR narrative dispute,” he said via a statement to Us on Tuesday, December 31. “In doing so, they predetermined the outcome of their story, and aided their own devastating PR smear campaign, designed to revive Lively’s self-induced, floundering public image and stem the organic tide of popular criticism . online audience. The irony is rich.”
He continued: “Make no mistake though, as we all unite to take down The NY Times by no longer allowing them to mislead the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also indicting those individuals who have abused their power to try to destroy the lives of my clients. While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the whole truth – and have all the communications tools to support it. The public will decide for themselves, just like when this first started.”
Baldoni previously categorically denied all of Lively’s allegations through Freedman, who called the allegations “completely false, outrageous and deliberately salacious” in a statement to Us. The statement also claimed that Lively filed the lawsuit to “correct her negative reputation” and “retell a story” about the film’s production.
