‘The strategy of attacking women is desperate’

Justin Baldoni has demanded animated blake, ryan reynoldsactress Leslie Sloan’s publicist and the couple’s $400 million advertising firm Vision PR. the move is coming after his $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times and two weeks after Lively sued Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment, retaliation and more.

Attorney Bryan Freedman filed the lawsuit on Jan. 16 in New York on behalf of Baldoni, his company Wayfarer Studios, Finish with us co-producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan. All parties were named in Lively’s lawsuit, in which she accused Baldoni and Heath of misconduct on the set of the film and alleged that their publicists launched a smear campaign that ruined her reputation. They have denied all allegations and Freedman has been alluding to Thursday’s lawsuit for weeks.

Lively’s legal team responded in a statement Thursday night, accusing Baldoni of blaming the victims.

According to the lawsuit obtained by Yahoo Entertainment, Lively “stole” the film directed by Baldoni Finish with usand if it weren’t for her “self-inflicted journalistic catastrophe she faced in August 2024, the public would likely have moved on and never known the truth about her.”

Some of the anecdotes included in the 179-page document will likely make headlines, including one A-list name. Baldoni He claimed that he felt pressured letting Lively rewrite a scene thanks to Taylor Swift and Reynolds. (Swift’s representative did not respond to Yahoo’s request for comment.)

The lawsuit claimed that Lively never read Colleen Hoover’s best-selling book. Finish with us and that she searched Google for her character Lily’s hair color. Lively allegedly did not meet with the organization associated with domestic violence in the film and embarked on a “tone deaf” press tour. The lawsuit claims Lively served the Los Angeles-based defendants “as they evacuated their homes amid devastating fires ravaging their city.”

Baldoni also responded to Lively’s claim in her complaint that he initiated “unchoreographed kissing scenes” and alleged that she initiated it.

“While Lively now takes issue with any innocuous improvisations that Baldoni, as Ryle, allegedly initiated while acting in character, Baldoni treated their on-camera relationship as professional; each one playing their role, each one doing their job,” the lawsuit reads. “If no one was supposed to improvise, Baldoni would have no way of knowing based on Lively’s own actions. “Lively demonstrated, time and time again, that this was a normal and acceptable part of filming romantic scenes.”

This appears to be something Lively’s legal team responded to directly when they issued the following statement to Yahoo on Thursday night:

This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and their associates is another chapter in the abuser’s playbook. This is an old story: a woman speaks out with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser tries to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Stroke. Reverse offender victim.

Wayfarer has chosen to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, file meritless lawsuits, and threaten litigation to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations.

They are trying to shift the narrative towards Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she took creative control and distanced the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer. The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s editing of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success.

Her response to sexual harassment accusations: she loved him, it’s her fault. His justification for why this happened to him: Look what he was wearing. In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and will fail.

Freedman issued a statement on behalf of his clients after filing the lawsuit.

“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of unmanipulated evidence detailing the deceptive attempt by Blake Lively and her team to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, baseless, new and manipulated to the media.” the lawyer told Yahoo on Thursday. “It is clear, based on our complete willingness to provide all of the complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret.” ”. “.

Freedman continued: “Blake Lively was grossly misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth. Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit real victims of real harassment solely to gain her personal reputation at the expense of those without Let’s not forget that Ms. Lively and her team attempted to destroy reputations and livelihoods for egregiously reasons selfish through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any legal action. true, and now the public has it too. “Justin and his team have nothing to hide, the documents don’t lie.”

The group is suing Lively, Reynolds and Sloan for:

• False light invasion of privacy.

• breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing

• intentional interference with contractual relationships

• Intentional interference with possible economic advantages.

• negligent interference with possible economic advantages

Baldoni’s lawsuit stated that “this is not a case of celebrities attacking each other in the press.”

“This is a case about two of the most powerful stars in the world deploying their enormous power to steal an entire movie from the hands of its director and production studio,” the complaint reads.

Text messages were provided in an effort to show that Lively and Baldoni had a “close” working relationship prior to filming.

“Baldoni and Lively shared stories and photos of their lives, commiserated over family illnesses, and exchanged jokes and memes. Baldoni offered concern and support when Lively faced family health issues. They texted each other almost daily, and some friendly banter established a comfortable dynamic that, under typical circumstances, would have made it easier to work together,” the lawsuit says.

Baldoni maintained that Lively attempted to assert creative control almost immediately and pointed out her wardrobe demands that were not included in her contract.

“At one point, Lively insisted that her character ‘had money’ and could afford $5,000 shoes, despite being a fledgling small business owner,” he alleged.

“Baldoni and the studio reluctantly ceded full control of her wardrobe to Lively. “This concession quickly turned out to be regrettable,” the document said, noting to online criticism of paparazzi photos capturing Lively on set “wearing her carefully curated wardrobe.”

The document denounces Lively’s “grossly misrepresented” version of the wardrobe conversation in her complaint. Baldoni denied her accusation that he had a “prolonged outburst,” but admitted that he “became briefly emotional during the conversation, but only in response to what he believed was a genuine compliment from Lively, praising his work as a director and actor.”

The lawsuit provided details about alleged pressure from Reynolds and a “megacelebrity friend” of the couple, allegedly Taylor Swift. (Text included in the document mentions “Taylor”). Baldoni said he felt he had to “comply” and accept a rewritten scene from Lively. The scene in question It was the rooftop scene.which Lively later said in a The interview had been written by Reynolds..

Baldoni also responded to Lively allegedly fat shaming. He admitted to texting his trainer, who he was introduced to through the actress, about his weight. However, he said it was for training purposes. Baldoni said he was then “summoned” to Lively and Reynolds’ New York penthouse and that the Deadpool and Wolverine The star “cursed Baldoni.”

“How dare you ask about my wife’s weight? What’s the matter?” Reynolds allegedly said, according to the lawsuit.

“Reynolds and Lively’s confrontation was so aggressive that Baldoni felt he had no choice but to offer repeated (and completely unwarranted) apologies for what was a good faith and reasonable question to ask his coach,” the lawsuit says. “Reynolds demanded that Baldoni remove the scene completely. “Lively refused to do the elevator scene at the end, even after they rehearsed it with a stunt double.”

Baldoni said Lively “flat out lies about the absence of this scene” in her complaint.

“The only reason the scene wasn’t in the movie is because Lively and Reynolds made sure it was cut from the movie. Pleasing Lively, Baldoni rewrote the scene with Lively, even though for creative reasons, this scene was important to him. as narrator and director,” the lawsuit says.

“Lively had previously expressed insecurity about her postpartum figure, and Baldoni went out of his way to genuinely reassure her,” she added. A text message of this exchange is included in the document.

The lawsuit also details Sloan’s alleged attempted defamation of Baldoni.

Updated January 16, 2025: This story was originally published on January 16, 2025 at 1:08 pm ET and has been updated to include new information from the lawsuit.