Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni were reportedly not on talking terms during the promotions of ‘It Ends With Us’ and the tension between them was visible to everyone. The controversy has now turned intense after Blake sued Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and trying to ruin her reputation. After this, Justin’s talent agency WME reportedly parted ways with him but is yet to issue an official statement.
Moreover, some private texts between Justin Baldoni and his publicist also surfaced online and have reportedly been mentioned in Lively’s lawsuit. According to The New York Times, Justin and Jennifer Abel, the public relations head of his studio, Wayfarer, tried to ruin Lively’s reputation with the help of crisis management expert Melissa Nathan.
“I think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios. He wants to feel like she can be buried,” one of the text from Abel to Nathan reads.
Nathan further replied, “We can’t write we will destroy her….Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands. You know we can bury anyone.”
Meanwhile, according to a report by TMZ, a meeting was held to address the work environment on the set of ‘It Ends With Us’ which was also attended by Ryan Reynolds. The lawsuit reportedly mentioned the list of demands, which allegedly includes the forbidding showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, discussing sexual conquests, talking about cast and crew’s genitalia, and talking about Blake’s dead father and her weight.
For the unversed, Blake received huge backlash from the netizens due to her promotional strategy for ‘It Ends With Us’. The movie highlighted the issue of domestic violence but it was mentioned in any promotion campaign.
After the news of the lawsuit came to the light, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, expressed his anger at the lawsuit and claimed that it was designed to fix the negative reputation of Blake Lively.