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Justin Baldoni hit back against Blake Lively‘s accusations — and hit hard!
In her California Civil Rights Department complaint filed just before Christmas, she accused Justin and his producing partner Jamey Heath of inappropriate behavior on the set of It Ends With Us, including sexual harassment. She alleged when she spoke out against the misconduct, they perpetrated a smear campaign against her, using viral posts to make her look like a mean girl.
Well, on New Year’s Eve, Justin Baldoni fired his first shot in return — a massive $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times. Why? He and his fellow plaintiffs argue the paper’s December 21 exposé “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine” used the Gossip Girl star’s accusations as its basis. However, his suit claims, there was plenty of evidence out there for a “newspaper of record” to seek out which proved she was lying — or at least deserved equal platform so people could decide for themselves. And his suit released a LOT of it.
Related: Blake Lively Or Justin Baldoni? Whose Side Is The Internet On?
After covering every allegation Blake made in depth, we’ve tried to cover each rebuttal Justin offered as well. Here are his versions of the story, collected in one place…
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Smear Campaign Texts
The closest thing to a smoking gun in Blake’s legal filing were the messages she obtained between Justin and his team, including publicist Jennifer Abel, crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, and PR expert Jed Wallace.
Messages included Jennifer telling Justin:
“The narrative online is so freaking good and fans are still sticking up for Justin and there literally has been no pickup of those two articles which is actually shocking to me. But I see this as a totally success, as does Justin. You did such amazing work.”
And Justin asking the team:
“How can we say somehow that we are not doing any of this — it looks like we are trying to take her down.”
But Justin’s suit contends the texts included were taken out of context or made in jest. His evidence? There were a great many messages among those obtained by Blake (and presumably the Times) in which the team explicitly said they didn’t do anything, that all the anti-Blake stuff was happening organically online!
For instance? Jennifer’s response to his question about how to say they aren’t doing it…
“Things I’m more worried about is that we are planting these stories which is not true obviously.”
And in another message she sends Justin an article about that interview everyone thought made Blake look like a mean girl. She writes:
“This just ran – obviously none of us knew about this either. But once media goes in, they go in… The content creators are on fire, and Justin, she has handed it to them all on a plate.”
Over and over they assure each other they aren’t doing this:
Cherry-picking is bad enough. It would be a lie of omission.
But in an even more damning accusation, the suit provides an example of Blake and the Times doctoring a text! The message was Abel telling Nathan:
“Wow. You really outdid yourself with this one”
And the crisis expert responding:
“That’s why you hired me, right? I’m the best.”
But Baldoni’s suit shows the original first message ended with an upside-down smiley face emoji. They say Blake “deliberately” excluded the emoji, which is “commonly used to convey irony, sarcasm, joking, or a sense of goofiness or silliness.” So removing the emoji in the legal filing — and subsequently the Times piece, Justin and the plaintiffs argue, misled everyone into “interpreting her response as serious” — and not as sarcasm as it was supposedly meant to be. Just like if someone wrote “JK” at the end of their text and it wasn’t included in the quote! Here’s their evidence:
If all of this is legit, and we imagine it can be proved either way… it’s maybe turned the best evidence Blake had into the best evidence Justin has.
Unwanted Kissing & Sex Talk
Probably the biggest accusations in Blake’s legal filing were about sexual harassment. She made Justin sound disgusting, saying he was using his position of power as the director AND romantic lead to be inappropriate with her.
In her complaint, Blake says before shooting, she objected to extra sex scenes Justin “wanted to add that she considered gratuitous” — so Wayfarer Studios “agreed to provide a full-time intimacy coordinator,” someone whose job is to help communicate all actions in movie sex scenes to plan in such a way that everyone is always on the same page and no one is ever made uncomfortable. (Like Blake says she was!)
But Justin says they’d already hired an intimacy coordinator! And Blake was the one who refused to meet with the woman, defeating the purpose! And he shows texts he says can prove it!
In his lawsuit, the filmmaker argues:
“Also misleading, the Article draws on Lively’s assertion that Baldoni ‘improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life[.]’ However, both the Times and Lively intentionally exclude that Lively refused to meet with the intimacy coordinator to plan out the Film’s sex scenes. Baldoni, in turn, was forced to meet with the intimacy coordinator alone and relay any suggestions to Lively separately.”
He’s saying the reason he had to talk about sex with Blake is because she put him in the position of spitballing ideas with the intimacy coordinator — and then bringing them to her by himself! The suit states:
“Contrary to Lively’s assertion, it was she who refused to meet with the intimacy coordinator to plan out scenes, putting Baldoni in the awkward position of meeting with the intimacy coordinator alone and later relaying sex scene suggestions to Lively in the intimacy coordinator’s absence—not only defeating the purpose but resulting in accusations by the Times that, before shooting began, Baldoni wanted to add sex scenes that Lively considered gratuitous; in fact, these scenes were proposed by the intimacy coordinator. This is well-documented in hand-written notes Baldoni took during meetings with the intimacy coordinator… Baldoni’s dated, hand-written notes from his meetings with the intimacy coordinator, which again, Lively declined attending, were read to Lively at her penthouse, where she insisted she and Baldoni meet to write sex scenes together.
He explains how he and Blake “would later sketch out the scenes together, absent the intimacy coordinator”:
“As part of those creative discussions, Baldoni and Lively sought to personalize and develop their characters and, in doing so, engaged in conversation about their individual experiences.”
Justin says Blake and the Times‘ version of events “characterizes this discussion as an inappropriate attempt by Baldoni to talk about his sex life.” He denies this, arguing she was the first to speak about her personal sexual preferences in response to an idea he was relaying directly from the intimacy coordinator:
“In response to a proposal from the intimacy coordinator that ‘Ryle’ not orgasm after he satisfied ‘Lily,’ Lively remarked: ‘I’d be mortified if that happened to me’, to which Baldoni, following Lively’s lead in what seemed like an attempt to connect and develop their characters, remarked that ‘those have been some of the most beautiful moments with [my wife] and I’.”
Is that really what she was talking about when mentioning him talking about his sex life with her?? If so, would you agree with him when he says she “distorts” the conversation in her legal filing??
Peeping Justin?
Another line the director supposedly crossed?
Blake alleged Justin and Jamey Heath “repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.” He takes issue with the “uninvited” part — and has evidence of at least one time he was invited!
Baldoni included a screenshot of text messages in which she tells him on June 3, 2023:
“I’m just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work out our lines”
To which he responds:
“copy Eating with crew and will head that way”
If she then used the fact he came to her trailer while she was pumping to make him seem like a pervert… that’s definitely misleading considering she pretty explicitly says here that it’s OK. If these texts are legit, of course…
Fat Shaming
There were multiple instances in Blake’s filing accusing Justin of “fat shaming” her, inappropriately making comments about her body and weight that made her feel horrible.
In one case, she says early on in the shoot paparazzi got the first pics of her on set in her wardrobe. And jerks on the internet were saying she “looked old” or like she’d let herself go, that she looked “frumpy”, stuff like that. Blake claims this drove the director crazy — and that he came to her dressing room and had a long meltdown in which he broke down in tears. All because she didn’t look sexy enough for his movie. Gross, right?
His version is WAY different though. He claims it was Sony who pressured him about the public’s admittedly shameful response to Blake’s look in the film:
“These images were described as unflattering and sparked a backlash from the Film’s distributor, Sony. Baldoni received direct criticism from Sony, who voiced concerns about the impact of the photos on the Film’s public perception.”
So, Justin says, he went and relayed those concerns, trying to be sensitive about it:
“Following these events, Baldoni approached Lively in her trailer to discuss necessary wardrobe adjustments. The conversation, while professional, took considerable time and was later grossly misrepresented in Lively’s CRD Complaint, falsely characterizing the exchange as a ‘lengthy outburst’ that delayed filming and caused the crew to ‘wait for hours while [Baldoni] cried in Lively’s dressing room.’ This account — later published by the Times — is false.”
He claims the reason he cried was because she paid him a kind compliment, something she left out of her version!
“It was in response to what he believed was a genuine compliment from Lively, praising his work as a director and actor.”
Wow. If that’s true, that is a wild mischaracterization of that conversation.
As for the accusation he asked around about her weight? That’s sort of true, he says — but only because it was a necessary question for film safety. He explains he was was supposed to lift Blake for a scene in the script, but he suffers from back issues — multiple bulging discs. So he asked his personal trainer — who also worked with Blake — what she weighed. But it was only “to ensure he could safely perform the lift without injury.”
However, the trainer told Blake and ultimately her husband Ryan Reynolds, whom he says blew up at him in a confrontation at the power couple’s NYC penthouse apartment.
“The confrontation that followed was so aggressive that Baldoni felt compelled to offer repeated apologies, despite his question being entirely reasonable and made in good faith.”
Blake was so upset about the perceived body shaming, Justin notes, she “refused to perform the lift scene, even though it had already been rehearsed with a stunt double.” Hmm.
What do YOU think of Justin’s responses to Blake’s accusations? Do you believe him and his team? Do you buy this evidence? Or is this still more of the smear campaign plan?? Let us know in the comments (below)!
And if you have the time, check out Justin’s full lawsuit HERE!
[Image via Sony/YouTube.]
The post Justin Baldoni v Blake Lively: Every Counterclaim Against Her <i>It Ends With Us</i> Accusations! appeared first on Perez Hilton.
