The fact that Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s drama has all come to a head over the course of the holidays is pretty bonkers. There were entertainment reporters, legal experts and NYT journalists pulling double-shifts over Christmas and New Year’s because of the way everything was timed. Many have said that Blake Lively’s timing had a purpose – she filed her complaint with the California Civil Rights department on the Friday before Christmas, and her team organized the Times exclusive for the weekend before Christmas. Meaning, the intention was for Blake’s version of events to sit out there, relatively unchallenged for the two-week holiday period. I’m not sure if Blake’s team knew that Justin Baldoni, his publicists and his lawyers would be so proactive so quickly. On New Year’s Eve, Baldoni & nine other plaintiffs sued the Times over their story. Blake responded by suing Baldoni and his team, plus Wayfarer (Baldoni’s production company). We heard that Baldoni would sue Blake in the new year. So when will it happen?? According to Baldoni’s lawyer, “soon.”
Almost a week after Blake Lively accused her It Ends with Us costar Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment and lauching a retaliatory public smear campaign against her, Baldoni’s lawyer says the actor/director plans to fire back with his own countersuit.
When asked by NBC News in an interview that aired Thursday, Jan. 2, if his client plans to sue Lively, attorney Bryan Freedman replied, “Absolutely … yes.”
“We plan to release every single text messages between the two of them,” Freedman told NBC News. “We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts.”
PEOPLE has exclusively learned that the plaintiffs will include Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios (his production company behind It End with Us), his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan. They plan to name Lively, her publicist Leslie Sloane and Baldoni’s former publicist Stephanie Jones in the suit. (Jones sued Baldoni, Wayfarer, Abel and Nathan on Dec. 24.)
Freedman did not provide a timetable in terms of when Baldoni’s countersuit will be filed, but a source with knowledge of the lawsuit said it will be filed “soon.”
As I said, I’m taking a wait-and-see approach to a lot of elements within this case or these cases. Initially, it sounded like Blake had an open-and-shut case when it came to sexual harassment (but maybe not so much with “social manipulation”). That’s also why I’m curious about Baldoni’s receipts and all of the text messages and communications, not just with Blake, but with his publicist and his team. I want to know what Wayfarer people were saying to each other about Blake, and whether there was an awareness, in real time as they shot the film, that Blake was so uncomfortable around Baldoni and that he was allegedly behaving inappropriately with her. Were there conversations within the production (with other producers) about anything related to Blake’s claims? Baldoni’s lawyer doesn’t say all of the communications will be released, just the messages between Blake and Justin though.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Not sure why everyone assumed BL had an open and shut case when some simple elements to support claims were unsubstantiated in the initial complaint. The cut and paste of the texts were a huge red flag.
I think the complaint was a “threat” or bargaining chip in negotiations that BL had with Justin B team to settle matter privately. My guess is JB refused to settle and hence the complaint was filed. JB knew what was coming.. eventually.
Co-sign. As soon as I saw that pre-cursor law suit (a complaint that was made public way before it should have), I immediately was skeptical. People periodically use such pre-cursors to smear people, without having to spend the money to mount a lawsuit.
I’m munching popcorn to see what happens in Blake’s recent filing. Not sure why it was filed in the American FEDERAL court system though. That part makes no sense since no federal entities are involved…
?? You don’t need a federal entity involved to file in federal court. That’s one of the ways to get to federal court, but if you’re filing under a federal statute, or have diversity of parties then federal court may also be appropriate.
She will eventually amend to fild federal discriminating claims if she hasn’t already.
Blake initially filed her complaint with the California Civil Rights department. This is a California state entity. The usual course is to follow up in state court. So switching to federal court is weird… Perhaps there’s some federal “safe workplace” statute that she intends to rely on, but that’s still no reason to switch to federal court.
Only thing I can think of is cameras are less likely to be allowed in federal courts. Where as, in California’s court system the hearing of this matter would definitely be on TV 24/7.
Fingers crossed for a crazy jury trial, with animated witnesses, and a wonky Judge (à la Young Thug’s Georgia master piece).
One thing is clear: they have both broken laws of fashion with those rainbow and camo monstrosities.
Lol
You said it.
Something we can all agree on. Cut and dry fashion crime.
“We plan to release every single text messages between the two of them,” Freedman told NBC News. “We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts.”
This sounds really slimy to me. A. Because I see it as what Johnny Depp did to Amber Heard. B. Because 1. Bryan Freedman made it seem like Blake Lively did something wrong and unusual by filing a complaint before suing and 2. he neglected to say that he had responded to the NYT the night before (they printed that response on 21 December) and made them look shady by accusing them of printing the story 2 hours earlier than the deadline they had given JB et sl to respond.
This really sounds like JB’s statement about wanting to bury BL, influencing public opinion and perhaps a future jury. He does not sound like a normal lawyer. I keep getting reminded that Freedman repped Tucker Carlson, Jed Wallace influences website algorithms with and without bots, and Melissa Nathan is behind Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Drake.
@ML read JB’s lawsuit. It’s really long, but worth it. LOTS of receipts of how text messages were taken out of context.
Kaiser is right to take a wait and see approach.
This whole PR squabble seems to be obfuscating the fact that BL has a pretty legitimate hostile work environment complaint.
As it was clearly designed to do.
Again, why is the whole / most of the cast and crew behind Blake?
i agree the wait and see approach is the best.
Waiting and seeing because it sounding like they were no innocent parties really and both have potentially valid reasons for not liking the other. Legally I’m interested in who will be held accountable and responsible…in the court of public opinion-my opinion stands. Blake isn’t a very nice person nor would I want to be her friend-she’s very attractive but can’t act so I’m sure she’ll fine when the dust settles. Justin I had no opinion prior to this but he seems like his public persona wasn’t the whole truth and most likely will take a break before coming back to work BUT i don’t think he deserves to never work in Hollywood again based on what has been shared so far. I’ll be waiting and seeing
I agree about the wait and see approach. The fact that her version of the film was released and not his (the director) version says alot of the power dynamics during filming and behind the scenes.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark is all I’m saying and I bet is starts with RR.
if we only consider the stuff he didnt deny, he’s terrible and that was an unsafe work environment for everyone.
This right here. But, hey, BL is ‘unlikeable’ so people are going to be distracted by JB’s lawyer’s antics and the texts/smear campaign rather than the harassment.
They responded to all the allegations from what I can see. They even went a step further and said that the fact that she said “no more” before each action is disingenuous because it makes it sound like the actions she’s complaining of now had happened before. She also makes it seem like there was a production meeting on set, when it appears to have been a get together at her house. His team is also saying that Ryan “berated” him for “fat shaming” Blake. Fat shaming is awful but it doesn’t rise to the level of harassment. It sounds like she cobbled together everyone’s complaints about Justin (showed one person naked pictures, discussed his addiction with another person, lingered on his kisses with her and asked about her weight, etc.) and made one comprehensive complaint. To be fair, ALL of his actions taken together could have created a hostile work environment for EVERYBODY, but her complaint makes it sound like it was directly solely at her.
It’s strange to me that this lawyer continues to is make these over the top statements in the press. Generally a lawyer will make one statement about a case when it’s filed, than another when they actually go to court. His actions are just proving Blake’s accusations of using PR to defame her.
So a lot of lawyers are going to make a lot of money of off of this, that’s all I have at this point.
“As I said, I’m taking a wait-and-see approach to a lot of elements within this case or these cases.”
Most of your posts about this (“or these”) cases suggest otherwise, as evidenced by hiding posts that aren’t in any way inflammatory, but with which you simply disagree based on the side you’ve obviously taken. Let’s let allllllll the facts come out first, shall we?
I don’t think he necessarily sexually harassed her (again, *read both filings*) – I think the real issue is the obvious power struggle over the film’s production and her subsequent inability to promote a film about domestic violence with tact and sensitivity which had nothing to do with him. So yes, it will be interesting to see all the Discovery, including text messages, emails, contracts, contracts with vendors, communications with the production staff, eg, the editors, the wardrobe department, the intimacy coordinator that she refused to meet with, etc. et al. Right now, it’s skewing toward him because it’s obvious that the texts from the December 21st filing were cherrypicked and photoshopped for effect *on the part of Her team.* His filing shows the entire thread and what was redacted to eliminate context by her.
If you read both filings (hers and his), as I have, all 167 pages, her story becomes flimsier with each page. She has a lot of explaining to do.
@Anon, Melissa Nathan, is this you???
Lots of commenters working overtime to support JB and his smears of BL.
And make no mistake, I’m not a fan of her work. But I can think she’s merely an okay actress WHILE ALSO believing her claims against him.
Al, please read Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit to NYT. I am a fan of neither, and I agree with Kaiser and the wait-and-see approach, as there was a lot going on there.
I just read some of his whole text chains and sorry, I agree with Anon. Him launching the smear campaign was unethical but she did freeze him out and most of the backlash against Blake was actually organic.
Wanted to believe Blake but I think his story stacks up a lot more than hers.
No innocent man goes to a PR team who did the dirty job for J. Depp and starts a social media PR campaign against a woman. Especially, those who are so-called feminist men. I am sure he and his team are gonna dig a lot of dirt on Blake. At the end of the day, there is no way someone who has had the career, money, and social status of Blake is gonna lie about sexual harassment. What I noticed, the common narrative is now “both-sides”. There is no both-side when it comes to our workplace safety. If a man who had gained a little power in Hollywood thought that he could get away with doing this to someone like Blake and if he can actually get away with it while ruining Blake’s reputation, none of us has any f*cking chance.
100% agree! When even your own PR team DO NOT speak highly of you; it says a lot about your character. Read the lawsuit of Stephanie Jones against JB. Abel was saying, “I can’t stand him. He’s pompous…..” and “ He doesn’t need a retreat. He needs to be humbled. When this movie flops, he’s going to try to blame every person around him.”
We know she flexed her power on set by having her husband writing scenes and making her own cut of the film. I think JB did do some things to hit back at her after having his creative control taken in hiring the PR firm but idk about the sexual harassment claims. I’ll tentatively believe her regarding that allegation but as far as the others there seems to be some lying by omission happening here and overblown claims so I’m interested to see the remaining texts fully represented. The one about pornography being shown and it’s a still of a home birth that is included in the complaint made me facepalm hard because I hope that is not what BL was referring too. *deep sigh* this will ruin BOTH of their careers significantly at the end of the day.
FYI several cast and crew members from “Unrequited” (a movie JB starred in) have come forward, on the record, to say that he engaged in bullying behaviour on that set and at least one person strongly implied sexual harassment.
Where did you read this? I’ve Googled and TikTok using lots of different search term combinations and haven’t found a single negative thing about Justin orher than the ones from Blake.
Gina Rodriguez supported him this summer. She worked with him for years. Why would she support him if he was a major jerk? I really wonder what is true in this situation. Blake isn’t my favorite, but if she’s a victim, she should be vindicated. Wait and see seems the best option at this point.
I never had much of an opinion, either way about BL before this blew up last summer. And I didn’t even know who JB was at all. But what is VERY clear now, after BL’s disastrous promotion of their movie, including her shilling of her ALCOHOL and hair care products, and her snarky and or silly comments in reply to serious DV related interview questions (e.g, astrology anyone?), BL is deeply defensive – across situations with different people – for no obvious reason. She’s a Nepo baby, with unfathomable privilege, possibly traumatized as a child, resulting in defensiveness, but seems to be unpleasant as a person. I don’t know anything about JB. I can’t comment, yet. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that someone with BL‘s character could spin situations to her advantage. You see the thing about personality disorder is, eventually, they muck things up and it’s not recoverable. This could apply to BL or JB. We will just have to wait and see When it all comes, won’t we? BTW, my problem with shilling alcohol for a movie about DV, Well, let’s just say alcohol is often involved in domestic violence. And let’s just say promoting your alcohol brand while promoting your domestic violence movie is CLUELESS and unfeeling.
I’m thoroughly entertained.
I don’t care about either of them.
I believe sexual harassment>fat shaming, but the latter is what came up first. The same applies to hostile work environments and retaliation being worse than losing shampoo and beverage money (and countless other strange things about their beef).
Both parties are butt hurt and it shows, and I can’t wait to see how deep this rabbit hole goes.