Gossip Girl star Blake Lively sued her former It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni over allegations of sexual harassment and claims that Baldoni tried to tarnish her reputation.
Lively claimed that the work environment was hostile, so much so that there was an all-hands-on-deck meeting, including her husband Ryan Reynolds, to address these issues.
Baldoni’s legal team isn’t taking these allegations silently, though, and we’re here to break down the back-and-forth action going on between the two former co-stars.
A lawsuit was filed
According to the lawsuit obtained by TMZ, it had a list of demands made by Lively in an attempt to control Baldoni’s behavior. The demands were approved by the studio, however, when it came down to their execution, there was a huge conflict.
The demands in the lawsuit
The demands in the lawsuit included: Baldoni can’t show Lively nude videos or images of women, nor can he mention his alleged previous “pornography addiction.”
In addition, He can’t discuss his sexual conquests or his cast and crew’s genitalia on set nor can he inquire about Lively’s weight or mention her deceased father.
The root of the conflict
Lively wanted the movie to be centered around her character’s resilience as per the marketing plan. Baldoni, on the other hand, wanted to put the emphasis on domestic violence, which led him to improvise and go off script from the plan.
Claims of “social manipulation”
Lively claimed that Baldoni and others engaged in a “social manipulation” scheme to “destroy” her reputation. The lawsuit also included claims that the campaign caused harm to Lively’s business in addition to causing her family “severe emotional distress.”
Baldoni’s lawyer responds
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, didn’t waste time and responded to the lawsuit. He claimed that the lawsuit was made just to “fix her negative reputation.” Furthermore, he emphasized that the claims are “false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt.”
Freedman’s take on Lively
Freedman claimed that Lively was far from being the easiest to deal with on the It Ends With Us set, “threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release.”
She thinks he fat-shamed her
Lively claimed that Baldoni was fat-shaming her due to the fact that he asked his trainer how much she weighed. While Lively believes it was fat shaming, Baldoni claimed that he asked because he had back issues and was trying to protect his back from any potential damages.
More about It Ends With Us
The movie is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s book going by the same name. The movie addresses the theme of abuse in relationships and became a sensation following its release in August, however, it was because of negative attention.
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Other points of clash
Insiders told DailyMail.com that the co-stars clashed due to Baldoni’s “dismissive” behavior towards her “input” while filming scenes that involved abuse. Baldoni centered his ideations and performance around the abusive aspect of the story and had a very “chauvinistic” approach to the topic.
A miraculous spurt in the box office
Normally, such negative attention affects the movies negatively, making it flunk at the box office. However, all this controversy did a favor to the movie and it still emerged as a box office hit. The movie scored 57% on Rotten Tomatoes.
