The conflict between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, the stars of the movie “It Ends with Us,” turned into an employment program for lawyers and rebels.
Last month, Lively filed a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint against co-star and director Baldoni with the California Department of Civil Rights. His company, Wayfarer Studios. Many others. Her complaint alleges, among other things, that Baldoni repeatedly harassed her during intimate scenes. A charming but abusive brain surgeon.
Ms. Lively said she took a long list of precautions, including having an “intimacy coordinator” present for her scenes and asking Mr. Baldoni to refrain from “biting or sucking his lips” without her consent. He claims he requested it. Lively claims that Baldoni’s team, fearing the news would become public and make her look bad, orchestrated a smear campaign against her with the help of a hired gun named Jed Wallace. do. Her company, Street Relations, allegedly orchestrated a social media campaign against Lively that resulted in a slew of negative articles about her. According to measurements).
The New York Times then published a report based on thousands of private messages between Baldoni and his team regarding apparent efforts to “smear” Lively in the wake of her misconduct accusations. It published a bombshell article with the headline, “‘Anyone Can Bury’: Inside Hollywood’s Smear Machine.” (How did the Times obtain this information? This is the subject of yet another lawsuit between competing PR firms.)
Separately, the Times published a response from Mr. Baldoni’s lawyer, completely denying the allegations and saying, “These allegations are completely false, outrageous and intentionally despicable.” said.
On New Year’s Eve, Baldoni and others told the New York Times that they had deliberately omitted the real cause of the conflict between Lively and Baldoni: “Lively’s calculated and bold attempt to seize control of the film.” – Filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the Times. (The film’s distributor, Sony Pictures, at the urging of Baldoni and his business partner Jamie Heath, used Lively’s film editing and gave her a producer credit. Baldoni’s lawsuit The accompanying letter says this was done to preserve the peace.) The New York Times vowed to defend it “vigorously.”
Also on New Year’s Eve, Ms. Lively filed a federal lawsuit in New York state repeating many of the claims in her California complaint.
Baldoni’s lawyer told NBC News on Friday that his client plans to sue Lively and release “every email” to prove her account is false. .
Hollywood news website Deadline declared that the story reveals “a glimpse of how the celebrity PR machine’s sausage is really made in the age of influencers and online media.” did.
At least for now, Lively appears to have won the PR battle. Baldoni has been removed from WME, the agency that also represents Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds.
As a journalist who occasionally writes about Hollywood, I know that there is an unholy alliance between reporters and Hollywood villains who tempt reporters to abandon their ethics in exchange for access and information. (And you could easily replace “Hollywood” with the word “politics.”)
Blake’s complaint alleges that crisis public relations expert Melissa Nathan was friendly with a reporter who wrote for People magazine, Fox News, In Touch Weekly, and Us Weekly, and that the reporter “I’m ready to cover Blake’s story of weaponizing feminism,” he wrote. The moment we give her the green light, you will have access to any of her outlets. ”
This shocked me. A few years ago, I was contacted by a prominent publicist who had worked for Angelina Jolie, who was in the midst of a protracted divorce from Brad Pitt. Would you be interested in writing a column, based, of course, on inside information, about how Jolie is mistreated by overlapping legal systems against women?The notion that Jolie, rich, privileged, and famous, is the victim? That seemed ridiculous to me, and I had no interest in her being manipulated into using feminism as a weapon in her legal battle with Pitt.
But I digress.
Baldoni has long positioned herself as an enlightened feminist. In 2017, a month after the #MeToo movement exploded into the public consciousness, he gave a TED talk titled “Why I’m done trying to be ‘good enough.'” .
“Are you brave enough to be vulnerable?” he asked. “Are you strong enough to be sensitive? Do you have the confidence to listen to the women in your life?”
In December, while continuing his promotional tour for the film, he told The Hollywood Reporter that he endured sexual trauma in college and was in “too much pain” after filming It Ended with Us. He said he was “almost debilitated.” According to Lively’s suit, he also revealed that he had recently been diagnosed with ADHD and said that his publicist could be accused of sexual misconduct on set.
Meanwhile, movies — oh yeah, movies! The film was made for $25 million and has so far grossed $351 million worldwide.
It seems like everyone involved is crying all the way to the bank.
Blue Sky: @rabcarian.bsky.social.Thread: @rabcarian
