BY: Walker
Published 1 day ago
Blake Lively’s latest court documents in her ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni claim two of her female costars on It Ends with Us have agreed to testify to their own experiences with Baldoni’s alleged behavior on set.
Filed in New York federal court on Tuesday just ahead of a judge’s deadline, the amended complaint states that additional women who worked on the set of the movie, “It Ends With Us,” were made uncomfortable by Baldoni’s “unwelcome behavior” and confided in Lively.
Another female co-star reported concerns about Baldoni to Sony, the film’s distributor, according to Lively’s complaint.
“Ms. Lively brought this lawsuit because she was one of the ‘women or two’ that Mr. Baldoni ‘one million percent’ … ‘made uncomfortable” on the set of the film,” the amended lawsuit states. “Ms. Lively was not the only one who was uncomfortable on set, and Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer knew it. After Mr. Baldoni learned that he had caused Ms. Lively and others to feel ‘uncomfortable,’ he turned his TED Talk and ‘feminist’ advocacy on its head.”
As mentioned in her original complaint, the amended lawsuit alleges that after Lively claims she first reported her concerns about Baldoni’s behavior in May 2023, “another female cast member reported her own concerns regarding Mr. Baldoni’s unwelcome behavior” to a representative for Sony and another one of the film’s producers.
After the Sony rep shared the concerns with Baldoni, he “responded to that female cast member in writing, acknowledging that he was aware of her concerns, and that adjustments would be made,” the complaint states.
One week later, according to Lively’s suit, that same female cast member “told Ms. Lively about her growing concerns with the conditions on set and that she found it difficult to talk to Mr. Baldoni.”
Lively’s attorneys say that instead of making adjustments on-set to make the women feel more comfortable, Baldoni then retaliated against Lively by hiring a crisis management team and running a smear campaign to ruin Lively’s reputation.
Representatives for Baldoni did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment, regarding Lively’s amended complaint.
Lively also added two new causes of action – including defamation – to her lawsuit, alleging that Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, has made defamatory comments about Lively in the media, retaliating against her for “speaking up and bringing legal claims against Mr. Baldoni.”
Freedman “regularly issues inflammatory content to media outlets, appearing on any show that will have him,” the suit states, “and saying anything, whether true or false, that will harm Ms. Lively’s credibility and intimidate others from speaking up on her behalf.
Freedman did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
In a statement to CNN, Lively’s attorneys, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, said, “The complaint includes significant contemporaneous evidence that Ms. Lively was not alone in raising allegations of on-set misconduct more than a year before the film was edited; as well as evidence detailing the threats, harassment, and intimidation of not just Ms. Lively, but numerous innocent bystanders that have followed defendants’ retaliatory campaign.”
via: CNN
