Actress Blake Lively recently starred in the hit movie ‘It Ends with Us,’ about a woman suffering from abuse at the hands of her partner, played by co-star and director Justin Baldoni. Though the movie is one of the most viewed films of 2024, Ms. Lively said she suffered on set – and afterward – due to sex discrimination during filming followed by a nasty retaliatory smear campaign launched under Mr. Baldoni’s orders.

The 80-page complaint was filed in California against WAYFARER STUDIOS LLC, a California Limited Liability Company, JUSTIN BALDONI, an individual, JAMEY HEATH, an individual, STEVE SAROWITZ, an individual, MELISSA NATHAN, an individual, THE AGENCY GROUP PR LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company, JENNIFER ABEL, an individual, RWA COMMUNICATIONS, LLC, a California Limited Liability Company, JED WALLACE, an individual, STREET RELATIONS INC., a California Corporation, and DOES 1-100.

The complaint for damages includes several sexual harassment and retaliation claims under federal and California law, as well as negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, and other related claims.

The irony of Ms. Lively’s accusations against Mr. Baldoni, who played an abusive partner in the film but in real life calls himself a feminist, caused a sensational viral storm across media outlets and social media. The film was based on the best-selling book by author Colleen Hoover and tells the story of a young woman who falls for a neurosurgeon and deals with the confusing and dark reality of domestic violence.

Court papers say that Ms. Lively claims she was the victim of “social manipulation” created by the crisis PR firm Mr. Baldoni hired after the film wrapped. She alleges that Mr. Baldoni’s campaign was used to “destroy Ms. Lively’s reputation” after she complained about his on-set actions.

Ms. Lively claims that Mr. Baldoni added new sexual content and nude scenes to the movie. In the lawsuit, she details numerous alleged inappropriate behaviors by Mr. Baldoni, including inviting a Wayfair co-chair to view her (nude) childbirth scene, plus allowing “nonessential crew to pass through while Ms. Lively was mostly nude with her legs spread wide in stirrups and only a small piece of fabric covering her genitalia.” 

Evidence presented in the complaint includes text messages sent by Mr. Baldoni showing a months-long negative relationship between the two actors while filming.

Legal documents relate details about a January 4 meeting that Ms. Lively had requested about “the hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film.” The list of the actor’s alleged inappropriate behavior on-set included, in part:

“1. No more showing nude videos or images of women, including producer's wife, to BL (Ms. Lively) and/or her employees.

2.No more mention of Mr. Baldoni's or Mr. Heath's previous "pornography addiction" or BL's lack of pornography consumption to BL or to other crew members.

3. No more discussions to BL and/or her employees about personal experiences with sex, including as it relates to spouses or others.

4.No more mention to BL or her employees of personal times that physical consent was not given in sexual acts, as either the abuser or the abused.

5. No more descriptions of their own genitalia to BL.

6. No more jokes or disparaging comments to be made to BL and/or her employees about HR complaints Wayfarer has already received on set, or about "missing the HR meeting.”

7. No more inquiries by Mr. Baldoni to BL trainer without her knowledge or consent to disclose her weight.

8. No more mention by Mr. Baldoni of him "speaking to" BL's dead father.”

Other official requests by Ms. Lively at the meeting included demands that Mr. Baldoni do “No more personal, physical touching of, or sexual comments by, Mr. Baldoni or Mr. Heath” and that an intimacy coordinator must be on set, plus many more inappropriate alleged behaviors.

Court documents say that after the January 4th meeting, the parties “agreed to implement and follow the Protections for Return to Production.”

In one instance of sex discrimination in the legal complaint, Ms. Likely says that “On the day of shooting the scene in which Ms. Lively's character gives birth, Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath suddenly pressured Ms. Lively to simulate full nudity, despite no mention of nudity for this scene in the script, her contract, or in previous creative discussions. Mr. Baldoni insisted to Ms. Lively that women give birth naked, and that his wife had “ripped her clothes off” during labor. He claimed it was “not normal” for women to remain in their hospital gowns while giving birth. Ms. Lively disagreed but felt forced into a compromise that she would be naked from below the chest down.”

After the film was released, the actors were contractually obligated to do press tours. As part of the official PR campaign for the film, Ms. Lively was supposed to focus on the resilience and survival of her character, who had been abused. However, as court documents allege, “In the days leading up to the Film's release, Mr. Baldoni abruptly pivoted away from the Film's Marketing Plan and the types of publicity activities in which he had previously participated. What the public did not know was that Mr. Baldoni and his team did so in an effort to explain why many of the Film's cast and crew had unfollowed Mr. Baldoni on social media and were not appearing with him in public. To that end, he and his team used domestic violence “survivor content” to protect his public image.”

The new PR campaign designed by Mr. Baldoni’s team, as legal documents claim, “was backed by virtually unlimited resources. Wayfarer's co-founder, co-chairman and leading financier is multi-billionaire Steve Sarowitz, who divulged at the Film's New York premiere on August 6, 2024, that he was prepared to spend $100 million to ruin the lives of Ms. Lively and her family. With that backing, Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates embarked on a sophisticated press and digital plan in retaliation for Ms. Lively exercising her legally protected right to speak up about their misconduct on the set, with the additional objective of intimidating her and anyone else from revealing in public what actually occurred.”

In legal documents, Ms. Lively’s attorneys say that the negative campaign was ‘Astroturfing,” which has been defined as “the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”

Numerous texts are included in the complaint, showing numerous quotes about not being able to write down specifics of the smear campaign, such as one text sent by communication specialist Melissa Nathan and publicist Jennifer Abel, saying “We can't write it down to him[.] We can't write we will destroy her. We will go to this. We will do this. We will do this. We will do this.”

Another text between Ms. Abel and Ms. Nathan says, “Mr. Baldoni" wants to feel like [Ms. Lively] can be buried."

Some of the other official documents included in the complaint detail different scenarios of talking points, where Ms. Likely is seen as difficult to work with, a statement that would damage the actor’s brand and possibly result in the loss of being hired for new roles.

In a related lawsuit, publicist, Stephanie Jones, who worked for Mr. Baldoni at first, said she was forced out of representing the actor and his film studio, once rumors began that Ms. Lively would go public with accusations against him. Her complaint alleges Mr. Baldoni and the PR team launched a negative campaign against Ms. Lively. Ms. Jones claims that that Ms. Abel and Ms. Nathan “secretly conspired” to damage her reputation, and also to blame her for the smear campaign against Ms. Lively.