By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-21 14:26:53 | Updated at 2024-12-22 01:11:20
10 hours ago
Blake Lively is suing her former 'It Ends With Us' co-star and director Justin Baldoni over allegations of sexual harassment.
The Gossip Girl star claims Baldoni fostered a toxic workplace environment, which included the director showing her nude videos and images of other women and discussing his alleged previous porn addiction, TMZ reports.
Baldoni's team has refuted the allegations and claim the legal action is an attempt to patch up Lively's reputation in the wake of bad press she received in the wake of the film's release.
The duo appeared together in the hotly-anticipated adaptation of the popular Coleen Hoover novel by the same name earlier this year.
However, its release was mired by a series of scandals after fans picked up on tensions between Lively, 36, and Baldoni, 40.
Lively claims Baldoni made inappropriate inquiries about her weight, comments about her dead father and sexual remarks about cast and crew.
The situation became so unworkable that she demanded crisis talks during filming to put a stop to the behavior, according to the lawsuit.
Lively also requested: 'No more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL [Blake Lively] outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project,' per the filings.
Blake Lively is suing her former 'It Ends With Us' co-star and director Justin Baldoni over allegations of sexual harassment
The demands were allegedly accepted by the studio, but the movie's release still became hampered after a dispute between Lively and Baldoni about how it should be marketed, according to the lawsuit.
Eagle-eyed fans soon spotted the frosty relationship between the movie stars and reports began to emerge about the rift.
Lively claims that Baldoni's team then engaged in a 'social manipulation' campaign to tarnish her reputation.
The lawsuit includes text messages from the director's publicist to the studio which allegedly say Baldoni, 'wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried, and 'We can't write we will destroy her'.
Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman hit back at the lawsuit as, 'false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt'.
He insisted the legal action is an attempt by Lively to 'fix her negative reputation' after rumors emerged of diva-like behavior on set.
This included, 'threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release,' according to Freedman.
It Ends With Us became one of the most talked about movies of the year following its release in August, but for all the wrong reasons.
The romantic drama follows Lily Bloom played by Blake Lively as she becomes embroiled in an abusive relationship with Justin Baldoni's Ryle Kincaid.
One alleged point of contention was how the movie should be marketed, with Lively reportedly wanting to make the tale more upbeat in contract to Baldoni, who felt it should be more focused on the abuse aspect.
This is a breaking news story, please check back for updates....
