Blake Lively has formally filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, less than two weeks after her previous legal complaint against him went public.
Her New Year’s Eve filing came on the same day he initiated a $250M libel suit against the New York Times for its bombshell report on Lively’s first complaint.
In that first suit, she accused him of sexually harassing her and fostering a toxic work environment on the set of their movie It Ends With Us, in which he both directed her and acted with her. He has staunchly denied the allegations.
Also in the initial complaint, which is a precursor to the more formal complaint filed on Tuesday, Lively claimed Baldoni worked to tarnish her reputation with a team including his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR Melissa Nathan, who previously worked with Johnny Depp. Abel has denied waging a ‘smear campaign.’
Lively, 37, filed her first complaint earlier this month with the California Civil Rights Commission, but is now suing Baldoni in federal court in New York.
Launched on New Year’s Eve, her new lawsuit is a more formal proceeding which targets Baldoni, Abel and Nathan as defendants, as well as Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer Studios.
In her latest legal action, Lively is demanding both ‘punitive’ and ‘compensatory’ damages and a jury trial, accusing the defendants of causing her ‘mental pain and anguish,’ as well as ‘severe and serious emotional distress’ and ‘lost wages.’
Lively’s attorneys gave a statement to DailyMail.com alleging their client has been subject to ‘further retaliation and attacks’ since she made the ‘decision to speak out’ about her allegations against Baldoni.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Nathan, Abel and Wayfarer Studios, as well as representatives for Baldoni for comment.
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Blake Lively has now filed a second lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, less than two weeks after her previous legal complaint against him went public
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In her new lawsuit, Lively demands both ‘punitive damages’ as well as ‘a money judgement representing compensatory damages, lost wages, earning, and all other sums of money,’ plus ‘interest’ on the above ‘in an amount to be proven at trial.’
She also wants ‘an award of money judgment for mental pain and anguish and severe and serious emotional distress, in an amount to be proven at trial.’
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Her lawyers provided a statement to DailyMail.com Tuesday, saying: ‘Earlier today, Ms. Lively filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios and others in the Southern District of New York.
‘Ms. Lively previously sent her California Civil Rights Department Complaint in response to the retaliatory campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Unfortunately, Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks.’
Lively’s attorneys continued: ‘As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court.’
They added: ‘Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.’
On New Year’s Eve, the day Lively filed her second lawsuit against Baldoni, he initiated a $250 million libel action against the New York Times, which broke the news of Lively’s first complaint earlier this month.
In a statement, the New York Times stood by its reporting and denied the allegations. It said it plans to ‘vigorously defend against the lawsuit’.
Since news of Lively’s first lawsuit broke, Baldoni’s career has imploded, as he was dropped by his agency William Morris Endeavor.
Liz Plank, one of the co-hosts of Baldoni’s Man Enough podcast that billed itself as a space for ‘positive masculinity,’ announced she was quitting the show.
Blake Lively endures abusive relationship in ‘It Ends with Us’
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In the run-up to the movie’s August 9 release, rumors began swirling of a rift between Lively and Baldoni, who are pictured in the movie
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Since news of Lively’s first lawsuit broke, Baldoni’s career has imploded, as he was dropped by his agency William Morris Endeavor; he and Lively are pictured in the film
Lively, who is married to Deadpool lead Ryan Reynolds and who is close friends with pop superstar Taylor Swift, has seen former colleagues rally around her.
Her It Ends With Us co-stars Brandon Sklenar and Jenny Slate have spoken out to support her, as has Colleen Hoover, author of the novel on which the film is based.
Lively’s first lawsuit contained a raft of accusations against Baldoni, whom she says showed her nude images and videos of other women, ‘improvised physical intimacy’ during a scene without prior discussion, entered her trailer while she was ‘nude’ and allowed his ‘friends’ to watch her filming sex scenes.
In legal documents from the first complaint, Lively’s team claimed an ‘all hands’ meeting was held on January 4 of this year, purportedly ‘to address the hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film.’
The meeting is said to have included both Baldoni and Jamey Heath, the CEO of Wayfarer Studios and a producer on It Ends With Us.
Attendees allegedly discussed supposed ‘inappropriate conduct’ by Baldoni and Heath, and at the end of the meeting, ‘all parties present agreed that the outlined conduct would cease,’ per Lively’s first lawsuit.
In the run-up to the movie’s August 9 release, rumors began swirling of a rift between Lively and Baldoni – and Lively now claims that around this time, Nathan and Abel worked for Baldoni on a targeted strategy to vilify her.
During the run-up to the release of It Ends With Us, Lively repeatedly went viral as social media users slammed her ‘mean girl’ behavior in interviews – a trend she now insists was the result of an ‘astroturfing’ campaign waged by Baldoni’s PR team.
Lively’s first complaint included purported screen-grabs of text messages, many of them between Nathan and Abel, allegedly showing the PR takedown being planned.
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She has accused him of sexually harassing her and fostering a toxic work environment on the set of It Ends With Us, claims he denies; they are pictured on the set in January
Whitney Cummings roasts Justin Baldoni amid Blake Lively lawsuit
One exchange, obtained by subpoena, showed Abel allegedly saying that Baldoni ‘wants to feel like she [Lively] can be buried.’
Nathan supposedly replied: ‘Of course – but you know when we send over documents we can’t send over the work we will or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble,’ adding, ‘We can’t write we will destroy her.’
She allegedly also texted Abel: ‘Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands. You know we can bury anyone but I can’t write that to him. I will be very tough.’
In Lively’s first suit, she also submitted an alleged text that Baldoni purportedly sent Abel – a screenshot of an X thread about bullying allegations against Hailey Bieber, along with the message: ‘This is what we would need.’
There is no suggestion that Bieber was in any way involved or associated with the alleged smear campaign against Lively.
In her new lawsuit filed New Year’s Eve, Lively doubles down on her claims about the all-hands meeting and the subsequent alleged smear campaign.
Along with her claims of sexual harassment, Lively’s first complaint accused Baldoni of ‘other behaviors that were shocking and emotionally distressing.’
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Lively, who is married to Deadpool lead Ryan Reynolds (right) and who is close friends with pop superstar Taylor Swift, has seen former colleagues rally around her
Blake Lively films It Ends With Us with Justin Baldoni
One example was her allegation that he insisted he could speak to the dead and had communicated with her late father Ernie Lively.
‘It was off putting and violative for Ms. Baldoni [sic] to claim a personal relationship with her recently deceased father,’ that lawsuit stated.
Ernie Lively, an actor and acting coach, died of cardiac complications aged 74 in June 2021, less than two years before principal photography began on It Ends With Us.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman responded to Lively’s first lawsuit by calling her claims ‘false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt’.
He argued that Lively’s suit was a gambit to ‘fix her negative reputation’ after rumors spread that she had been difficult to work with during the making of the film.
This included her allegedly ‘threatening to not show up to set [and] threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release,’ Freedman asserted
