Blake Lively has sued director and co-star Justin Baldoni over alleged sexual harassment during the filming of It Ends With Us and a subsequent attempt to publicly smear her reputation.

Months after rumors first surfaced of a behind-the-scenes feud between Lively and Baldoni, the actress claims tensions on set grew so high that a meeting was held where she addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other troubling behavior” involving Baldoni and a producer of the film.

At that meeting, attended by several people involved in the film as well as Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds, Baldoni was allegedly instructed to change his behavior.

According to the lawsuit, among other things, Baldoni was ordered to stop showing Lively photos and videos of naked women, to stop mentioning his “alleged past pornography addiction” or previous sexual conquests, and to stop referring to cast and crew’s genitals.

The complaint says Baldoni was also ordered to stop adding “sex scenes, oral sex, or on-camera climaxes by (Lively) outside the scope of the script (Lively) approved when signing on to the project,” according to TMZ , which was the first time the lawsuit was reported.

After the meeting, Lively claims Baldoni and the studio soon embarked on a “multi-step plan” to “destroy” her reputation, including spreading messages and developing social media campaigns critical of Lively.

While promoting the film, production sources told multiple media outlets that Lively, a co-producer on the film, used her celebrity to take creative control of the production from director Baldoni. Lively was accused of enlisting her husband to make last-minute edits and hiring her own editor, resulting in two different cuts of the film.

As these stories circulated online, the team, as well as much of the Internet, seemed to side with Baldoni, in part because he focused the film’s promotion on domestic violence, while Lively viewed the film as far more so called more carefree.

During the press tour, many of Lively’s old, often curt and dismissive interviews also surfaced, further reinforcing the public’s negative perception of her.

According to the lawsuit, the “manipulation” campaign caused Lively “severe emotional distress” and harmed her businesses. Although the Colleen Hoover film adaptation grossed $148.5 million domestically and nearly $351 million worldwide, Lively was widely criticized for downplaying a domestic violence story to promote her hair and alcohol brands .

However, the complaint accuses Baldoni of “abruptly deviating from the film’s marketing plan” and “using content from domestic violence survivors to protect his public image.”

In a statement Saturday, Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman criticized the lawsuit as “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” and claimed the “Gossip Girl” alum was simply trying to “improve her negative reputation.”

Freedman also dismissed Lively’s allegations of a smear campaign, saying she caused problems during the film’s production and threatened not to show up on set and not promote the film “if her demands were not met.”

In her own statement to the New York Times, Lively said she hopes her legal action “helps lift the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about wrongdoing and protect others who may be involved.” be targeted.”

In addition to Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and Baldoni’s publicists are also among the defendants in the lawsuit.

With News Wire Services

Originally published: December 21, 2024 at 1:16 pm EST