The explosion radius of It ends with us has gone nuclear when Blake Lively accused director and co-star Justin Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer Studios and others of sexually harassing her in the domestic violence film and then carried out “a coordinated effort to destroy her reputation.”

“I hope my legal action will help lift the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about wrongdoing and protect others who may be targeted,” Lively said in a statement today Deadline. Baldoni, through his attorney Bryan Freedman, called the allegations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with the intent to publicly offend and rehash a media narrative.”

Still, in a lengthy 10-count complaint he filed yesterday with the California Department of Civil Rights, Lively goes into detail about “the hostile work environment that nearly derailed the film’s production” and the multi-pronged “astroturfing” campaign he allegedly launched against it them by the self-proclaimed feminist Baldoni and his company.

“Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates launched an elaborate press and digital plan in retaliation for Ms. Lively’s exercise of her legally protected right to speak about her on-set misconduct, with the additional goal of intimidating her and everyone else, what to reveal in public “It actually happened,” says the 80-page complaint, replete with seemingly damning text messages between Baldoni and “a crisis communications specialist named Melissa Nathan and her company The Agency Group PR LLC.” (LABEL),”

Read Blake Lively’s full sexual harassment and retaliation complaint against Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios here

Filled with cameos from Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds, his pal Taylor Swift and others, as well as obvious examples of Baldoni’s boasts of media manipulation at the likes of the New York Post, the Daily Mail and others, the filing with the state agency is a clear prelude to further lawsuits in court unless the parties reach an agreement as soon as possible. Furthermore, despite Hollywood heavyweight Freedman’s lengthy response (see in full below), a post-holiday response from Wayfarer is almost certain.

While tensions on and off the set of the film, which is based on Coolen Hoover’s 2016 novel of the same name, became quite evident at the time It ends with us After being published in August, Lively’s files appear to reveal a much deeper decay. With TAG’s “undetectable” strategy of “astroturfing” for “social manipulation,” as texts and other extensive communications between Team Baldoni demonstrate, Lively’s action also illuminates the crucial power that social media now has in PR tactics, in shaping messages and the control narrative of the modern star machine and its introduction through fact and fiction.

This is nothing new in the 21st century media industry. But much like the Fox News insider correspondence that marked Dominion Voting Systems’ now-settled $787 million defamation lawsuit against the Rupert Murdoch-owned network for election manipulation in 2020, the depth of the evidence is rare is in the pudding, so to speak.

The document from Lively’s attorneys Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP states:

Ms. Lively never sought conflict with Wayfarer, Ms. Baldoni, or Mr. Heath, but instead consistently sought to privately advocate for a safe and respectful workplace in hopes of protecting herself and the cast and crew without endangering them Film that she believed could change people’s lives. In response, Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath and those who worked for them sought to destroy Ms. Lively and everyone else who knew the truth. Ms. Lively’s discovery of the full extent of the Wayfarer parties’ retaliation campaign leaves her with no other choice. With this complaint, Ms. Lively seeks to set the record straight, hold the Wayfarer parties and affiliates accountable, and shine a light on this new form of retaliation so that it is not used against others who wish to defend themselves against sexual violence express harassment.

Alleging that Baldoni and IEWU producer Jamey Heath introduced overly sexual aspects into the film, showed pornography, discussed XXX addictions and used sexually inappropriate language on the set of the box office hit film, Lively also appears to state in her complaint, As far as their HR department was concerned, they were “rejected” several times. “Following guild strikes, an “all-hands meeting” was called on January 4 to “discuss in detail the inappropriate behavior experienced by Ms. Lively, her staff and other cast and crew members at the hands of Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath.” “ .” Dead Pool Star Reynolds was present “as the meeting addressed repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior by Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath.”

At the end of the meeting, the parties agreed to disagree on details, but “Wayfarer, Sony and Production respectfully acknowledge that (Ms. Lively) has concerns regarding safety, professionalism and workplace culture.”

The complaint states: “After reviewing and discussing the list below in its entirety, all parties present agreed that the behavior described would cease.” The 30-item list included:

With it, It ends with us resumed production the next day and completed the work on February 9th.

Now that Lively has seen that her version of the film was ultimately the one that hit theaters and is now on Netflix, she talks about the fallout from the entire experience with Baldoni and It ends with us is not finished yet:

The emotional impact on Ms. Lively was extreme, affecting not only her but also her family, including her husband and four children. There are days when she finds it difficult to get out of bed and she often chooses not to go out in public. As she struggled to maintain her personal life and business interests, she suffered grief, anxiety, trauma and extreme anxiety behind closed doors. She also experienced repeated painful physical symptoms as a result of this experience. Mr. Reynolds has also been mentally, physically and professionally affected by the pain affecting his wife and children. Worst of all, however, has been the impact on her young children, who have been traumatized and emotionally uprooted, which has had a significant impact on their well-being.

Lively’s complaint to the California Department of Civil Rights was first reported by TMZ.

Here is the full statement from Justin Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman regarding Blake Lively’s allegations:

It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and completely false allegations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and their representatives in another desperate attempt to “repair” their negative reputation created by their own statements and actions is during the campaign for the film; Interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, allowing the Internet to generate its own views and opinions. These claims are completely false, outrageous and deliberately salacious with the intent to publicly offend and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager to work with their own representative at Jonesworks, employed by Stephanie Jones, prior to the film’s marketing campaign, as Ms. Lively made numerous demands and threats during production, which included her heard She threatened not to show up on set, threatened not to promote the film, which ultimately led to its downfall during release if her demands were not met. It was also discovered that Ms. Lively hired her own representative, Leslie Sloan of Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to spread negative and completely fabricated and false stories to the media even before the film began to be marketed was another reason Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis expert to begin internal scenario planning for the case they needed to handle. Wayfarer Studios representatives continued to take neither proactive nor retaliatory actions and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and to monitor social activity. What is conspicuously missing from the carefully selected correspondence is evidence that no proactive action was taken with the media or otherwise; Only internal scenario planning and private correspondence for strategy development, which is standard procedure for PR professionals.