New Delhi:

Blake Lively isn’t your everyday damsel in distress. For one thing, she’s a Hollywood A-lister. She has the money and the power to put up a fight. It doesn’t matter that the person she’s competing against is a director and actress and is blessed with looks that often let men get away with it. Justin Baldoni. The man who wanted to “bury” Blake.

Lively dragged him to court.

Blake Lively’s 80-page complaint against Justin Baldoni, her co-star and director of this year’s breakthrough It ends with ushas sent all of Hollywood into a frenzy. Lively accuses Baldoni, his company Wayfarer Studios and its CEO Jamey Heath of a range of misconduct, ranging from an outright smear campaign to sexual harassment and astro-racing.

Astroturfing is 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 are actually from a particular company or political group.”

Here is a summary of the 80-page complaint:

• There are disturbing details about Baldoni “crying” in Blake’s van “because of her weight.”
• Baldoni lingers on Blake’s lips long after the camera has stopped rolling.
• There are allegations that Baldoni inserted sex scenes without Lively’s consent, did not have an intimacy coordinator on set and improvised kissing scenes.
• Baldoni made lewd, sexual comments and showed Lively nude photos of other women, including his wife.
• Baldoni entered Blake’s trailer while she was breastfeeding.
• Baldoni and Jamey Heath discussed pornography and Baldoni’s past addiction.
• Baldoni claimed he could communicate with Lively’s recently deceased father.

When Lively complained that the men on set “repeatedly violated personal boundaries and made sexual and other inappropriate comments toward her,” the studio agreed to bring an intimacy coordinator on board.

But for the men, Baldoni and CEO Heath, it was the beginning of a long and orchestrated smear campaign against the actress, Lively’s complaint says.

Baldoni reportedly hired crisis management agency TAG to handle the crisis with Baldoni at the center. Melissa Nathan, Baldoni’s crisis manager, counts Drake, Travis Scott and Johnny Depp among her former clients. Everything wasn’t going to be rosy.

During the course of promoting the film, astute internet sleuths discovered that something was wrong. Baldoni was nowhere to be seen. Blake Lively was at the promotions without Baldoni.

At the New York premiere of It ends with us, Blake was accompanied by her husband Ryan Reynolds and co-star Brandon Sklenar. Baldoni was missing again.

It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to sense that something was wrong. Rumors of a feud between the lead actors sparked conversations in Hollywood and on TikTok.

The press tour from It ends with us was also a little out of for a film about domestic violence. There were flowers, pink carpets and an emphasis on words of encouragement for domestic violence survivors. It was numb.

Lively was criticized for her choice of words: “Grab your friends, carry flowers and head out to see it.” There were questions about “why” everywhere. Lively was criticized for promoting the film as “a sequel to Barbie.” The abundance of pink was not lost on anyone.

The only time Baldoni spoke about Lively was during her week-long press tour Todaywhere he called her a “dynamic creative” who “was involved in every part of this production and everything she touched made it better.”

On the other hand, the media was asked by Blake Lively’s team not to ask questions about Justin Baldoni.

While this all took place publicly and behind closed doors on set, the story was a little different. Ironic, if you will. A film about domestic violence; There was a different kind of violence on set.

Justin Baldoni tried to “shift the narrative” against Blake Lively.

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us. Image courtesy: Getty

The crisis manager was hired. Nathan began informing the media in detail about how Blake was “weaponizing feminism.” Blake went from victim to perpetrator of everything that was wrong in Baldoniland.

Baldoni knew he had to change the narrative, and quickly, very quickly.

In the world of one-click decisions, famous people end up losing their reputation in fractions of a second.

Lively had to disable comments on her personal Instagram page after TAG’s “crisis management” led to droves of burner accounts attacking her brands.

TAG, the crisis management agency hired by Baldoni, sent out a “scenario planning document” as a “recommendation” to get ahead of the narrative.

The document, which is part of the exhibit in Blake Lively’s complaint against Baldoni, included, among other things, the suggestion of misleading messages stating:

1. “(Production) members lost their jobs due to (Mrs Lively’s) takeover and insisted on involvement”;

2. Ms. Lively “involved her husband in creating an imbalance of power between herself and (Mr. Baldoni)”;

3. Ms. Lively has a “not exactly good reputation in the industry”;

4. Ms. Lively had “a clear, probable motive…to coerce herself into acquiring the rights It starts with us” – the sequel to It ends with us currently owned by Baldoni’s production house Wayfarer Productions.

The scenario planning document did not meet the standards expected by Baldoni. His texts after reading the document said: “I’m not sure I feel the protection I felt when I made the call.”

TAG’s responses were cautious but promised to take care of Baldoni: “You know we can bury anyone. We can’t write it to him (Baldoni). Imagine if a document containing everything he wanted ended up in the wrong hands.”

When the astroturfing campaign against Lively was launched, Nathan wrote in an email, “The majority of social media is so pro Justin and I don’t even agree with half of them lol.”

Over the years, Justin Baldoni has carefully built his image as an ally, not just a champion, of feminism. His podcast, man enough, went in the same direction. His public appearances were the same.

L’affaire It ends with us shows us that perhaps it was a deception at best. A deception that ends with Blake Lively.