Justin Baldoni has been accused of entering Blake Lively’s trailer while she was ‘nude,’ and of letting his ‘friends’ watch her film 𝓈ℯ𝓍 scenes, in her bombshell lawsuit.
Lively has taken legal action against Baldoni, accusing him of 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual harassment and creating a toxic work environment on the set of their movie It Ends With Us, in which he both directed her and starred with her. He has furiously denied the allegations.
In legal documents, Lively’s team claim that 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 Baldoni’s production company 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 a copy of the suit obtained by the New York Times.
One point that was purportedly ‘agreed’ upon was: ‘No more entering, attempting to enter, interrupting, pressuring or asking BL to enter her trailer or the makeup trailer by Mr Heath or Mr Baldoni while she is nude, for any reason.’
Another read: ‘All actors participating with BL in intimate scenes involving her being in any state of nudity or simulated nudity must be classified as active, working actors, not “friends” of the director or producers, and must be pre-approved by BL.’
The lawsuit includes allegations that Baldoni showed Lively nude videos and images of other women, discussed his alleged porn addiction, and made inappropriate remarks about her weight, her late father, and other members of the cast and crew.
Lively’s legal filing also holds that Baldoni ‘improvised physical intimacy’ during a scene without prior discussion or choreography.
One incident reportedly involved Baldoni ‘discreetly biting and sucking on Ms. Lively’s lower lip’ during multiple takes, allegedly insisting on reshooting the scene repeatedly despite Lively’s clear discomfort.
The lawsuit alleges Baldoni made 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual inquiries, including asking Lively if she and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, experienced simultaneous climaxes— a question she found intrusive and refused to answer.
Lively’s legal action claims that before filming began, Baldoni ‘inserted improvised gratuitous 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual content and/or scenes involving nudity into the film (including for an underage character) in highly unsettling ways.’
Among the alleged changes were a ‘scene in which Ms. Lively was to orgasm on-camera’ and a ‘detailed scene’ depicting Lily Bloom, the younger version of Lively’s character, losing her virginity—neither of which appeared in the original novel.
According to the complaint, these additions were made without Lively’s consent after she had already committed to the project.
When Lively raised objections, Baldoni allegedly defended the changes by claiming they were added because he was crafting the story ‘through the female gaze.’
While he ultimately agreed to remove most of the scenes, he reportedly fought to retain one depicting Lily and Ryle Kincaid, his character, climaxing together on their wedding night, stating it was ‘important to him because he and his partner climax simultaneously during intercourse.’
The allegations extend to the film’s producer, Jamey Heath, who is accused of compounding the toxic environment.
The lawsuit claims Heath pressured Lively to simulate nudity during a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 scene, despite prior agreements that no nudity was required.
The scene allegedly lacked standard industry protections, leaving Lively ‘mostly nude with her legs spread wide in stirrups and only a small piece of fabric covering her genitalia.’
Heath is also accused of showing Lively and her assistant a graphic, fully nude video of his wife giving 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡, which Lively initially mistook for pornography.
Additionally, both Baldoni and Heath allegedly entered Lively’s trailer unannounced on multiple occasions while she was undressed, breastfeeding, or otherwise vulnerable.
The complaint details an incident where Heath entered Lively’s makeup trailer uninvited while she was topless.
Although Lively requested he wait until she was clothed, Heath allegedly stared at her despite her explicit request that he avert his eyes.
Another unsettling claim involves Baldoni improvising an intimate moment during a slow-dance scene.
According to the lawsuit, Baldoni leaned in as himself, not in character, and ‘slowly dragged his lips from her ear to her neck’ saying, ‘It smells so good.’
When Lively objected to his actions, Baldoni allegedly retorted, ‘I’m not even attracted to you.’
Following a meeting in January 2024 between Lively, Baldoni, producers, and Ryan Reynolds, Wayfarer Studios reportedly agreed to have an intimacy coordinator on set for all scenes involving nudity or simulated 𝓈ℯ𝓍.
The studio also assured that no further improvised kissing or physical intimacy would occur.
Meanwhile, bombshell text messages how how Baldoni’s crisis management team allegedly launched an smear campaign against Lively.
Lively’s team say messages included as part of the legal complaint reveal, ‘a multi-tiered plan that Mr. Baldoni and his team described as ‘social manipulation’ designed to ‘destroy’ Ms. Lively’s reputation’, which they say began after she raised concerns about conditions on set.
Rumors of a rift between the movie’s leads began to swirl amid its press run, after eagle-eyed fans noted a frostiness between the pair on the red carpet.
But Lively was wary of Baldoni even prior to filming according to her legal complaint and claims they clashed over him trying to add ‘gratuitous’ nudity and 𝓈ℯ𝓍 scenes to the movie.
Relations soured even further during filming, and culminated in a HR meeting where various conditions were agreed to by Baldoni and his Wayfarer studio before Lively would consider resuming filming after the writers’ strike, the filings state.
Then sometime before August 2, Baldoni hired crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, whose previous clients have included Jonny Depp, as part of his PR team which also included publicist Jennifer Abel.
Many of the messages in the lawsuit, obtained by a subpoena, are between the women, including one exchange in which Nathan states that she can ‘bury anyone’.
The message was sent in reply to Abel’s text which says that Baldoni, ‘wants to feel like she [Lively] can be buried’.
‘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,’ Nathan responds, adding, ‘We can’t write we will destroy her’.
She followed up the message with another which reads, ‘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.’
Another back and forth on August 2 appears to show Nathan joking about murdering Lively.
‘I also sent you a present. Don’t worry, I didn’t 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 her and send her in a box to your house. It’s a congratulations present,’ the message from Nathan reads, to which Abel responds: ‘DAMNIT’.
Later that same day, Abel wrote that she is, ‘having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week about how horrible Blake is to work with’.
Meanwhile, Baldoni appears to have suggested that it would be beneficial if they could orchestrate a targeted social media campaign.
He sent a message showing a screenshot of a Twitter thread about allegations of bullying against Hailey Bieber with the caption: ‘This is what we would need’.
When reports began to emerge of tensions between Lively and Baldoni, it was suggested that the differences were merely creative.
Baldoni wanted to market the movie by spotlighting the domestic abuse which forms the heart of the story, while Lively felt it should be more hopeful and uplifting.
Lively was subsequently criticized for the ‘tone deaf’ way she promoted the film after she failed to mention domestic abuse in several interviews.
It is unclear if this reaction was engineered, but Baldoni’s messages appear to show he was at least ready to capitalize on the negative press.
‘What is the TikTok strategy?’ Baldoni writes in one message. ‘I’d like you guys to start posting me ONLY talking about domestic violence and clips and why this movie is so important’.
But as the controversy around the film raged on, some of the more nefarious allegations Lively had privately levelled at Baldoni began to appear in the press.
They included that he made inappropriate comments about her weight and ‘lingered’ too long during kissing scenes.
The texts show how the crisis management team scrambled to try and ‘shift the narrative’ by reverting coverage back onto Lively.
On August 11, Abel sent Baldoni a message reassuring him that the stories were not a threat.
‘Very little pick up. Fans remain supportive of you and believe the issue of the ‘feud’ is because she took control of the movie,’ she wrote.
The day before, Nathan remarked to Abel that: ‘The majority of socials are pro Justin and I don’t even agree with half of them lol’. In another, Nathan revels in the ‘genius’ strategy.
‘Jen this went so well I am f***king dying. I have to call you in a bit bit and tel you how this went. It was genius.’
Further allegations about Baldoni’s unwelcome behavior are included in the legal complaint.
They include claims that Baldoni showed Lively an explicit video of his wife, barged into the star’s trailer while she was nude or breastfeeding, openly discussed his alleged porn addiction and made her and other female staffers uncomfortable with overtly 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual comments.
The issues were dealt with during a January meeting between Lively, Baldoni and several studio representatives where several changes were agreed including the addition of an intimacy coordinator on set.
‘Although our perspective differs in many aspects, ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount,’ Wayfarer acknowledges, according to the legal complaint.
However, a media strategy document apparently from the crisis management team also included in the legal complaint outlines how the team plans to protect Baldoni’s reputation, along with that of lead producer Jamey Heath and fwayfWayfarer.
The document outlines several possible talking points to boost Baldoni, but also discredit Lively.
They include her, ‘less than favorable reputation in the industry’, how she involved her husband Ryan Reynolds to ‘create an imbalance of power’.
In post-production, Lively brought in her own editor to recut a version of the film which was the one ultimately chosen for distribution.
In another message, Baldoni appears to suggest capitalizing on Reynolds’ involvement as another means of targeting Lively.
‘My partner asked about flipping the narrative from this leak this AM about Ryan saying script was a disaster and he saved the movie,’ the message reads before suggesting, ‘using their own words against them’.
The document also suggests some crew members allegedly lost their jobs due to Lively’s insistence on creative control.
Baldoni has refuted the claims through his lawyer Brian Freedman.
‘It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film,’ he said.
‘Interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.
‘These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.
‘Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.
‘It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address.
‘The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity.
‘What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals,’ Freedman added.
Lively denied planting false or negative stories about her co-star or his company.
‘I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted,’ she said.