More details have come out about the bombshell lawsuit Blake Lively filed against Justin Baldoni!
As we previously reported, news broke on Saturday that the 37-year-old actress sued her It Ends With Us co-star for sexual harassment. She claimed the work environment under Justin became so hostile that they needed an emergency, all-hands-on-deck meeting attended by her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and others. During the sit-down, she made a startling list of demands that shed light on just how bad things got on set. These demands included no longer showing nude videos and pictures to Blake, having discussions about Justin’s alleged “pornography addiction” and sexual conquests, mentioning cast and crew members’ genitalia, making inquiries about her weight, and refraining from talking about her late father.
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Blake also asked that there be “no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project.” While the studio Sony Pictures allegedly approved these requests, things only got worse from there. In the lawsuit, Blake further alleged that Justin and his team launched a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” her reputation — and she has receipts to back her claims!
The New York Times reported the lawsuit included “thousands of pages of text messages and emails” that Blake obtained through a subpoena. You won’t believe what some of these texts say, Perezcious readers! Months after filming wrapped, Justin reached out to Jennifer Abel, a publicist who has worked for him and his company Wayfarer Studios, in May once he realized Blake’s husband blocked him on Instagram:
“We should have a plan for IF she does the same when movie comes out. Plans make me feel more at ease.”
Once the release of the film neared, per texts between Justin and lead producer Jamey Heath, the outlet reports Blake, the book’s author Colleen Hoover, and other cast members told Sony and Wayfarer they refused to make any appearances alongside the Jane the Virgin alum. That sent Justin into panic mode, it seemed. By the first week of August, he hired crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, who worked with Johnny Depp in the past. She sent an initial planning document to Justin and Wayfarer, which featured media talking points like how Blake supposedly used an imbalance of power to take control of the movie creatively. However, the actor was not satisfied with the plan. He replied in a text:
“Not in love with the document they sent. Not sure I’m feeling the protection I felt on the call.”
Jennifer told Melissa about his frustration, saying:
“I think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios. He wants to feel like she can be buried.”
Melissa responded:
“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. We can’t write we will destroy her. Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands. You know we can bury anyone.”
Chilling…
And there are a lot more messages from there. Other exchanges showed the crisis PR team working to prevent stories about Justin’s alleged inappropriate behavior getting out and push the negative ones about Blake instead. Of course, some disturbing claims about Justin did leak — like how he was allegedly “borderline abusive” on set, lingered too long during kissing scenes, and fat-shamed Blake. However, the worst accusations never came out at the time.
Per The New York Times, the team went on to hire Jed Wallace who boosted social media posts to help their cause. He allegedly sent emails talking about “social manipulation” and “proactive fan posting.” There’s also a text about efforts to “boost” and amplify” social media content that was positive about Justin and negative about Blake. He even texted once:
“We are crushing it on Reddit.”
And the team boasted about the success of their efforts to allegedly hurt Blake’s reputation, too. Melissa once wrote to Jennifer:
“And socials are really really ramping up. In his favour, she must be furious. It’s actually sad because it just shows you have people really want to hate on women.”
In another exchange in mid-August, Jennifer commented:
“The narrative online is so freaking good and fans are still sticking up for Justin and there literally has been no pickup of those two articles which is actually shocking to me. But I see this as a totally success, as does Justin. You did such amazing work.”
Melissa then said:
“Narrative is CRAZY good So did you. The majority of socials are so pro justin and I don’t even agree with half of them lol”
Wow…
In other messages, Justin sent the team a social media thread with 19 million views that accused another celebrity of bully behavior. He suggested on August 15 of “flipping the narrative” on a positive story about Blake and Ryan by “using their own words against them.” During this wild plan, he allegedly attempted to cover his tracks, even trying to deploy “bot” accounts on social media. WTF. After spotting a critical article about Blake, he wrote to the team:
“How can we say somehow that we are not doing any of this — it looks like we are trying to take her down.”
All of this is a lot. Damn. Justin has denied all the allegations against him. But these text messages are pretty damning. Meanwhile, Blake issued a statement to multiple outlets after filing her lawsuit, saying:
“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.”
Read the full breakdown of the shocking messages HERE! What are your reactions to the controversy? Sound OFF in the comments!
[Image via MEGA/WENN, Ivan Nikolov/WENN]
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