NCS
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Justin Baldoni has sued Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, alleging that the Hollywood couple sought to “destroy” him and his profession, after hijacking his movie, “It Ends With Us.”
Baldoni’s criticism is the newest escalation within the ongoing authorized battle stemming from the movie that Baldoni directed and co-starred in with Lively.
“This is not a case about celebrities sniping at each other in the press. This is a case about two of the most powerful stars in the world deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio,” the lawsuit states.
“Lively wields immense power as one of the world’s best-known celebrities,” the swimsuit continues, alleging that Lively “used that power to seize control of the film,” which was directed by Baldoni, and produced and co-financed by Baldoni’s manufacturing firm. “She set out to destroy Plaintiffs’ livelihoods and businesses if they did not bend to her incessant demands, and when they refused to give way, she did exactly that, accusing them of foul and reprehensible sexual misconduct.”
The 179-page criticism — by which Baldoni is in search of $400 million and demanding a jury trial — was filed within the Southern District of New York on behalf of Baldoni, his firm Wayfarer Studios, in addition to his producing associate, Jamey Heath, his disaster supervisor, Melissa Nathan, his publicist Jennifer Abel and the It Ends With Us LLC. The defendants are accused of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privateness.
“Lively stole Wayfarer’s movie, hijacked Wayfarer’s premiere, destroyed Plaintiffs’ personal and professional reputations and livelihood, and aimed to drive Plaintiffs out of business entirely,” the lawsuit states.
Lively’s authorized staff informed NCS in an announcement Thursday that Baldoni’s swimsuit “is another chapter in the abuser playbook. This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim.”
“They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer. The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success,” the assertion additionally stated.
The ongoing saga between Lively and Baldoni erupted in December, when Lively first filed a civil rights complaint, claiming that she was sexually harassed by Baldoni throughout manufacturing of the movie and then was retaliated towards for talking up about her alleged mistreatment. Baldoni instantly denied Lively’s claims.
Lively finally escalated her civil rights criticism, formally submitting a lawsuit towards Baldoni simply weeks in the past.
Lively alleged that after being sexually harassed with inappropriate feedback and conduct on set, Baldoni’s staff then orchestrated a smear marketing campaign towards her to break her popularity within the public sphere. Lively’s criticism contained a whole bunch of textual content messages between Baldoni and his disaster PR staff, together with one textual content that learn they may “bury” her.
Baldoni’s new swimsuit presents a a lot totally different perspective, accusing Lively of really defaming Baldoni.
“Though Lively claimed Baldoni was the one smearing her, the reality is that it was Lively and her team who carefully planned and implemented a vile smear campaign against Baldoni and Wayfarer to deflect attention and blame for Lively’s disastrous misjudgments,” Baldoni’s swimsuit states. “Lively would recast herself as the long-suffering martyr by portraying Baldoni and Wayfarer as her persecutors: the masterminds behind a smear campaign that evidence will show did not exist.”
The public authorized battle has uncovered the inside workings of the groups behind Hollywood stars with a number of lawsuits, all of which have accused publicists on each side of wrongdoing.
Lively and Reynolds’ publicist, Leslie Sloan, can also be named as a defendant alongside Lively and Reynolds within the criticism filed Thursday.
Sloan didn’t instantly reply to NCS’s request for touch upon her behalf or for her purchasers, Lively and Reynolds.
Baldoni’s staff has stated that Lively’s lawsuit contained “cherry picked” textual content messages that solely informed her aspect of the story.
After Lively filed her preliminary criticism, Baldoni sued the New York Times in a $250 million lawsuit, accusing the newspaper — which was first to report on Lively’s allegations — of working alongside Lively’s staff to publish a one-sided article that benefited Lively and contained doctored proof. Baldoni’s swimsuit towards the publication contained extra textual content messages that appeared to present extra context.
The New York Times has denied Baldoni’s allegations and stated it stands by their reporting.
Bryan Freedman, the legal professional representing Baldoni and all plaintiffs, informed NCS in an announcement on Thursday that he has an “overwhelming amount of untampered evidence” that proves Lively, Reynolds and their staff tried to destroy Baldoni and his staff by “disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.”
“Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie,” Freedman stated. “Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power.”
“It Ends With Us” explores intimate associate violence. The central couple is performed by Baldoni and Lively. The movie, based mostly on the best-selling e-book of the identical title, made greater than $350 million globally on the field workplace.
“Heartbreakingly, a film that Baldoni envisioned years ago would honor the survivors of domestic violence by telling their story, with the lofty goal of making a positive impact in the world, has now been overshadowed beyond recognition solely as a result of Lively’s actions and cruelty,” his swimsuit states.
Baldoni’s lawsuit claims that Lively sought to take over a lot of the movie’s artistic route, together with having her husband, Reynolds, re-write a scene and make “unauthorized changes to the script in secret.” (Reynolds had no formal function on “It Ends With Us.”)
The swimsuit claims that Lively “summoned” Baldoni to the penthouse she shares with Reynolds in New York City for a gathering in regards to the script, the place Reynolds, together with a “megacelebrity friend” of the couple, praised Lively’s proposed revisions to the script.
“As the meeting was ending, a famous, and famously close, friend of Reynolds and Lively, walked into the room and similarly began praising Lively’s script,” the lawsuit states. “Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script.”
One of the textual content messages included in Baldoni’s swimsuit seems to present an alternate between Baldoni and Lively in regards to the script: “I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor),” he wrote with a wink emoji. “You really are a talent across the board. Really excited and grateful to do this together.”
While Baldoni’s textual content message doesn’t embrace a final title for “Taylor,” Lively is shut associates with the artist Taylor Swift. NCS has reached out to representatives for Baldoni, Lively, Reynolds and Taylor Swift to inquire whether or not the “Taylor” talked about in Baldoni’s textual content is, in actual fact, Swift.
According to Baldoni’s lawsuit, a screenshot of a textual content message exhibits that Lively then replied to Baldoni, “That’s very appreciated,” then writing, “We’re in this together.” In that very same textual content message, Lively later wrote, “I have no motives except to you to win. As an actor. As a studio. As a writer. If you win, I win. If you win our movie wins. We are aligned. And I will bring everything I have to this.”
NCS has not independently verified any textual content messages included in Baldoni or Lively’s lawsuits.
The new swimsuit additionally claims that Reynolds as soon as “swore at Baldoni and accused him of fat-shaming his wife” on the couple’s New York house. Baldoni denied the allegation in his lawsuit, stating he inquired about Lively’s weight to his coach so he may put together for a scene by which he was supposed to raise her, whereas working with a again harm.
Baldoni’s newest lawsuit brings Reynolds — considered one of Hollywood’s highest-earning A-list stars — into the authorized drama. Baldoni’s earlier filings have talked about Reynolds, however now he’s formally named as a defendant, accused of helping his spouse in taking on the movie and taking down Baldoni’s profession.
After Lively’s preliminary criticism accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, Baldoni was dropped as a shopper by the expertise company, WME, which additionally represents Lively and Reynolds. Baldoni’s lawsuit accuses Reynolds of encouraging WME to drop Baldoni, which the company has denied.
In the wake of Lively’s lawsuit, Baldoni was additionally rescinded an award from a girls’s group. Baldoni’s public picture has been intertwined with feminism – the actor and filmmaker hosted a TED Talk and a podcast about redefining masculinity.