Blake Lively’s legal team has responded toJustin Baldoni’s $400 millionlawsuit against the actressover the contentious situation behind the scenes of their filmIt Ends with Us.
Responding to the director-star’s defamation and extortion suit filed Thursday, Jan. 16, Lively’s legal team said in a statement, “This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its associates 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,” the statement continued. “This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.”
“Wayfarer has opted to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch meritless lawsuits, and threaten litigation to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations,” the statement reads.
“Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault,” the statement concludes. “Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing. In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”
Baldoni, 40, is suing Lively, her husbandRyan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane’s PR firm Vision PR, Inc. on claims of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage. Attorneys for theIt Ends with Usactor-director filed on behalf of Baldoni, producerJamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis publicistMelissa Nathan.
The statement continued: “Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”
Blake Lively (left) and Ryan Reynolds in February 2022.Noam Galai/Getty
Noam Galai/Getty
It further includes accusations that Baldoni and Heath entered her trailer “uninvited” while she was undressed or “vulnerable,” alleges Baldoni “suddenly” pressured her to “simulate full nudity” in a birth scene and “improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed or discussed with Ms. Lively, with no intimacy coordinator involved.”
Lively’s complaint claims that in the aftermath of the experience and the alleged smear campaign against her, the actress-producer “suffered from grief, fear, trauma, and extreme anxiety.”
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively in ‘It Ends with Us’.Nicole Rivelli
Nicole Rivelli
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Baldoni’s new lawsuit followed his legal team filing a $250 millionsuit against theNew York Timesfor libel on Dec. 31 over theirarticlecovering Lively’s complaint. It alleges the publication used “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.”
In that article, Lively provided a statement: “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.”
source: people.com
