Early this summer fans and online sleuths alike questioned what exactly happened behind-the-scenes between “It Ends With Us” co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
Based on the Colleen Hoover bestseller, “It Ends With Us” is about a florist named Lily (Lively) who falls in love with neurosurgeon Ryle (Baldoni), whom Lily slowly discovers is abusive. The movie grossed $350 million worldwide and was released on Netflix earlier this month. Beyond the film’s popularity, the alleged behind-the-scenes turmoil has also spilled through to audiences.
Shedding light on some of the speculation on what happened is in a new lawsuit filed by Lively on Friday that alleges sexual harassment, retaliation and an orchestrated media campaign to harm her reputation by Baldoni, the film’s co-star and director. The lawsuit details unsettling behavior on set that led Lively to take protection against herself from Baldoni and a producer. An exposé by The New York Times has also detailed the elaborate social media machine allegedly used against Lively during the movie’s press tour.
Salon breaks down the events leading up to the lawsuit, the complaint and the bombshell New York Times exposé:
November 2023: Lively goes to the studio with safeguard demands
Lively’s concerns about Baldoni were documented from the beginning. Before shooting even began, Lively refused to do additional sex scenes that Baldoni pushed because she considered them gratuitous, according to the complaint.
Then later, when production was set to resume filming post-Hollywood strikes, Lively went to the film’s production company Wayfarer with a letter demanding safeguards.
“Our client is willing to forego a more formal HR process in favor of everyone returning to work and finishing the Film as long as the set is safe moving forward,” the letter stated.
According to her legal complaint, she said Baldoni had improvised nonconsensual kissing and discussed his sex life. Lively also claimed that he shared experiences where he may not have received consent from previous partners.
The complaint also says that Jamey Heath, the film’s producer who is also Baldoni’s podcast co-host, allegedly showed her nude videos of his wife. She also alleges he walked into Lively’s dressing room while she was topless and having body makeup removed. She said both men would walk into her dressing room unannounced while she was undressed, even when she was breastfeeding.
Wayfarer acknowledged that “Although our perspective differs in many aspects, ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount,” according to her legal complaint.
April-May 2024: Creative differences plague Baldoni and Lively’s working relationship
While Lively said that the men’s behavior on set had improved with the new protections, she said she was at a creative standstill with Heath and Baldoni.
With the support of Sony, the film’s distributor, she made her own cut of the film. Lively’s version of the film includes different scenes, editing and adding music Lively handpicked like using her friend Taylor Swift’s song “My Tears Ricochet.” Sony went with Lively’s version and she received a producer credit.
As the film’s release got closer, Lively and other cast members told Sony and Wayfarer they would not do press appearances with Baldoni. Hoover had allegedly also soured on Baldoni after he told her about Lively’s allegations.
May 2024: Baldoni allegedly gets the ball rolling on a plan against Lively
Months after filming had wrapped on “It Ends With Us,” Baldoni realized that Lively’s husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, had blocked him on Instagram.
In texts obtained through the Times, Baldoni pointed out the growing contention between him and Lively as a possible issue when the film would begin being promoted. He told a publicist who worked at Wayfarer, “We should have a plan for IF she does the same when movie comes out. Plans make me feel more at ease.”
August 2, 2024: Baldoni retains the public relations expert who represented Johnny Depp
Just weeks before the film’s premiere, Wayfarer and Baldoni had hired crisis management expert, Melissa Nathan, who is known for working with high-profile celebrities like Drake and Travis Scott. But her most significant client is Johnny Depp, whom she represented during the 2022 defamation trial with his ex-wife Amber Heard, who had accused him of abuse in 2016. He won, but the trial became a social media spectacle with claims of an online smear campaign working against Heard to damage her credibility.
Nathan left her longtime firm to start her own business called TAG PR, which counts music executive and manager Scooter Braun among its majority stakeholders. Braun is a longtime public adversary of Swift after he bought her masters, which prompted the singer to rerecord her first six albums to retake ownership of her music. This detail will come up again later.
Meanwhile, during conversations with Baldoni, Nathan formulated a plan with talking points about how Lively used “an imbalance of power to take creative control of the film.” However, this wasn’t enough for Baldoni.
“Not in love with the document they sent,” he texted Heath and another publicist, Jennifer Abel. “Not sure I’m feeling the protection I felt on the call.”
Abel texted Nathan: “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.”
“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 replied. “We can’t write we will destroy her.”
Nathan continued, “Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands.”
“You know we can bury anyone,” she wrote.
August 2024: Nathan allegedly begins forming a social media plan
Days later, Baldoni texted Abel highlighting an X thread that accused Hailey Bieber of bullying Selena Gomez. The thread had garnered 19 million views. “This is what we would need,” he wrote.
Then Nathan allegedly began formulating proposals to hire contractors to flood social media through “full social account take downs.” They would do this by creating “threads of theories” and working to “change narrative.”
“All of this will be most importantly untraceable,” she texted.
August 4, 2024: Nathan talks to an editor at The Daily Mail
Ahead of the premiere, Abel said, “I’m having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible Blake is to work with. Just to get ahead of it.”
Nathan texted back that she had spoken off the record to an editor at The Daily Mail.
“She’s ready when we are,” Nathan said. “[Baldoni] doesn’t realise how lucky he is right now.”
August 6, 2024: At the premiere of “It Ends With Us,” cast stays separate from Baldoni
During the film’s premiere screening, Baldoni – the director and main costar of the film – reportedly had a separate theater from Lively and other cast members. It was also reported that supporting cast members like Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Brandon Sklenar and even Hoover had unfollowed Baldoni on social media.
Slate, who plays Baldoni’s sister in the film, even dodged a question about Baldoni on the red carpet. “I mean, what an intense job, to have to do so many things. I just found myself being like, ‘Wow, I really just want to have one job at once.’ And in fact, I’ve often felt that way,” she replied.
The confusing cast dynamics also received its first round of press coverage from The Hollywood Reporter, citing online speculation on TikTok. The posts questioned what happened on set, why Baldoni wasn’t conducting press with other cast members and why cast members had unfollowed Baldoni.
The NYTimes said that Nathan kept the allegations against Baldoni out of each article that was coming out. She said major news outlets were “standing down on HR complaint.”
August 9, 2024: Social media posts against Lively ramp up
The film’s marketing was accused by people online of being insensitive to domestic abuse with Lively facing pushback when her alcohol company Betty Booze was also promoting the film, given that alcohol can play a role in abusive relationships. There was more backlash when Lively shared in an interview that Reynolds helped rewrite a scene in the movie. People began speculating whether Reynolds had violated the writers strike.
Another public relations expert, Jed Wallace of Street Relations, was also working with Abel and Nathan on the alleged campaign to smear Lively. “We are crushing it on Reddit,” Wallace said to Nathan.
Nathan’s employees had also messaged her, “We’ve started to see shift on social, due largely to Jed and his team’s efforts to shift the narrative.”
Nathan wrote to Abel, “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.”
August 10, 2024: Journalist posts interview about Lively
As the narrative against Lively picked up steam, an old 2016 interview between the actress and Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa was uploaded online. In the YouTube video titled, “The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job,” Flaa mentions Lively’s pregnancy, saying, “Congrats on your little bump.”
Lively responded, “Congrats on your little bump” despite Flaa not being pregnant.
Flaa told The Daily Mail, “It’s time that people behaving badly in Hollywood, or anywhere else for that matter, gets called out for it.”
The YouTube video has been viewed 5.9 million times and has 30,000 comments. The clipped version of the interview spread online quickly, further fueling the negativity online around Lively.
Flaa wrote to the Times, “[The video] was neither coordinated nor influenced by anyone associated with the alleged campaign.”
August 15, 2024: Baldoni tells Nathan to use Lively’s and Reynolds’ words against them
Baldoni proposes “flipping the narrative” on a positive story about Lively and her husband by “using their own words against them.”
In other instances, Baldoni is concerned about how the tactics used against Lively appears. He sent a text saying, “How can we say somehow that we are not doing any of this — it looks like we are trying to take her down.”
He even questioned whether bots were used to spin the narrative around Lively.
“I can fully fully confirm we do not have bots,” Nathan reassured. She said no digital team would “utilise something so obvious.”
August 16, 2024: The campaign is in full swing
Nathan sent an article to Abel, “Is Blake Lively set to be CANCELLED?” in which The Daily Mail refers to Lively in “hard to watch” videos and during a “tone-deaf” press tour.
“Wow. You really outdid yourself with this piece,” Abel said.
“That’s why you hired me right?” Nathan wrote. “I’m the best.”
Other texts from Abel state, “The narrative online is so freaking good and the fans are still sticking up for Justin . . . I see this as a total success, as does Justin.”
“Narrative is CRAZY good. Majority of socials are so pro Justin and I don’t agree with half of them,” Nathan responded.
August 20, 2024: Co-star Brandon Sklenar defends Lively
In a statement posted on Instagram, Sklenar, who plays Atlas, Lily’s second love interest in the film, came to Lively’s defense after growing online distaste for the actress.
“Vilifying the women who put so much of their heart and soul into making this film because they believe so strongly in its message seems counterproductive and detracts from what this film is about. It is, in fact, the opposite of the point,” he wrote.
He continued, “All I ask is that before you spread hate on the internet, ask yourself who its helping. Ask yourself if your opinions are based in any fact.”
August 2024: A company finds Lively was at the center of an “online attack” similar to Heard
In August, Lively commissioned a brand marketing consultant, Terakeet to investigate the vitriolic social media response. The company found she had likely been a part of a “targeted, multichannel online attack” similar to the one Heard faced that damaged her reputation.
The company could not find who was responsible for the attack but the company analyzed Google’s search index for Lively’s name. It found that 35 percent of the results were attached to Baldoni. The company said this was very abnormal given her decades-long career. It suggested that the media environment was being manipulated.
December 21, 2024: Lively files sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit against Baldoni and Wayfarer
TMZ first reported Lively filed the lawsuit against Baldoni for sexual harassment and a concerted effort to destroy her reputation. Lively cited that during filming for “It Ends With Us,” Baldoni created a hostile work environment by crossing numerous personal and professional boundaries.
Lively claimed the spear campaign against her even targeted Swift. The NYTimes article showed evidence of Baldoni’s public relations team saying they would “explore planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people in BL [Lively]’s circle, like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want.”
Baldoni’s attorney said the lawsuit is Lively’s way to “fix her negative reputation.” He added that the claims are “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt.”
Lively said in 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.”
December 21, 2024: NYTimes posts exposé
The article titled, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine” exposes the alleged system at work attempting to discredit Lively’s reputation and experiences with Baldoni and Heath.
December 21, 2024: Baldoni is dropped by talent agency
Talent agency WME dropped Baldoni the same day Lively’s lawsuit was filed, the Daily Beast reports. Lively is also a client of WME and continues to be represented by the agency.
December 22, 2024: Hoover posts in support of Lively
Hoover addressed Lively in the wake of the lawsuit and the NYTimes article. In an Instagram story, the “It Ends With Us” author wrote, “You have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive, and patient since the day we met.”
She continued, “Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
December 22, 2024: Lively’s former cast members support her
Lively’s former cast mates from “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” posted a statement to their Instagrams to “stand in solidarity” with Lively.
Actors America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn opened, “As Blake’s friends and sisters for over 20 years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the reported campaign waged to destroy her reputation.
“Throughout the filming of ‘It Ends with Us,’ we saw her summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set, and we are appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice,” the statement read. “Most upsetting is the unabashed exploitation of domestic violence survivors’ stories to silence a woman who asked for safety. The hypocrisy is astounding.
“We are struck by the reality that even if a woman is as strong, celebrated, and resourced as our friend Blake, she can face forceful retaliation for daring to ask for a safe working environment. We are inspired by our sister’s courage to stand up for herself and others,” it said.
December 23, 2024: Amber Heard comes to Lively’s defense
In a statement for NBC News, Heard also addressed the lawsuit. She said, “Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying, ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.’ I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
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