Blake Lively’s legal team says Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit against ‘It Ends with Us’ co-star ‘will fail’

Blake Lively’s legal team shared their response to Justin Baldoni’s $400 million case he filed against his It Ends with Us co-star, calling it a “desperate strategy.”

The actress' legal team, in a statement shared by PEOPLE Magazine on Friday, Jan. 17, said that the lawsuit "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 added. "This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender."

"Their response to sexual harassment allegations: She wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: Look what she was wearing," Lively's legal team continued. "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 filed a lawsuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, on Thursday, Jan. 16. It came weeks after Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against him, protesting her treatment on set, and then a lawsuit accusing him of launching a retaliatory media campaign against her. 

He countered in court documents that Lively hijacked the production of It Ends with Us and that she defamed him and, with Reynolds, sought to extort him.

The war between the stars was dragged into the spotlight when fans noticed during promotion of the film that they did not follow one another on social media.

It soon emerged that Lively had complained of Baldoni's behavior on the set, accusing him of—among other things—speaking inappropriately about his sex life and seeking to add intimate scenes into the film that she had not previously agreed to. 

Lively also said lead producer Jamey Heath had watched her while she was topless, despite having been asked to turn away.

Then, Lively alleged, Baldoni ignited a PR campaign to smear her and divert attention away from complaints she might make about the men's alleged actions. 

Baldoni also sued The New York Times after it published a piece into that alleged smear campaign, including what it said were emails and texts discussing the media outcry. 

The It Ends with Us film, based on the book by Colleen Hoover, touches on issues of domestic violence and abuse. (with reports from AFP)