Justin Baldoni's lawyer to release 'evidence' of Blake Lively's 'pattern of bullying' amid sexual harassment complaint
The lawyer of It Ends With Us director and star Justin Baldoni said they are releasing "all of the evidence" supposedly proving his co-star Blake Lively's "pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie" amid her sexual harassment complaint against him.
"None of this will come as a surprise because consistent with her past behavior Blake Lively used other people to communicate those threats and bully her way to get whatever she wanted," Bryan Freedman said in a statement sent to PEOPLE Magazine. "We have all the receipts and more."
Freedman also said it's "painfully ironic" that Lively is accusing Baldoni of "weaponizing the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending The New York Times grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint."
'More attacks'
Lively's legal team on Jan. 6 told PEOPLE that Baldoni launched "more attacks" against her.
"This is not a 'feud' arising from 'creative differences' or a 'he said/she said' situation," her lawyers said. "As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set. And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Ms. Lively since her filing."
They noted that sexual harassment and retaliation "are illegal in every workplace and in every industry."
Her lawyers pointed out that a "classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied."
"Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender, and suggest that the offender is actually the victim. These concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct," they added.
Sexual harassment, smear campaign
Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni and Jamey Heath, chief executive officer of Wayfarer Studios. She also accused them of running a smear campaign against her.
In her complaint, Lively accused Baldoni and Heath of telling her about their past sexual relationships and "previous porn addiction."
Heath also allegedly showed Lively a video of his wife naked and giving birth.
Baldoni and Heath likewise supposedly entered Lively's makeup trailer without permission, "including when she was breastfeeding her infant child."
Lively also recalled Baldoni claiming he could communicate with the dead, including her father, Ernie Lively. She found it "off-putting and violative."
Following Lively's complaint, the New York Times published a report titled 'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine. The report used excerpts from alleged text messages and emails that she obtained through a subpoena and detailed the work of crisis management firm TAG PR for Baldoni, including allegedly planting negative stories in the media.
'Categorically false'
Freedman has called the accusations against Baldoni "categorically false." He also said that a crisis manager was hired ahead of the film's marketing campaign "due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production."
Baldoni claimed that Lively threatened him not to show up on set and promote the film.
His legal team also alleged that Lively's camp had "planted negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media."
On Jan. 1, Baldoni filed a $250 million (P14.5 billion) lawsuit against the Times—plus 10 other plaintiffs, including publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel—for libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud, and breach of implied-in-fact contract for its 'We Can Bury Anyone' report.
The Times defended its article as "meticulously and responsibly reported."
