LOOK: Every screenshot revealed in Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's legal battle
Things definitely ended between It Ends With Us co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni as they are now in the middle of a tumultuous legal battle due to issues that happened during the production of the film.
In case you're not in the loop, Lively had filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, who served as her leading man and director in It Ends With Us, for alleged sexual harassment and creating a smear campaign against her.
She claimed that the actor described his past sexual relationships to the actress and discussed his "previous porn addiction" together with Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath. She further alleged that the two men entered her makeup trailer without permission, "including when she was breastfeeding her infant child."
Apart from sexual harassment, Baldoni was also accused of organizing a "multi-tiered plan" to damage her reputation.
In turn, the actor's team dismissed the allegations, saying that the former's claim was "categorically false" and an "attempt to fix" her negative reputation.
He had also sued The New York Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy following the publication of Lively's allegations against him. The article had included private messages that detailed an alleged campaign to tarnish Lively's reputation, which Baldoni criticized as "cherry-picked" and accused the publication of stripping necessary context.
Both of their lawsuit documents, which were obtained by Variety, included screenshots of their conversations regarding the issue.
Blake Lively's part
In the screenshots included in Lively's lawsuit, Baldoni's crisis management expert Melissa Nathan and his publicist Jennifer Abel were seen texting each other about how Baldoni "wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried."
In another text message, Baldoni appeared to be setting the narrative for the social media smear campaign, sending a screenshot of a hate thread on Hailey Bieber to his team as an example of what they would need.
Negative publicity against Lively began to pick up a day after the release of the film on Aug. 10, with Nathan's team reporting that they had "started to see a shift on social" due to efforts "to shift the narrative" against Lively.
The document later touched on how Baldoni was largely absent during the marketing of the film, claiming that he had "hoped to create a false impression that he had chosen not to appear with other cast members."
Later on, Abel talked about how the "narrative online is so freaking good" and that fans are "still sticking up for Justin." She also confirmed to Baldoni that fans believe that the reason for the feud between him and Lively was due to how the actress was taking control of the movie from him and not due to his supposed misconduct.
Other screenshots appeared to show Baldoni, Abel, and Nathan discussing Lively's tarnished image with the public.
Justin Baldoni's part
Baldoni's complaint against New York Times meanwhile offers a clashing perspective on the matter in that it was Lively who was the one who started a "strategic and manipulative" smear campaign against him by using "sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production."
He also included screenshots from conversations he had with Heath, his PR team, and others, which appeared to show that they had "no intention of destroying or burying Lively" and that Baldoni instead "consistently expressed his desire to avoid harming" the actress.
Other screenshots were marked with red and green markings to show how the conversations included in Lively's complaint had supposedly omitted some messages and were missing the full context.
With regards to how Baldoni allegedly entered her trailer without permission, messages show that Lively told the actor that she was pumping breast milk in her trailer if he wanted to go over some lines.
Another accusation Lively had against her co-star was how he inappropriately described her character’s attire as "sexy," but text exchanges between them showed that the actress was using the word herself when she wrote that her character’s clothing should be "much sexier."
While the complaints have yet to move forward in court, Lively's legal team has released a response via USA Today to Baldoni's suit, saying it changes nothing about the actress' California Civil Rights Department complaint.
"This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively's administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice 'not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,' and that 'litigation was never her ultimate goal.'"
