Hollywood stars support Blake Lively over legal complaint

Hollywood stars America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel have publicly supported American actress Blake Lively after she filed a legal complaint against It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni.

Ms Lively filed a legal complaint against Mr Baldoni over the weekend, accusing him of sexual harassment and a campaign to “destroy” her reputation.

Mr Baldoni’s legal team told the BBC on Saturday that the allegations were “categorically false”.

Ferrera, Tamblyn and Beadle, who starred with Lively in the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, issued a joint statement on Instagram On Sunday he said they “stand with him in solidarity”.

It End’s With Us author Colleen Hoover also showed her support, describing Ms Lively as “honest, kind, supportive and patient”.

Ms Lively’s lawyers say the legal complaint follows a meeting earlier this year to address “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by her co-star and the film’s producer Baldoni.

In their statement, Ferrera, Tamblyn and Beadle said: “As Blake’s friends and sisters for 20 years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights against the alleged campaign waged to destroy her reputation. Is.

“Throughout the filming of It Ends With Us, we watched her muster the courage to demand a safe workplace for herself and her coworkers on set, and we witnessed a premeditated and retaliatory effort to discredit her voice “Amazed to read the evidence.”

She added: “What is most disturbing is that the stories of domestic violence survivors are being blatantly exploited to silence a woman seeking protection. The hypocrisy is astonishing.”

“We are shocked by the reality that even a woman as strong, distinguished, and resourceful as our friend Blake can face tremendous retaliation for daring to demand a safe working environment,” the statement said.

“We are inspired by our sister’s courage to stand up for herself and others.”

Mr. Baldoni’s lawyers said he hired a crisis manager because Ms. Lively threatened to derail the film unless her demands were met.

In the drama It End’s With Us, Ms. Lively plays a woman who finds herself in a relationship with an attractive but abusive boyfriend, played by Mr. Baldoni.

In a post on her Instagram Stories, Colleen Hoover, author of the novel on which the film was based, also expressed her support: “@BlakeLively you have been honest, kind, supportive, and patient since the moment we met.

“Thank you for being the person you are.

“Never change. Never fade.”

She then linked to a New York Times article titled We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.

Hoover also reposted the statement Ferrara, Beadle and Tamblyn said: “This statement by these women and Blake’s ability to sit back and refuse to be ‘buried’ is nothing short of inspiring.”

The meeting between Ms Lively and Mr Baldoni, along with others involved in the production of the film and Ms Lively’s actor husband Ryan Reynolds, took place on January 4, 2024, and was aimed at addressing the “hostile work environment” on the set, according to Ms Lively. Legal filing.

Mr. Baldoni attended the meeting as co-chairman and co-founder of the company that produced the film, Wayfarer Studios. He was also the director of the film.

In the legal complaint, Ms. Lively’s lawyers alleged that Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer’s chief executive, Jamie Heath, both engaged in inappropriate and unwanted behavior toward Ms. Lively and others on the set of “It Ends With Us.”

In a filing with the California Department of Civil Rights, the meeting made a list of 30 demands related to the pair’s alleged misconduct in order to ensure they could continue production on the film.

Among them, Ms Lively requested that no further mention of Mr Baldoni and Mr Heath’s past “addiction to pornography” be made to Ms Lively or other crew members, no further description of their own genitals to Ms Lively The scene, involving oral sex by BL (Blake Lively), was outside the scope of the script approved by BL when he signed the project, and “there was no further mention of sex”, the complaint said. Or climaxing on camera.

Ms Lively also demanded that Mr Baldoni stop saying he could talk to her dead father.

Ms Lively’s legal team accused Mr Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios of leading a “multi-layered scheme” to damage her reputation.

They allege that this was “the intended result of a carefully crafted, coordinated and well-resourced counterplan to silence him and others from speaking out about the hostile environment created by Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath”.

Responding to the legal complaint, Mr Baldoni’s lawyer, Brian Friedman, said on Saturday: “It is shameful that Ms Lively and her representatives would make such serious and patently false allegations against Mr Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives. “

Mr. Friedman accused Ms. Lively of making numerous demands and threats, including “threatening not to come to the set, threatening not to promote the film,” which would ultimately “lead to her death during release if Their demands were not met.”

He alleged that Ms Lively’s claims were “deliberately cowardly with the intention of hurting the public and repeating a narrative in the media”.

In a statement to the BBC through her lawyers, Ms Lively said: “I hope my legal action will help lift the curtain on these appalling retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about misconduct, and help those who “Will help protect people who may be targeted.”

He also denied that he or any of his representatives had spread or disseminated negative information about Mr. Baldoni or Wayfarer.

The film was a box-office hit, although some critics said it romanticized domestic violence.