Blake Lively accuses It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni of smear campaign

Blake Lively has filed a legal complaint against It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, alleging sexual harassment and a campaign to “destroy” her reputation.

According to the legal filing, she accuses Baldoni and his team of attacking her public image after a meeting in which she brought her actor husband, Ryan Reynolds, to address “repeated sexual harassment and other disruptive behavior” from Mr. Baldoni and a producer. on the film.

Baldoni’s legal team told the BBC the claims are “categorically false” and said they hired a crisis manager because Ms Lively had threatened to derail the film unless her demands were met.

In the romantic drama, Ms Lively plays a woman who finds herself in a relationship with a charming but abusive boyfriend, played by Mr. Baldoni.

The meeting between Ms Lively and Mr. Baldoni, along with others involved in the film’s production, took place on January 4 this year and it was aimed at addressing the “hostile work environment” on set, the legal filing says.

Ms Lively’s husband, Deadpool star Mr Reynolds, who did not appear in It Ends With Us, joined her at the showdown, according to the legal complaint, which is a step before a trial.

Mr Baldoni, 40, attended the meeting in his capacity as co-chairman and co-founder of the company that produced the film, Wayfarer Studios. He was also the film’s director.

In the legal complaint, Ms Lively’s lawyers claim that both Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer’s CEO, Jamey Heath, engaged in “inappropriate and unwelcome behavior toward Ms. Lively and others on the set of It Ends With Us.”

In the filing with the California Civil Rights Department, a list of 30 demands regarding the pair’s alleged wrongdoing was made at the meeting to ensure they could continue producing the film.

Among them, Ms Lively, 37, requested that no mention be made of Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath’s former “pornography addiction” to Ms. Lively or to other crew members, no more descriptions of their own genitalia to Ms. Lively, and “no more addition of sex scenes, oral sex, or climax on camera by BL [Blake Lively] outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing up for the project”, reads the complaint.

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

Ms Lively’s legal team also accuses Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios for leading a “multi-tiered plan” to destroy her reputation.

She claims this was “the intended result of a carefully designed, coordinated and resourced retaliation scheme to get her and others to speak out about the hostile environment Mr Baldoni and Mr Heath created”.

In response to the legal complaint, Mr. Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said Saturday: “It is disgraceful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false allegations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives.”

Mr. Freedman accused Ms Lively of making numerous demands and threats, including “threatening not to appear on stage, threatening not to promote the film”, which would “ultimately lead to its demise during release if her demands was not fulfilled”.

He claimed Ms Lively’s claims were “deliberately malicious with an intent to publicly hurt and revive a narrative in the media”.

In a statement via her lawyers to the BBC, Ms Lively said: “I hope my lawsuit helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about wrongdoing and help protect others who may be targeted .”

She also denied that she or any of her representatives had planted or spread negative information about Mr. Baldoni or Wayfarer.

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

Shortly after the August release date, another co-star, Brandon Sklenar, hinted in an Instagram post about rumors of a rift between Ms Lively and Mr. Baldoni.

Speculation of a fallout only grew when they did not appear together on the red carpet.

It Ends With Us tells the story of Boston florist Lily Bloom, played by Ms Lively, as she navigates a love triangle between her charming but abusive boyfriend, Ryle Kincaid, played by Mr. Baldoni, and her compassionate first love, Atlas Corrigan, played by Mr. Sklenar.

It is based on a bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover. The 45-year-old author has previously said that her inspiration was domestic abuse her mother endured.

In an interview with the BBC at the film’s premiere in August, Ms Lively said she had felt “a responsibility to service the people who care so much about the source material”.

“I really feel like we delivered a story that’s emotional and it’s funny, but also funny, painful, scary, tragic and it’s inspiring and that’s what life is, it’s every color,” said the actress.

Ms Lively, who is also credited as a producer, told the BBC she felt the film had been made “with a lot of empathy”.

“Lily is a survivor and a victim, and while those are huge labels, these are not her identity,” Ms Lively said. “She defines herself, and I think it’s deeply empowering that no one else can define you.”