Justin Baldoni allegedly used a negative social media post about Hailey Bieber as an example of how he hoped his public relations team could organize a retaliatory smear campaign against his It Ends with Us costar Blake Lively, a newly filed complaint from her legal team claims.
A series of private text messages used as an exhibit in Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit against the actor and director allegedly shows Baldoni, 40, texting and emailing with PR executive Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan as they planned what Lively, 37, claims was a smear campaign meant to “destroy” her reputation.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman has denied Lively’s allegations, calling them “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt,” in a statement to PEOPLE on Dec. 21.
In one exchange dated Aug. 4, the complaint obtained by PEOPLE on Dec. 21 shows that Baldoni texted a screenshot of a post on X (formerly Twitter) about Bieber, 28, titled “Hailey Bieber’s history of bullying many women.”
“This is what we would need,” Baldoni wrote in the text, per the complaint, to which Abel replied: “Yes I literally just spoke to Melissa about this on the break about what we discussed last night for social and digital. Focus on Reddit, TikTok, [Instagram].”
Per the complaint, on the same day, Abel sent a message to Nathan stating: “I’m having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible Blake is to work with… Just to get ahead of it.”
“Same,” Nathan responded at the time, noting that one journalist friend of hers was “ready when we are,” according to the complaint.
Fans have speculated about an alleged feud between Bieber and Selena Gomez, who formerly dated Justin Bieber, for several years, but in September 2022, the Rhode founder addressed the ongoing rumors during a conversation on Alex Cooper’s Call her Daddy podcast. The model told Cooper that it is “not [her] character to mess with someone’s relationship,” adding that it’s “all love” between both her Gomez.
Lively alleged in her complaint filed in California, which is a precursor to filing a discrimination lawsuit, that “she has suffered from grief, fear, trauma, and extreme anxiety” because of Baldoni’s behavior “behind closed doors.”
According to Lively’s complaint, “the emotional impact on Ms. Lively has been extreme, not only affecting her, but her family, including her husband and four children.”
According to the complaint, the production and crew of It Ends with Us, including Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds, held a meeting to discuss Baldoni’s behavior toward the Gossip Girl alum. Some of the protections sought were “no more improvising of kissing” and “no more personal, physical touching of, or sexual comments by, Mr Baldoni or Mr Heath to be tolerated by [Blake Lively] and/or any of her employees, as well as any female cast or crew without their express consent.”
Other requests included: “no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project,” all which Baldoni and the filmmakers agreed to. Lively claims in the filing that Baldoni subsequently took part in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” her reputation soon after.
Sony Pictures and Wayfarer Studios, of which Baldoni is co-chairman and co-founder, are also named as defendants in the suit.
Elsewhere in the complaint, Lively’s attorneys shared Baldoni’s publicists’ purported plan of action in the alleged smear campaign against her, including “planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people in BL’s circle like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want.”
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“Our recommended approach would be to provide reporters who reach out for comment, should it be obvious she’s referring to you, with the appropriate background information … to ensure their stories are balanced and the speculation can be turned to another one of the many people she’s had issues working with (Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick, Ben Affleck, etc.),” the publicists’ documents added, per the complaint.
In a statement given to The New York Times for its Dec. 21 report, Lively said, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Freedman, Baldoni’s lawyer, said in his statement on Saturday that Lively’s complaint was to “fix her negative reputation.”
Freedman additionally asserted that representatives of Wayfarer Studios “did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
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