Blake Lively v Justin Baldoni - When Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You
“That was never my experience with Harvey [Weinstein] in any way whatsoever, and I think that if people heard these stories … I do believe in humanity enough to think that this wouldn’t have just continued,” she told THR. “I never heard any stories like this — I never heard anything specific — but it’s devastating to hear.”
If there’s one thing about women, it’s that we’re going to stand in support of one another especially when it comes to sexual harassment and slander coming at the hands of men. And that is probably what Blake Lively was betting on when TMZ reported Satuday morning that her estate has filed a lawsuit against her co-star, director, and co-chair of Wayfarer Studios Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment on the set of their movie ‘It Ends With Us.’ While the newly released lawsuit documents by The New York Times are compelling, initial social media reactions seem to indicate that her long and documented history as a ‘mean girl’ will make it difficult to believe she is a victim, or at least one people are sympathetic to.
‘It Ends With Us’ debuted on Aug 9th with a lot of controversy surrounding Blake’s approach to her movie marketing and her working relationship with Justin Baldoni. As an audience, we all witnessed how Blake mis-marketed her movie as a fun GNO saying things like “grab your girls” and “Wear your florals”, as if it were a pseudo-romcom style chick flick for women. In reality the movie was anything but “fun,” centering around the topic of domestic violence. One TikToker even reported having to stop his sister from seeing the movie due to Blake’s marketing misdirection. His sister suffers from severe DV trauma and did not know what the movie was about, she was just a Blake Lively fan who thought she was walking into a girlie movie recommended by her favorite actress. Meanwhile the movie actually depicts some pretty triggering scenes, the scene where Lily is on the verge of sexual assault is a particularly difficult watch.
via Instagram Threads
Blake also, even just coincidentally, took the opportunity during her press run to market her new haircare line ‘Blake Brown’ which many felt was distasteful given the serious nature of the movie. And as TikTok always does- many drew back from the past to point out a pattern of insensitivity by the actress. Among these instances- her Plantation wedding venue, her antebellum themed blog Preserve.us, and her overall ‘mean girl’ moments. Most famously, her 2016 interview with Kjersti Flaa where Kjersti compliments Blake’s pregnant “little bump” and Blake proceeded to sarcastically ask her about her own “little bump” (Kjersti was not pregnant and is in fact infertile).
It was also during this surge of hate for Blake that whispers of Justin Baldoni’s inappropriate behavior on set began to circulate online. Talks of fat shaming and on screen kisses that lingered for too long. But during the following days the allegations seemed to die off and contrary to how Blake was being bashed, social media comments from women praised Justin. Likely because Justin spent his press tour openly discussing the topic of domestic violence and bringing awareness to it, something no one else on the cast seemed to want to talk about it.
While all of this information felt organic and it’s not unlike social media to bring up people’s pasts, Blake Lively’s new lawsuit against Justin argues that the whole hate campaign against her was strategically orchestrated by him and his team in an effort to cover up the alleged numerous HR complaints against him on the set of ‘It Ends With Us’ and ultimately destroy Blake’s image. The lawsuit also names producer and President of Wayfarer Studios Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR manager Melissa Nathen of The Agency Group.
Blake Lively’s lawsuit outlines her initial HR complaints and demands on set, and allegedly other cast members’. These mainly center around:
A required intimacy coordinator on set (due to improvisations by Justin Baldoni i.e. biting her lip during a kiss scene, commenting on her smell during a slow dance scene)
No discussion of personal experiences with sex or nudity, including as it related to spouses (due to Baldoni’s inappropriate questions about Blake’s intimacy with husband Ryan Reynolds)
No entry or attempts to enter Blake’s trailer while she was in any state of undress (due to President of Wayfarer Jamey Heath allegedly watching her topless during makeup)
The lawsuit also includes subpoenaed text messages between Justin Baldoni, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel discussing Justin’s worry that the allegations against him would surface. In these texts is also Melissa reassuring the plan’s viability, progress updates once commenced, and the eventual effectiveness of their campaign against Blake. Some texts even congratulating each other on the amount of hate generated towards Blake online and in the media.
From sources like the text exchanges, Blake claims that Justin and/or team:
Used ‘Astro Turfing’ to publish opinions/comments that appear to stem from ordinary people but actually come from a particular group
Subcontracted Jed Wallace to spread negative content of/regarding Blake Lively online (i.e. TikTok, Twitter, Reddit)
Funneled positive stories about Justin to publications
Justin deciding to focus on the topic of domestic violence during marketing to fuel public belief that the cast alienation of Justin was due to differences in opinion rather than anything related to the sexual harassment allegations. (The cast had previously agreed to market a message of ‘hope’ and decided to avoid talking about DV during the press tour.)
The 72 pages of the lawsuit probably make you feel at least slightly more inclined to believe that Blake Lively went through something while filming ‘It Ends With Us.’ But online sympathy for the actress is not as overwhelming as you might expect. While her lawsuit clearly sounds traumatic, the slew of things said against her online are all things she actually did or said, most with video receipts. Neither Justin nor his team were there when she did or said these things. And in the age of social media the internet does not forget, regardless of who you are. People still remember Blake’s support for Woody Allen following the rape allegations against him in 2016. No one forced her to try to sell hair care while on a press tour for a movie about domestic violence. And Justin Baldoni was certainly not around in 2017 when she said “That was never my experience with Harvey [Weinstein] in any way whatsoever, and I think that if people heard these stories … I do believe in humanity enough to think that this wouldn’t have just continued,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I never heard any stories like this — I never heard anything specific — but it’s devastating to hear.”
via TikTok
If what she alleges in her lawsuit is true then she will have to “believe in humanity enough to think that this wouldn’t [have] just continue[d].” Proving that what she said happened will take more than just some text messages. On top of proving that what has been shared online about her was orchestrated and not just her past organically coming back to haunt her, it will likely rely on other cast members coming out in support of her. They will hopefully not turn the other cheek like she has done more than once before.
