One of the biggest stories to rock Hollywood in 2024 shows no signs of slowing down: Justin Baldoni has filed a $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times for their Dec. 20 story titled, "'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine." The article detailed Blake Lively's allegations against Baldoni and others over alleged sexual harassment she endured while filming It Ends With Us.
Attorney Bryan Freedman filed the lawsuit on behalf of 10 plaintiffs, including Baldoni. This comes after Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department on Dec. 20, the same day the Times story was published, and accused Baldoni, the star and director of their hit film, of sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and more in a bombshell 80-page document. She claims that she suffered harm to her reputation as the result of a smear campaign. On Tuesday, Lively formally filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, his public relations team and film studio.
In a statement, Freedman told Variety that the Times "cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative."
This is the first of multiple lawsuits, including a potential one against Lively, that Freedman previously said will expose "those who believe themselves untouchable" and the details will "shock everyone."
Before news of Tuesday's lawsuit broke, a source told People that Lively is "in contact with her team" and "knows she'll have an explosive start to the new year."
"She still believes she's doing the right thing. She's ready to tackle whatever comes her way," the insider said.
The details in Lively's complaint were disturbing. She accused Baldoni of improvising intimate moments during filming, adding "gratuitous sexual content" to the script after she signed on — while allegedly telling her he's not attracted to her — and asking for details about her and husband Ryan Reynolds's sex life. Baldoni and his producing partner Jamey Heath, who's named in the complaint, are accused of trying to watch Lively naked when she changed in her trailer.
Baldoni and Heath have denied these "false" claims and their lawsuit against the Times provides text messages that allegedly show Lively and Baldoni had friendly correspondence in June per Variety.
Here are the key players involved in this dispute and the allegations against them.
Blake Lively
The actress starred in It Ends With Us and was also a producer on the film. In the complaint, she says she raised concerns about Baldoni’s and Heath's conduct on set last year. According to the complaint, a meeting took place on Jan. 4, 2024, in which she set forth their alleged inappropriate behavior and all parties agreed to implementing safeguards on the set.
Thirty rules were put in place, including "no more showing nude videos or images of women" to Lively; no more discussion of Baldoni’s and Heath's prior "pornography addiction"; "no more improvising of kissing"; and "no more entering" Lively's trailer while she's naked. The rules also prohibited Baldoni from adding new “sex scenes, oral sex, or on camera climaxing" outside of the previously approved script and required that an intimacy coordinator be on the set for all scenes involving nudity.
However, the part of Lively's complaint that especially reverberated through the entertainment industry was the alleged smear campaign orchestrated by Baldoni's publicists against Lively, which seemed to expose the cutthroat tactics of the crisis PR world.
Baldoni has accused Lively and her team of planting negative stories in the press, which they have denied.
On Dec. 31, Lively formally sued Baldoni and others claiming she was subjected to "further retaliation and attacks" after the New York Times report.
"Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns," she said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. "Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court. Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law."
Justin Baldoni
The Jane the Virgin actor and director has not specifically addressed any of the allegations made by Lively; however, his lawyer has promised "a deliberate pursuit of truth."
Baldoni allegedly hired a crisis PR firm for himself and Wayfarer Studios after they believed Lively's team planted unfavorable stories in the press around the film's August release. Baldoni’s lawyer has claimed that a New York Times article, which broke the news of Lively's complaint, "doctored or spliced without context" seemingly damaging texts between him and his representative about the supposed smear campaign.
"This lawsuit will uncover and expose the false and destructive narrative that was intentionally engineered by a trusted media publication who relied upon nefarious sources and neglected a thorough fact checking process to confirm the validity of these texts," Freedman told People on Dec. 29, adding: "The truth will not only come to light — it will dismantle the illusions propped up by those who believe themselves untouchable."
Wayfarer Studios
The independent production studio behind It Ends With Us was co-founded by Baldoni and Steve Sarowitz in 2019. The studio also has the rights to adapt the film's sequel, It Starts With Us.
In a letter after the Jan. 4 meeting, the studio acknowledged that "although our perspective differs in many aspects, ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount, irrespective of differing viewpoints. Regarding your outlined requests, we find most of them not only reasonable but also essential for the benefit of all parties involved."
Jamey Heath
Heath is the CEO of Wayfarer Studios and the lead producer on It Ends With Us.
He is accused of showing Lively inappropriate videos, including of his wife giving birth, entering her makeup trailer uninvited and more. He signed a side letter to Lively's contract in which he agreed not to retaliate against the actress when implementing her requested safeguards. He has retained Freedman and is expected to be part of the countersuit.
Steve Sarowitz
An entrepreneur and billionaire philanthropist, Sarowitz reportedly invested $125 million in Wayfarer in 2022. According to Lively's complaint, Sarowitz claimed he was willing to spend $100 million to "ruin the lives of" the actress and her family. Sarowitz has retained Freedman as his attorney.
Jennifer Abel
Abel is a publicist representing Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios. She previously worked at the PR company Jonesworks before leaving to start her own firm, bringing both Baldoni and Wayfarer along with her as clients. Many of her text messages were included in Lively’s complaint as evidence of the alleged smear campaign — but how, exactly, they were obtained has been the subject of much industry speculation. Freedman claims the texts were cherry-picked and don't reveal the full story.
Melissa Nathan
Nathan is a crisis PR expert retained by Wayfarer Studios and Baldoni in August. In one now-infamous text allegedly sent to Abel and revealed in Lively’s complaint, Nathan wrote “we can bury anyone,” apparently referring to Lively.
Some of Nathan’s past high-profile clients include Drake and Johnny Depp, who hired Nathan during his successful defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
Stephanie Jones
Baldoni's ex-publicist and Abel's previous employer, Jones claims Abel and others initiated a secret smear campaign against Lively behind her back. She filed her own civil lawsuit against the same group named in Lively’s complaint.
"Behind Jones's back, [Abel and Nathan] secretly coordinated with Baldoni and [his studio] Wayfarer to implement an aggressive media smear campaign against Baldoni’s film co-star," the lawsuit claims.
Sony Pictures
The studio was the distributor of It Ends With Us. After the Jan. 4 meeting, Sony agreed to have an "active, daily role in overseeing physical production" for the remainder of shooting. Sony is not named as a defendant in Lively's complaint.
After the film wrapped, Lively had a creative battle with Baldoni and Heath. She made her own cut of the movie, with Sony's support, and brought on her own editors and a composer. Sony ultimately distributed Lively's version of the film.
The studio publicly issued support for Lively in a statement after she filed the complaint.
Ryan Reynolds
Actor Ryan Reynolds, who is married to Lively, acted as a representative for his wife before production resumed on the film to ensure agreed upon safeguards were put in place.
Baldoni allegedly mentioned Reynolds when texting Abel and Nathan. According to messages included in the complaint, Baldoni wrote to them about how Sarowitz suggested "flipping the narrative" when it came to Reynolds, like talking about his involvement in the film’s script. Lively revealed at the premiere that Reynolds rewrote a key scene in the film.
According to the complaint, Baldoni and Sarowitz "suggested ways to manipulate those rumors to make Mr. Reynolds appear to be anti-feminist." Nathan allegedly wrote back, "this is an easy flip" and said she was working on such a story.
In Baldoni's claims Reynolds berated him during a meeting at the couple's New York residence, and according to Tuesday's lawsuit, Reynolds accused Baldoni "of 'fat shaming'" the actress. The suit claims Reynolds pressured agency WME — home to Baldoni, Reynolds and Lively — to drop the director during July's Deadpool and Wolverine. This allegedly happened before Baldoni hired a crisis PR agency. WME ultimately dropped Baldoni earlier this month after Lively's filing. A WME rep denied to Variety the company pressured from Reynolds or Lively.
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