Hollywood names including Amber Heard, Paul Feig and America Ferrera have joined a growing chorus of support for actress-producer Blake Lively as her sexual harassment dispute with actor-director Justin Baldoni escalates.
The support comes after Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CCRD) against Baldoni and others on Friday (December 20) alleging sexual harassment and a social media “retaliatory campaign” during and after the production of Sony’s summer hit It Ends With Us. Baldoni’s lawyer has called the allegations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
Lively and Baldoni star in the romantic drama, which deals in part with domestic violence. Baldoni also directed the film, and Lively was also one of the producers.
In a statement to NBC News on Monday (December 23), Heard, who in 2022 was in the spotlight during her defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp (once a client of one of the PR companies named in Lively’s complaint), said: “Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.’ I saw this first hand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
On X, Feig, who directed Lively in A Simple Favor, said: “All I can say is she’s one of the most professional, creative, collaborative, talented and kind people I’ve ever worked with.”
On Instagram Stories, Amy Schumer posted “I believe Blake” and Gwyneth Paltrow put Lively’s hair care line on her Christmas wish list.
Colleen Hoover, author of the novel on which It Ends With Us is based, posted to Lively on Instagram: “You have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met. Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
A statement on Monday from a Sony Pictures Entertainment spokesperson said: “We have previously expressed our support for Blake in connection with her work on and for the film. We fully and firmly reiterate that support today. Further, we strongly condemn any reputational attacks on her. Any such attacks have no place in our business or in a civil society.”
Over the weekend, America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel, Lively’s co-stars in The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants, posted a statement on Instagram: “As Blake’s friends and sisters for over twenty years,” said the statement, “we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the reported campaign waged to destroy her reputation.”
The statements on the case came as the New York Times published a long story over the weekend about the dispute. The piece said documents including email exchanges between Baldoni and PR representatives hired around the release of It Ends With Us “show an additional playbook for waging a largely undetectable smear campaign in the digital era.”
The piece quoted a statement from Lively saying, “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.”
Also at the weekend, Baldoni was dropped as a client by talent agency WME, which continues to represent Lively.
As well as Baldoni, Lively’s CCRD complaint names It Ends With Us production company Wayfarer Studios, producer Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, crisis manager Melissa Nathan, The Agency Group PR, Jennifer Abel, RWA Communications, Jed Wallace and Street Relations Inc.
The complaint details an agreement that Lively’s representatives negotiated laying out terms under which the actress would return to work on It Ends With Us after the resolution of the 2023 SAG/AFTRA strike.
The complaint states that Lively, “never sought out conflict with Wayfarer, Ms Baldoni, or Mr Heath, but instead consistently attempted to speak up for a safe and respectful workplace privately in the hopes of protecting herself, as well as the cast and crew, without jeopardizing a Film that she believed could make a difference in peoples’ lives. In response, Mr Baldoni, Mr Heath, and those working for them, sought to destroy Ms Lively and anyone else who knew the truth. Ms Lively’s discovery of the full extent of the retaliatory campaign launched by the Wayfarer Parties has left her with no choice.”
Baldoni’s lawyer responded to the complaint with a statement saying, in part: “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
Jennifer Abel, one of the publicists named in the complaint, reportedly posted in a private Facebook group at the weekend after the publication of the New York Times story. According to trade press reports and an X posting by @LeaveHeardAlone, part of the Abel statement read: “What the cherry-picked messages don’t include, although not shockingly as it doesn’t fit the narrative, is that there was no “smear” implemented. No negative press was ever facilitated, no social combat plan, although we were prepared for it as it’s our job to be ready for any scenario, but we didn’t have to implement anything because the internet was doing the work for us.”
On Monday, Vital Voices, a Washington DC human rights non-profit, rescinded the Voices of Solidarity Award it gave Baldoni earlier this month. The award honours “men who have shown courage and compassion in advocating on behalf of women and girls.”
The group said that communications between Baldoni and his publicists revealed in Lively’s complaint “are, alone, contrary to the values of Vital Voices and the spirit of the award.”
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