Justin Baldoni's statement in full as he blasts Blake Lively's 'shameful' allegations
Justin Baldoni's attorney described Blake Lively's claims of 'sexual harassment' as 'shameful' and 'completely false' in a statement responding to the actress' shock lawsuit
by Katie Francis · The MirrorThe attorney of Justin Baldoni, 40, has released a statement in response to a lawsuit filed by his ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star Blake Lively.
Blake, 37, and Justin reportedly had a contentious time working together on the Hollywood movie, which was released in August. Blake is now suing Justin for “sexual harassment" on the set of the film, alongside claims that the actor made a concerted effort to “destroy her reputation.” Bryan Freedman, representing Justin and Wayfarer Studios (Justin’s production company), has shared his reaction to the legal case.
“It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions,” Freedman wrote.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.”
The attorney added: “It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address. The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity.”
Freedman concluded his statement: “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.”
Freedman’s response came just hours after news broke of Blake’s filing. In the lawsuit, Blake claimed that Justin's alleged behaviour caused her “severe emotional distress.” According to TMZ, the lawsuit states that a meeting was held back in January to address Blake's claims and her demands for working on the film.
The outlet claims that demands addressed in the 'It Ends with Us' team meeting included "no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni's alleged previous “pornography addiction,” no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew's genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake's weight, and no further mention of Blake's dead father.
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