What began as reports of an alleged feud between Blake Lively and her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni following the film's release, turned into something much more serious over the weekend. Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department that alleged detailed instances of sexual harassment on set that culminated with the director orchestrating a smear campaign against the actress that negatively affected her reputation. It was a bombshell claim, and now Lively is seeing some of her most famous colleagues and friends speaking up to defend her character.
Director Paul Feig, who directed Lively in A Simple Favor and its upcoming sequel, took to X and linked a New York Times article that detailed her complaint against Baldoni while expressing that she is "one of the most professional, creative, collaborative, talented and kind people I've ever worked with" and said that Lively "truly did not deserve" the resulting smear campaign that Baldoni allegedly orchestrated during the promotion of It Ends With Us.
Blake Lively Has Received a Slew of Support From Former Co-Stars, Colleagues and Friends Regarding Her It Ends With Us Claims Close
Showing that their bond went beyond making the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants films, her co-stars from that project, America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel, released a joint statement via Instagram in support of their friend that spoke to her character and their solidarity as Lively chose to fight back against Baldoni and his smear campaign. The statement addressed how Lively had to "summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set" while filming It Ends With Us and how they were "appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice." It's a powerful statement of not only their long-lasting friendship, but also their willingness to also stand up against this kind of behavior.
Lively had received considerable support from many in the industry following her complaint going public. Gwyneth Paltrow took to her Instagram story and added Lively's Blake Brown haircare line to her wish list for this Christmas on the day the lawsuit was revealed, and punctuated the message with a green emoji. Comedian Amy Schumer kept it short and sweet on her Instagram story with a message that read "I believe Blake." Schumer's support is very telling because she once roasted the actress on her sketch show, Inside Amy Schumer, and had previously stated, "We're not close friends."
Lively's sister, Robyn Lively, who also had a small role in It Ends With Us, took to her Instagram to defend her younger sibling and expressed that "Blake isn't a villain. She's a mama bear to her core, a loving and supportive wife, a sister, a friend, and someone who worked her a** off on a film in abominable working conditions." The author of the book It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover, joined in on the chorus of support for the actress on her Instagram and echoed the sentiments that Lively is a supportive and kind collaborator.
Lively's lawsuit against Baldoni is extensive and alleges that, along with It Ends With Us producer Jamey Heath, he introduced overtly sexual aspects to the film, displayed pornography, used sexually inappropriate language on set and discussed their various addictions in detail. The lawsuit then goes on to claim that the inappropriate behavior went beyond the environment on set as time began to promote the film. As it became obvious in the headlines that the pair weren't doing press together and claims of a feud began brewing, Baldoni and his publicity team allegedly embarked on a smear campaign to damage Lively's character publicly. The lawsuit backed this up with text messages and emails from Baldoni and his team that detailed their social media strategy to discredit the actress.
"Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates embarked on a sophisticated press and digital plan in retaliation for Ms. Lively exercising her legally protected right to speak up about their misconduct on the set, with the additional objective of intimidating her and anyone else from revealing in public what really occurred."
Baldoni denied Lively's claims through his lawyer Bryan Freedman, who also is defending his Wayfarer Studios, and said that the lawsuit was full of "categorically false accusations." The talent agency WME seemed to see some validity to Lively's claims because they quickly parted ways with Baldoni due to the sexual harassment complaint leveled against him and did not comment on the matter further after the fact.
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3.5 /5 It Ends With Us
Based on Colleen Hoover's 2016 novel, It Ends With Us is a drama-romance film directed by Justin Baldoni. The film follows a recent college graduate named Lily, who meets a man named Ryle and falls in love with him. However, a traumatic incident compounded with her former high-school sweetheart re-entering her life complicates her plans.