Blake Lively has been backed by fellow actresses America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel after she filed a lawsuit against her It Ends with Us director Justin Baldoni.
The 37-year-old has alleged sexual harassment and claimed the behaviour of her co-star caused her severe emotional distress.
Ferrera, Tamblyn and Bledel starred with Lively in 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and shared a message on social media, stating they stand by her.
Baldoni has been dropped by his agent, according to the Hollywood Reporter, but his attorney has denied the allegations made by Lively.
Here is what you need to know about the case.
Who is Justin Baldoni?
The 40-year-old actor and director has a 20-year career in Hollywood, which has seen him helm films such as Five Feet Apart and Clouds. He also acted in Jane the Virgin as Rafael Solano.
He is married to Swedish actress Emily Foxler, with whom he has two children.
Baldoni was given his biggest project yet in directing It Ends With Us – an adaptation of the 2016 Colleen Hoover novel of the same name. Despite some iffy reviews, the film was a box office smash, grossing $351m (£289m) worldwide against a $25m (£20m) budget after its release in August. This was despite the film coming out at the same time as Deadpool & Wolverine, a film starring Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
Baldoni also played the character Ryle Kincaid opposite Lively’s Lily Bloom in the film but it was plagued with a scrutinised rollout and accusations of behind-the-scenes tensions.
Read More: Blake Lively and the dark side of PR: Why are we all so keen to hate women?
What has Blake Lively accused him of?
Lively has now alleged that Baldoni subjected her, along with the cast and crew, to “invasive, unwelcome, unprofessional and sexually inappropriate behaviour”.
In the Blake Lively v. Wayfarer Studios LLC, Lively’s representatives allege that Baldoni bit the actress on the lip during filming, came into her trailer while she was breastfeeding her newborn, tried to discuss pornography with her, and brought his friend on set to play a doctor during a birth scene where Lively was pressured to perform nude.
The full list of allegations is broken down here.
Lively has also accused Baldoni of conducting a smear campaign, hiring Melissa Nathan, the crisis communications specialist used by Johnny Depp, to manage his reputation while damaging hers.
What were the Justin Baldoni texts?
Over the weekend, reports emerged supposedly showing texts where Baldoni asked his campaign team to “plant pieces of how horrible Blake is to work with" in the press.
Lively is said to have claimed she received texts via a subpoena that show exchanges between Jennifer Abel, of PR firm RWA Communications, Ms Nathan and Baldoni.
In one, Ms Abel said: "The narrative online is so freaking good and fans are still sticking up for Justin.”
In another, Ms Nathan said: "The majority of socials are so pro Justin and I don't even agree with half of them lol.”
The texts were sent from May to August 18, according to Sky, with the peak of the PR heat coming around the release of the film on August 9.
What has Baldoni said?
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman has released a statement, which read:
“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.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
The statement does admit that Wayfarer Studios “made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager” but this was after “demands and threats made by Ms Lively”.
“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. 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.”
