Blake Lively officially sues Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and ‘smear campaign’
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Lawsuit was filed on the same day that Baldoni filed a lawsuit against the New York Times over its coverage of his row with Lively. Blake Lively is suing her co-star and director Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her, after going public with allegations of misconduct on the set of their 2024 film, It Ends With Us.
![[Lively and Baldoni in a scene from ‘It Ends With Us’]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/08/07/16/Film_Review_-_It_Ends_With_Us_53247.jpg)
The Hollywood star, 37, initially filed a legal complaint in December that detailed the claims against her co-star and director, with whom she had been rumoured to have clashed while shooting the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling 2016 novel.
In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday 31 January in New York federal court, Lively accused Baldoni, 40, and his public relationships team of organising a sophisticated scheme to undermine her reputation, in retaliation for speaking up about alleged misconduct on set.
The complaint named Baldoni, his film studio Wayfarer, and public relations executive Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan. It added that Lively is bringing the legal action to hold Baldoni and his associates accountable for “the ongoing retaliation threats and harm they have caused Ms Lively, other cast and crew, and all of their families”.
Baldoni allegedly defended a graphic sex scene he wanted to add, in which Lively’s character orgasms on camera, by saying he wanted the characters to “orgasm together on their wedding night”. He apparently said this was important to him because “he and his partner climax simultaneously during intercourse”.
