Blake Lively is suing her former ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star and director Justin Baldoni over sexual harassment allegations.
The Gossip Girl star claims Baldoni fostered a toxic work environment, with the director showing her nude videos and images of other women and discussing his alleged past porn addiction. TMZ reports.
Baldoni’s team has refuted the allegations, claiming the legal action is an attempt to patch up Lively’s reputation following the bad press she received following the film’s release.
The duo appeared together earlier this year in the highly anticipated adaptation of Coleen Hoover’s popular novel of the same name.
However, the release was hampered by a series of scandals after fans noticed tensions between Lively, 36, and Baldoni, 40.
Lively claims Baldoni asked inappropriate questions about her weight, comments about her late father and sexual comments about cast and crew.
The situation became so unworkable that she demanded crisis calls during the shooting to stop the behavior, the lawsuit said.
Lively also requested, “No more sex scenes, oral sex or climaxes on camera by BL [Blake Lively] outside the scope of the script approved by BL at the signing of the project,” the documents say.
Blake Lively is suing her former ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star and director Justin Baldoni over sexual harassment allegations
The demands were reportedly accepted by the studio, but the film’s release was still hampered after a dispute between Lively and Baldoni over how to market the film, the lawsuit said.
Eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed the frosty relationship between the movie stars and reports of the rift began to emerge.
Lively claims Baldoni’s team then waged a “social manipulation” campaign to damage her reputation.
Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman responded to the lawsuit as “false, scandalous and deliberately lascivious with the intent to publicly injure.”
He emphasized that the legal action is an attempt by Lively to “repair her negative reputation” after rumors spread of diva-like behavior on set.
This included “threatening not to show up on set, threatening not to promote the film, which ultimately led to its demise during its release,” according to Freedman.
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