00:00Blake Lively's explosive civil rights lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and producer Jamie Heath
00:04is making headlines, unveiling shocking allegations from the set of It Ends With Us.
00:10The 80-page lawsuit that was obtained by the New York Times claims that, during filming,
00:15Lively raised concerns about repeated harassment and disturbing behavior from both Baldoni and
00:20Heath. The complaint filed by Lively reveals that in November 2023, the Ends With Us team
00:25agreed to a set of protections in response to Lively's concerns about on-set behavior.
00:31They included prohibitions on inappropriate images, discussions of sexual experiences,
00:36and questions about her weight. On January 4, 2024, an all-hands meeting was held to finalize
00:42these protections. After discussing the issues, Wayfarer Studios agreed to implement the provisions,
00:48allowing production to safely resume the following day. The lawsuit also reveals
00:52that leading up to the 2024 release of It Ends With Us, Lively and other cast members
00:57were contractually obligated to follow a marketing plan created by the film's distributor, Sony.
01:03The plan directed them to focus on highlighting her character in the movie, Lily's, strength and
01:07resilience, rather than emphasizing the film's themes of domestic violence. The goal was to
01:13present the film as a story of hope, not sadness. However, the lawsuit claims that just before the
01:18film's release, Baldoni abruptly deviated from the marketing plan. Justin's deviation from the
01:24official marketing plan caused the public to become confused by Lively's tone-deaf promotion
01:30of the movie, with many fans accusing her of promoting her haircare line more than she
01:34promoted the movie correctly. The documents share that Baldoni and his team devised a social
01:39manipulation plan to destroy Lively's reputation, with the backing of Wayfarer's billionaire co-founder
01:45Steve Sarawitz, who allegedly offered $100 million for the effort. This retaliation was in response
01:52to Lively speaking out about their on-set misconduct. In July 2024, following advice
01:58from their publicist, Baldoni and Wayfarer hired crisis and communications specialist
02:03Melissa Nathan. Nathan proposed a plan that included manipulating social media, including
02:08website creation, social account takedowns, and creating fake fan engagement to shift public
02:14perception. The plan went as far as using astroturfing, the deceptive practice of creating
02:20a marketing or PR campaign that appears to be unsolicited opinions from the public,
02:25all designed to protect Baldoni's image and silence Lively. The plan suggested planting
02:31misleading stories to harm Lively's reputation, including portraying her as responsible for
02:36production delays and misusing feminism. In private text messages, the team expressed a desire to bury
02:43Lively, but acknowledged they couldn't put such intentions in writing for fear of it leaking.
02:49Lawsuit continues to share how on August 5th, 2024, Baldoni initiated the narrative for a social
02:55media campaign by sending a screenshot of a thread from X that accused another female celebrity,
03:01Hailey Bieber, of bullying women. Baldoni wrote, this is what we would need, prompting the actor
03:06and his publicist to discuss strategies for the campaign, focusing on platforms like Reddit,
03:11TikTok, and Instagram. Abel reassured Baldoni that the plan would ensure Lively's reputation
03:17would be, quote, destroyed and buried. And by August 10th, social media narratives had shifted
03:22in Baldoni's favor. The team bragged about suppressing negative stories, including HR
03:28complaints and harassment allegations. One of the publicists, Jennifer Abel, has since broken her
03:33silence in a private Facebook group that's currently being circulated, where she shares
03:37she's no longer with the company, and these plans were never actually executed on, just talked about.
03:44Actress Amber Heard, who has faced similar public scrutiny in the past, responded to this recent
03:50lawsuit. Speaking to NBC News, Heard reflected on the power of social media, saying, quote,
03:55social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying, a lie travels halfway around
04:01the world before the truth can get its boots on. I saw this firsthand and up close. It's as
04:06horrifying as it is destructive. Heard's comments come after her highly publicized defamation trial
04:12with ex-husband Johnny Depp, during which she endured significant backlash and criticism,
04:17particularly from the public and entertainment industry. When it comes to Blake Lively's lawsuit,
04:22no one has responded on Baldoni's team yet, but his agents at WME have reportedly dropped him.
04:28Stay tuned and follow us for more updates at What's Trending.
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