Blake Lively’s claims against Justin Baldoni shed light on Hollywood’s ‘hostile’ tactics.

Actress Blake Lively was the Internet’s public enemy number one for a few weeks over the summer. He’s now filed an explosive lawsuit that he claims lifts the lid on a “hostile work environment” designed to damage reputations in Hollywood — and those who are questioning what he’s doing. Who and what to believe.

Blake Lively has always been a pretty outrageous type of actress.

She has been in successful TV shows and movies, such as Gossip Girl and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She married fellow superstar Ryan Reynolds. He is friends with Taylor Swift.

Then in August, while promoting his latest film It Ends With Us, he suddenly became controversial, On the verge of cancellation.

She was criticized for comments that appeared to downplay domestic violence, the subject of the film. While awkward old interviews resurfaced and were presented again as evidence of bullying behavior.

Public opinion—at least among those who knew and cared about him—seemed to have turned against him.

Then the movie came out, the uproar died down, and social media took off.

But Lively has now filed a lawsuit claiming she was sexually harassed by It Ends With You co-star and director Justin Baldoni – and when she complained, he And his studio Wayfarer retaliated by launching a campaign to “destroy” his reputation.

She was the subject of “a sophisticated, coordinated, and well-financed revenge plan” designed “to silence her,” including A “weaponized digital army” was involved and “unwitting reporters” were fed fake stories, their lawyers have alleged. – and that’s why she became the focus of negative publicity.

During the nearly 80-page complaint, Lively’s team repeatedly accused Baduni and Wayfarer of a “hostile work environment that nearly derailed the film’s production.”

His attorneys have released text messages between Baldoni’s publicist, Jennifer Abel, and Melissa Nathan, a crisis communications specialist hired by his studio to help manage the harassment complaint. They seem to give a rare glimpse into a conversation that usually stays out of the spotlight.

According to the legal papers, Nathan engaged in “starting opinion threads,” “strategizing the creation, seeding, and promotion of content that appears authentic” and “social manipulation” on social media.

“You know we can bury anybody,” Nathan wrote to Abel in a damning argument.

Now, the people hired to do crisis PR for Baldoni are doing crisis PR for themselves.

Abel has said that Lively’s lawyers “cherry-picked” the messages to include in their case without significant context and that “no ‘smear’ was enacted”.

“No negative press was ever facilitated, no social warfare plan, although we were prepared for that because it is our job to be prepared for any scenario.

“But we didn’t have to implement anything because the Internet was working for us.”

Abel said the backlash against Lively happened naturally and he didn’t need his help.

Attorney Brian Friedman, representing Baldoni and his studio as well as Abel and Nathan, echoed that.

He said Baldoni hired the crisis manager because of “numerous demands and threats” allegedly made by Lively, including “threats not to [show] Till Seth, threatening not to promote the film, eventually led to his demise during the release, if his demands were not met”.

He stated that the plan developed by Nathan’s firm “proved to be unnecessary as the audience found Lively’s actions, interviews and marketing offensive during the promotional tour, and responded in kind, which the media Self raised”.

Overall, Friedman called Lively’s complaint “disgraceful” and full of “blatantly false allegations.”

In recent days, Lively has received support from former co-stars and others in Hollywood.

The name of one of his supporters stands out.

Johnny Depp’s ex-wife Amber Heard told NBC: “Social media is the perfect illustration of the classic saying, ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth hits its heels.’

“I saw it firsthand and up close. It’s as scary as it is devastating.”

Heard was on the receiving end of a social media feud during two high-profile libel trials against Depp in the UK and US in 2020 and 2022. Nathan also reportedly worked for Depp.

Friedman responded by telling Heard that the only connection between him and Lively was that “every move they’ve made for decades has been there for everyone to see” so that the public “can make up their own minds—what they organized.” What method”.

Tortoise Media head of investigations Alexi Mosters, who hosted a podcast. Who Trolled Amber? Reviewing the abuse he received earlier this year, he said there are parallels.

“In both the Blake Lively case and the Amber Heard case, you see PR companies working with digital media specialists and other ‘contractors’ to create profitable online stories for their wealthy clients in ways that promote those that are vague and not well understood,” he told the BBC. News

“It’s an unregulated world where all kinds of tactics can happen behind closed doors.”

Variety said Lively’s case “reveals a show business practice aimed at operating in the shadows – hiring expensive crisis communications experts to influence opinion and develop clients”.

His allegations suggest an “extreme shadow campaign” that has gone beyond “what most Hollywood publicity firms consider acceptable”. The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman wrote.

According to Rory Lynch, partner and head of reputation management law at Gately Legal, “PR for negative stories, sometimes false stories, about the opposition on both sides” is a “fairly common tactic” in Hollywood and business disputes.

“Even in Hollywood’s golden age, there were rumors that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were using PR professionals to do negative briefings against each other.”

However, Baldoni and the PR people working for his studio “dropped the ball a bit” by discussing the strategy in text, he told BBC News.

“It doesn’t surprise me, especially in America and in Hollywood, that you have PR people pretty aggressive with the crisis.

“But the fact that they put it in writing, I think, was probably not a wise thing to do. Normally they could do something like that over the phone.”

Lynch added that the genius himself is “a sophisticated operator” who “will also have his PR people working in the background”.

The New York Timeswhich broke the story of Lively’s complaint over the weekend, saying she “denied that she or any of her representatives planted or disseminated negative information about Mr. Baldoni or Wayfarer.”

The paper also pointed out that “it is impossible to know how much of the negative publicity about Lively” was actually created by those acting on Baldoni’s behalf, “and how much they realized and amplified”.

Many fans who turned against Lively now see the situation in a different light.

“We are so manipulated into hating a woman that it takes a concerted PR effort for us to turn against a victim of domestic abuse, or a longtime beloved American sweetheart.” Maddie Masson wrote in the Standard.

“Now that our eyes are open, will it be hard to fool us? Or will we still want an excuse to turn on a famous woman who is suddenly, in our eyes and in the eyes of our manipulators?” , no longer worthy of it?”

The Guardian’s Laura Snipes wrote that she now “looks back, horrified” at what she and her friends had said about him in recent months.

He added: “Lively’s complaint blows my mind. What can you really trust?”