Blake Lively accuses ’It Ends With Us’ director Justin Baldoni of harassment and smear campaign

Blake Lively accuses director Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment and a smear campaign in legal complaint.

Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Usdirector and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the movie and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation in a legal complaint.

The complaint obtained by The Associated Press, which The New York Times reported was filed Friday (December 20, 2024) with the California Civil Rights Department, precedes a lawsuit. It names Baldoni, the studio behind the romantic drama It Ends With Us and Baldoni’s publicists among the defendants.

In the complaint, Lively accuses Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and her husband Ryan Reynolds addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Baldoni and a producer on the movie.

The plan, the complaint said, included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign and place news stories critical of Lively.

“To safeguard against the risk of Ms. Lively ever revealing the truth about Mr. Baldoni, the BaldoniWayfarer team created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms. Lively’s credibility,” the complaint states. “They engaged in the same techniques to bolster Mr. Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him.”

The complaint also says Baldoni “abruptly pivoted away from” the movie's marketing plan and “used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image.”

Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, called the claims “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”