Blake Lively Sues Justin Baldoni Over Allegations of Sexual Harassment
A series of lawsuits filed on New Year's Eve marks the latest development in a growing Hollywood controversy involving allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation
Actress Blake Lively has filed a federal lawsuit in New York against Justin Baldoni and his production business, Wayfarer Studios, in a significant escalation of the conflict in Hollywood. The lawsuit, which was filed on December 31, 2024, alleges sexual harassment and retaliation. It was taken after Lively’s complaint to California’s Civil Rights Department eleven days ago. This is happening at the same time as Baldoni’s $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times.
Lively’s legal team calls the federal lawsuit she filed in the Southern District of New York “a carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme.” They say this plan was made to silence her and others who spoke out about bad working conditions on the “It Ends With Us” set. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath, and PR executives Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel are defendants named in the lawsuit.
His team says in court papers that Lively “never sought out conflict.” Instead, she tried to talk about her worries about safety at work in secret so she could protect herself and her coworkers. A lawsuit says Baldoni and his team got back at them by starting a campaign to “destroy Ms. Lively and anyone else who knew the truth.”
This situation has had big effects on the industry. The entertainment firm WME broke up with Baldoni on December 21. According to sources, this choice was made without any input from Lively or her husband, Ryan Reynolds, who WME also represents.
A related event is that Baldoni and his PR team have filed a lawsuit against the New York Times. They are disputing a story from December 20th called “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside A Hollywood Smear Machine.” According to Baldoni’s legal team, the article contained “cherry-picked and altered communications” that were misleading and lacked important context.
Other people are involved in the disagreement as well. PR executive Stephanie Jones has filed separate defamation lawsuits against Baldoni, Nathan, her former employee Jennifer Abel, and TAG’s PR boss Melissa Nathan. This action came after Abel’s now-deleted Facebook post, in which he said Jones may have leaked internal emails to Lively’s lawyers and the New York Times.
Lively’s lawyers have stressed that their client can take more legal action. As they put it, “Ms. Lively has brought this lawsuit in New York, where many of the events outlined in the Complaint happened.” As the law allows, we reserve the right to take further action in other places and events.”
Sony Pictures, which is involved in the movie’s production, has publicly backed Lively. Despite Baldoni’s legal assertions that some of the claimed incidents “never occurred,” they condemned any “reputational attacks” against her on December 23.
