I don’t see this posted here, but it’s making the rounds on social media.
From what I gather, Blake Lively (a superstar actress married to Ryan Reynolds, also a heavy hitter in Hollywood) has filed an 80 page lawsuit against Jason Baldoni, her co-star in an upcoming movie, It Ends With Us (which, ironically, is about abuse)
She alleged serial sexual harassment, including unwanted touching, kissing, and sexual content (which he tried to add to scenes that didn’t call for it) and discussions of porn. She also included the producer, who once watched her change and showed her pictures of his naked wife.
But perhaps the most disturbing is the fact that they orchestrated a smear campaign against Lively, solely to discredit her.
I haven’t read the actual complaint, but it discusses some obviously inappropriate things. Considering Lively’s star power (supported by her husband’s own prestige), I’m quite shocked that she had to endure such harassment.
But I shouldn’t be. Harvey Weinstein may be in prison, but his ilk still roam. What’s most sad is how many people, not nearly as powerful as a Hollywood actor, will have to endure.
Thoughts? For those who like primary sources, here’s a pdf of the lawsuit
I just finished the NYTimes article on the smear campaign against her. The smear was very underhanded and effective; the loss of reputation affected her career and her beauty products business. Her lawsuit has brought to light emails that show rotten Baldoni is.
Because of the extensive smear campaign Baldoni and Jamey Heath, the lead producer, paid for against her, much of what you read on the web that isn’t very recent is based on what the smear campaign put out. The NYT article goes into much more detail about that.
I just watched the film a few days ago. It’s a sexy movie full of sex scenes. If I were an actor, I would have difficulty with sex scenes. I believe it was Denzel Washington who told a co-star right before they were set to film a sexy scene that one of two things were going to happen and he apologized in advance for whichever one occurred.
The work environment described on this film sounds truly terrible.
On the plus side, I’d never heard any nasty rumors about Blake Lively and she is the only reason I decided to watch the movie. I’d never heard of Justin Baldoni and I think he’s a creep.
I believe it’s now customary in Hollywood to have an intimacy coordinator to work with the actors, and ensure that they’re comfortable with whatever nudity or simulated sex is being portrayed.
I thought it was Sean Connery who said it. Or maybe it was Richard Gere right before that infamous hamster love scene.
I don’t recall hearing anything about Lively being hard to work with prior to this. She’s acted in many other projects. It seems unlikely that she suddenly became hard to work with.
I don’t really follow Hollywood, beyond perusing bits that show up as news headlines or social media click bait (did you hear that Sidney Sweeney is really attractive, but some guys said otherwise?!) and I readily knew who she was.
That makes her huge in my book.
Regardless, “actress who isn’t struggling to make it” got harassed. Her stature makes it more of a surprise, in my opinion.
Funny thing, here: I saw the name “Blake Lively”, and thought “Huh, I know of her from somewhere…”. IMDb to figure out where, and I haven’t seen any of her movies. So my best guess is that I heard of her from the smear campaign, except didn’t remember any of the actual smearing. No bad publicity, and all.
Besides which, isn’t it widely known by now that when an actress is “difficult to work with”, that means she refused to sleep with some creep?
Depending on whether you are active in social media (particularly seeing celebrities’ posts), and/or know anything about her husband, Ryan Reynolds, you may have heard something about her from that. Lively and Reynolds regularly (and good-naturedly) troll each other on social media.
