New Delhi:
January 9: Actor and director Justin Baldoni’s legal team have suggested they will uncover what they describe as a ‘pattern of bullying’ by actress Blake Lively after the actor accused her of initiating ‘assaults’ following a lawsuit .
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the feud between Blake and Justin became a hot topic after she filed a complaint against her ‘It End’s With Us’ co-star and director, accusing him of sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign.
In the latest string of allegations, Justin Baldoni’s attorney Brian Friedman – whose comments have been confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter – accused the actress of sending ‘heavily redacted documents’ to The New York Times before filing her complaint.
“It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media, while his own team carried out this brutal attack by sending highly redacted documents to The New York Times before even filing a complaint, despite all the evidence we have.” Which would show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the film, none of which would be surprising given that Blake Lively, consistent with her past behavior, communicated those threats. Used other people to get what she wanted. We have all the receipts and more.”
Earlier, Blake Lively, while speaking to People Magazine, had accused the Baldoni team of using ‘victim blaming’ tactics to turn the situation in their favor.
“This is not a ‘quarrel’ arising from ‘constructive differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation,” read a statement from Lively’s lawyers. “As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its affiliates engaged in unlawful, vindictive astroturfing against Ms. Lively for trying to protect themselves and others on the film set. And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Ms. Lively since her filing.”
The lawyer’s statement continues, “A classic tactic to deflect attention from allegations of misconduct of this type is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, inflicted it on themselves, and denied the intentions. Understood, or even lied to.”
Meanwhile, Baldoni’s legal team has claimed that Lively’s allegations were false and part of a strategy to rebuild her image, suggesting that her publicist, Leslie Sloane, had conducted a smear campaign against Baldoni.
Justin Baldoni’s legal team has not yet filed a counter-suit to his complaint against Blake Lively.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni worked together in the film ‘It Ends with Us’.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
