Blake Lively has sued her It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, over allegations of 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual harassment – just days before the Christmas holiday.
The Gossip Girl alum, 37, alleged in the documents – which were obtained by TMZ – that the actor, 40, created a toxic environment on set.
She additionally claimed Baldoni had shown her nude images and videos of women, and also talked to her about his alleged previous porn addiction.
Justin’s legal team have since denied the allegations, and claimed the lawsuit was an attempt to salvage her reputation which suffered during press for the movie – which released in theaters in August.
Fans have since reacted to the lawsuit, with some siding with Lively and others coming to Baldoni’s defense.
On X, one penned, ‘Blake Lively trying to accuse Justin Baldoni and his team of inciting a smear campaign when this was her behavior. Why not take accountability?’
The social media user attached a short clip of a past interview that showed her being rude to a reporter.
Another wrote, ‘Blake Lively ruined her reputation with that movie and I don’t owe her an apology.’
‘I don’t buy this Blake Lively is suddenly a victim lawsuit. Even the wording of the suit is very slippery and odd. I don’t really see anything worth suing over – she’s just trying to do damage control,’ one shared.
An X user added, ‘I can never forget the day y’all made Blake Lively the villain and Justin Baldoni the victim.’
‘Blake Lively was promoting that film as a chick flick, flowery dress, downplaying DV, using the promo to launch alcohol & her hair company. Her tone-deafness is what rubs people the wrong way,’ one typed.
Another penned, ‘Well, Blake Lively is now suing Justin Baldoni… I guess the best way to rehab your image when the public blasts your bad behavior is to then sue for “severe emotional distress.”‘
‘Blake Lively didn’t even care about this film. She saw an opportunity to capitalize on her brand and failed and now she’s mad,’ one wrote.
A social media user added, ‘Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are billionaires. If she was being 𝓈ℯ𝓍ually harassed, why didn’t she stop filming the movie? Sexual harassment would have been a breach of contract.’
‘I’m sorry, Blake Lively ruined her own reputation when she paraded herself as a Domestic Violence advocate and then made a fool of herself in interviews with her uncaring attitude and idiotic responses,’ one shared.
However, other fans on X came to her defense, with one expressing, ‘Every cast member of that movie unfollowed Justin Baldoni. It should’ve been enough for at least side eye him no matter how much u hate Blake Lively.’
‘The dude really cast blake lively on that movie and himself as her lover then abuser so he could live 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual fantasies he had about her and you were here screaming he was the true feminist,’ another penned.
One further supported Blake by adding, ‘it was obvious blake lively wasn’t the problem, when the whole cast unfollowed him and were always by her side.’
‘you are all just misogynistic and hate women so much you turned on blind eye to jump on a hate train just because he was hot,’ they added.
‘Just remembered when my feminism was being tested because I had to defend Blake Lively from weirdos on the internet when they were blaming her for everyone on set hating Justin Baldoni… dark times,’ a fan wrote.
Another insisted, ‘Please read the article, guys. This is serious and I understand why she sued. Sexual harassment at work does not look like what you think. Blake Lively is perfectly justified.’
The lawsuit comes months following the release of It Ends With Us – and the drama surrounding the press of the movie.
Speculation of a feud between Lively and Baldoni sparked when the pair were not pictured together on red carpet events and premieres.
The two stars were also embroiled in rumors of clashing during the making of the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 book.
Drama further arose when resurfaced interviews of the actress being rude to reporters went viral on social media.
However, the film was a box office success, raking in around $351 million on a budget of $25 million.
In August, one source told People in regards to Baldoni that, ‘All is not what it seems. There is much more to this story. The principal cast and Colleen Hoover will have nothing to do with him.’
The insider added that Lively ‘wants to direct the next movie, sidelining him and securing the rights from Colleen.’
A separate source told Us Weekly that the drama was due to creative differences amid production.
‘There were two camps on the film – team Blake and team Justin. This creative struggle set the tone for the negative experience behind the scenes and grew into them not speaking anymore.’
‘[Justin] was made to feel that his vision wasn’t as important as Blake’s, and it stifled the creativity on set.’
Lively previously claimed in August that she felt ‘fat-shamed’ by Baldoni and claimed she felt uncomfortable when a kissing scene ‘lingered’ for longer than needed.
And in the lawsuit, Blake also claimed Baldoni made inappropriate inquiries about her weight, comments about her dead father and 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual remarks about the cast and crew.
The situation became so unworkable that she and husband Ryan Reynolds demanded crisis talks during filming to put a stop to the behavior, according to the lawsuit.
Lively also requested: ‘No more adding of 𝓈ℯ𝓍 scenes, oral 𝓈ℯ𝓍 or on camera climaxing by BL [Blake Lively] outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project,’ per the filings.
The demands were allegedly accepted by the studio, but the movie’s release was still hampered by a dispute between Lively and Baldoni about how it should be marketed, according to the lawsuit.
Eagle-eyed fans soon spotted the frosty relationship between the movie stars and reports began to emerge about the rift.
Lively claims that Baldoni’s team then engaged in a ‘social manipulation’ campaign to tarnish her reputation.
The lawsuit includes text messages from the director’s publicist to the studio which allegedly say Baldoni, ‘wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried, and ‘We can’t write we will destroy her.’
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman hit back at the lawsuit as, ‘false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt.’
He insisted the legal action is an attempt by Lively to ‘fix her negative reputation’ after rumors emerged of diva-like behavior on set.
This included, ‘threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release,’ according to Freedman.
The romantic drama follows Lily Bloom played by Blake Lively as she becomes embroiled in an abusive relationship with Justin Baldoni’s Ryle Kincaid.
One alleged point of contention was how the movie should be marketed, with Lively reportedly wanting to make the tale more upbeat in contrast to Baldoni, who felt it should be more focused on the abuse aspect.
Insiders revealed the concerning truth about the on-set tensions, telling DailyMail.com that Blake and Justin clashed over his ‘dismissive’ attitude to her ‘input’ while they were filming scenes that involved abuse.
The insider claimed that Justin focused only on ‘what he believed was the abusive male viewpoint’ and had a very ‘chauvinistic’ approach to the topic.
But as rumors of the feud persisted, social media reaction began to turn against Blake, who has been criticized for her responses in interviews promoting the movie.
She was blasted as ‘tone deaf’ and ‘shallow’ after she hosted an interview with her It Ends With Us costars and failed to discuss the serious message behind the movie.
Another clash came over Baldoni asking how much Lively weighed prior to a scene in which he was supposed to lift her.
The A-list actress reportedly said this made her feel ‘fat-shamed’, while those close to Baldoni insisted that he was just trying to protect his back following an injury.
Speculation about drama on the set surfaced on BookTok, with social media users noticing that Lively and Baldoni never posed on red carpets together.
Fans also spotted that Lively, author Hoover and none of the other cast members follow Baldoni on social media, though he follows all of them.
Lively also used her powers as a producer to commission a completely new cut of the movie from film editor Shane Reid, who cut her husband Ryan Reynolds’ hit Deadpool & Wolverine.
DailyMail.com has approached Lively and Baldoni’s representatives for comment.