In Blake Lively's high-stakes legal and PR war against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, she gained a significant advantage just before Christmas by going public along with her side of the story in a 4,000-word New York Times story that went viral.
the story, “We Can Bury Anyone”: Inside a Hollywood Libel Machine was quite explosive and damaging to Baldoni, detailing Lively's lawsuit with the California Department of Civil Rights during which she claimed he conspired together with his publicists to “bury” her fame as a way to cover up his sexually inappropriate behavior on set. It definitely helped for Lively that the expose was co-authored by Megan Twohey, one in all the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who propelled the #MeToo movement by breaking news of Harvey Weinstein's decades-long sexual misconduct.
But now Baldoni's legal team is able to hit back with a promised lawsuit or two, which incorporates suing a “trusted” legacy media organization like The New York Times, veteran Hollywood lawyer Bryan Freedman said in an announcement released to the media.
Freedman said Baldoni's upcoming lawsuit against Lively is not going to only reveal the “truth” but additionally “expose those who believe they are untouchable.” in line with Page Six And People.
“This lawsuit will expose and debunk the false and destructive narrative that was intentionally constructed by a trusted media publication that relied on nefarious sources and failed to conduct a thorough fact-checking process to confirm the validity of these texts,” Freedman said.
Baldoni's lawsuit reportedly argues that Lively's side was answerable for the slanders against him, not the opposite way around, and that her lawsuit goals to revive her public image after she was injured through the promotional campaign for “It Ends With Us.” Deadline reported.
In his statement, Freedman said the apparently damning texts written by Baldoni's publicists, together with other evidence published by The New York Times that presupposed to prove a coordinated social media smear campaign, were “manipulated and stitched together without context.”
“There is an insurmountable body of authentic evidence, including timelines and communications, that, unlike the (New York Times) altered story, has not been manipulated or spliced together without context,” Freedman said in a written statement.
“In over three decades of practicing law, I have never witnessed such unethical behavior fueled by those who abuse their power and manipulate the truth,” Freedman also said.
Whatever evidence Freedman presents, some media observers have noted the odd timing of the Times story's publication on Dec. 21, right after Lively filed her grievance in California.
“The newspaper contained a carefully reported 4,000-word article, complete with graphics, ready to go as soon as the news spread.” Puck Law author Eriq Gardner wrote. “Obviously the Times had been sitting on a draft for some time.”
The bitter feud between Baldoni and Lively got here to light through the August release of It Ends With Us, a drama based on Colleen Hoover's bestselling novel. The film tells the story of a florist, played by Lively, who marries a handsome but abusive neurosurgeon, played by Baldoni.
At the time, news leaked about “creative differences” between Baldoni and Lively and his possible weight-shaming of her on set. But the social media uproar that grew across the film's release ultimately focused on Lively and the criticism directed at her. People online criticized Lively for the best way she appeared to market the film as a fun “girls' night out,” while even astute media observers did like Puck's business reporter Rachel Strugatzmarveled at her “tone-deaf” efforts to coordinate promotion of the film with the discharge of her own products, including her Blake Brown hair care line.
Lively's team claims the furor was amplified by a malicious social media strategy by publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis communications expert Melissa Nathan. Lively's grievance and the Times report quoted a text from Abel that said, “He wants to feel like she can be buried.” It also quoted Nathan as saying, “You know we will bury anyone. “
In a statement to the Times, Lively also said, “I hope my legal action will help lift the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about wrongdoing and protect others who may be targeted.” become.”
But Baldoni's team claims that the “Blake lash” grew on its own among domestic violence survivors and other critics online, who also seized on Lively's various PR missteps over the years — including her 2012 wedding to Ryan Reynolds on a former slave plantation , her decision to start a failed lifestyle brand that celebrated “the appeal” of the antebellum South, and her “mean girl” behavior toward the Norwegian one Reporter Kjersti Flaa during a television interview from 2016.
For now, nonetheless, Lively's grievance, as described within the New York Times, has turn out to be the dominant narrative of the drama while Baldoni's fame is buried. Lively has received widespread support from figures across the industry, while Baldoni was dropped by his agents at WME – which also represents Lively and Reynolds, Deadline reported.
But as Puck's Gardner reported, the drama could get even worse for the varied players involved, especially on condition that the source of the damning texts published in Lively's legal grievance and within the Times exposé was Baldoni's former publicist, Stephanie Jones got here from.
Jones, the CEO of her powerful public relations firm Joneswork, also filed a defamation and breach of contract lawsuit against Baldoni, claiming she knew nothing about his alleged smear campaign against Lively. Jones said Baldoni originally hired her to represent him. But just as “It Ends With Us” hit theaters, Jones said Baldoni quit her company and followed Abel to her newly formed public relations firm.
While Gardner said Lively had every right to deal with alleged sexual harassment on a movie set without becoming the goal of a coordinated smear campaign, he also offered “a more cynical theory” for why the “It Ends With Us” drama is on and off to interrupt out this fashion. Gardner's theory is that Jones “decided to dish out dirt as an act of her own retaliation,” with Freedman telling him that Jones “weaponized” the texts and “conspired” with Lively's team to assist them file their grievance.
And Freedman also appears desperate to attack “the legacy media” for its role on this saga, particularly the New York Times, which, he said, “has a long history of using their platforms as weapons to distort the truth, to exploit vulnerabilities and destroying lives without responsibility.” ”
“These lawsuits will confront this system head-on and ensure that no individual or organization, no matter how influential, can continue to perpetuate this cycle of fear and destruction,” Freedman said.
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