Justin Baldoni has been dropped by WME following Blake Lively’s accusing him of sexual harassment in a complaint filed on Friday, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The news comes hours after news broke that Lively was taking legal action against her It Ends With Us co-star and director.
In the filing, the Simple Favor actress not only accused Baldoni and his coworkers at Wayfarer Studios of sexual harassment but also of an alleged coordinated effort to destroy her reputation. The Jane the Virgin star’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, fired back at the allegations, calling them “shameful,” “serious and categorically false.”
Lively claims in the filing that things got so bad that there was a meeting with Lively, Sony Pictures, Baldoni and Jamey Heath from Wayfarer Studios, producers on the film, publicists for the film and more to address some of the “inappropriate conduct” that took place on the set.
Lively and her team brought forth demands for Baldoni and his in order to begin production again after the actors strike. Some of the 30 demands included: “No more showing nude videos of women, including producer’s wife, to BL and/or her employees”; “No more mention of Mr. Baldoni’s or Mr. Heath’s previous ‘pornography addiction’ or BL’s lack of pornography consumption to BL or to other crew members”; “No more descriptions of their own genitalia to BL”; and “No more improvising of kissing.”
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, released a lengthy statement vehemently denying the claims in the filing. “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions,” he began.
The statement continued, “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met. It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address. The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
More to come.