After Blake Lively’s lawsuit: WME agency separates from Justin Baldoni

After Blake Lively (37) made serious allegations against her “Just One More Time” co-star Justin Baldoni (40), the artist agency WME separated from the actor. . The decision was made on Saturday. Lively will continue to be represented by the agency.

Lively filed a lawsuit in California on Friday (December 20) accusing Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer Studios and others involved in the filming of “It Ends with Us.” accused of sexual harassment and a “coordinated effort to destroy her reputation.”

In the lawsuit, the actress describes “the hostile work environment that almost derailed the film’s production” and the multi-faceted “astroturfing” campaign that Baldoni and his team launched against her. Among other things, there are allegations such as the regular mention of Baldonis or co-producer Jamey Heath’s “former porn addiction”, discussions about “personal experiences with sex”, “descriptions of one’s own genitals” and “personal, physical touching or sexual comments”.

At a meeting during filming, Lively demanded that the comments stop. As a condition for further collaboration, she also demanded that there should be no further erotic scenes that were not in the script. The Wayfarer film studio complied with the demands and took precautions on the set.

Justin Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, called the allegations “completely false, outrageous and deliberately salacious with the intent to hurt him in public and rehash a media narrative.” They had “proactively” engaged in crisis counseling to protect themselves from “multiple demands and threats” from Lively.

However, Lively’s statements about a PR campaign against her person seem to be supported. The newspaper was able to view chat messages between Baldoni’s employees and a PR consultancy. It says, for example, that Lively can be “buried” through the media.

In fact, a real online shitstorm broke out over Blake Lively during the press tour for the movie “Just One More Time.” The actress was criticized, among other things, for marketing a film about domestic violence like a funny romantic comedy with flower outfits and advertising for her hair products or her alcohol brand. In addition, old interviews were distributed that were intended to damage the actress’s reputation and certainly did.

Author Colleen Hoover, on whose novel the film “Just One More Time” is based, commented on Saturday evening. She shared the “New York Times” research and added: “@Blake Lively, you were nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met. Thank you for being exactly the person you are. Never change.”

Justin Baldoni bought the film rights to Hoover’s successful novel in 2019 together with his production company Wayfarer and was involved as a leading actor and director.