'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni on Friday, December 20, 2024. In the lawsuit, she accused the actor of s*xual harassment and creating a smear campaign to destroy her reputation. The documents also contain screenshots of private text messages shared by and with Baldoni as evidence of Lively's claims.
The text messages revealed that Justin Baldoni's PR team had allegedly used X user @selovelenaa's tweets against Hailey Bieber as inspiration for the campaign against Lively. Two days after Blake Lively filed the lawsuit, on December 22, 2024, the user took to the platform to speak out in support of the actress.
One of the alleged text messages showed Baldoni sending a screenshot of @selovelenaa's thread titled "Hailey Bieber's history of bullying many women."
“This is what we would need,” wrote Baldoni after the screenshot of the thread about Hailey.
According to a New York Post, Baldoni allegedly sent the screenshot to his PR executive, Jennifer Abel.
“Yes, I literally just spoke to Melissa [Nathan] about this on the break about what we discussed last night for social and digital. Focus on Reddit, TikTok, IG [Instagram],” Baldoni wrote.
Melissa Nathan is a crisis PR manager who has previously worked with actors like Johnny Depp during his highly-publicized trial against Amber Heard. Baldoni hired Nathan after the release of It Ends With Us in August 2024.
Since Baldoni and his PR team allegedly used @selovelenaa's tweet threads in their alleged smear campaign, the user took to X to show support towards Blake. She posted a tweet on Sunday, which also explained why she made the thread about Hailey Bieber in August 2024.
She explained that she wasn't paid by either Selena Gomez or her team to make the thread about Hailey, adding that she did it herself and on her own will. She noted that she only created it after Beliebers (Justin Bieber's fans) were "hating on Selena and creating viral hate tweets everyday."
When @selovelenaa made those tweets there was a feud between Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber's fans. The latest clash happened after Gomez asked her fans to stop hating on Hailey, who is her ex Justin Bieber's wife. She reportedly made the request to her fans after Hailey reached out to her about receiving death threats online.
As @selovelenaa explained her stance on why she shared the tweets, she also showed her support for Blake Lively. In a long tweet, she called Lively a "victim," adding that the actress was "not problematic."
"Blake lively doesn't deserve the hate shes getting, because she is not problematic and she is the victim.," the user wrote.
While she explained that her thread wasn't intended to be used as an "inspiration," to run a hate campaign against Lively, the X user apologized to the actress. She said that the Gossip Girl star didn't "deserve it."
"I M SO SORRY BLAKE LIVELY, you don't deserve it. I want to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for my actions in initiating and contributing unintentionally to a hate campaign," she wrote.
The tweet ended with @selovelenaa explaining that she would refrain from "such negativity" and engage in promoting positive content on social media.
Blake Lively's lawsuit has accused Justin Baldoni of using social media campaigns as part of his "astroturfing" plan
In the lawsuit that Blake Lively filed against her It Ends With Us co-star, Justin Baldoni, she accused him of using social media for astroturfing. As per dictionary.cambridge.org, astroturfing is defined as:
"The practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group, as a way to make it seem that a product, policy, opinion, etc. is very popular or has a lot of public support."
During the promotion of Lively and Baldoni's film It Ends With Us earlier this year, it was reported that the two clashed on set. As per a report by US Weekly, there were two camps on the set - Team Blake and Team Justin. The two sides allegedly became so hostile towards one another that they wouldn't even speak on the set anymore.
The 37-year-old was also criticized for the way she promoted domestic violence in the film. She was slammed by American blogger and television personality Mefgan McCain for promoting her new hair care line during the release of It Ends With Us. She was called out for not addressing the themes of domestic violence in the film.
According to Lively's legal complaint, "millions of people" who saw the allegedly planted stories, social media posts, and other content were "unwitting consumers" of Baldoni's campaign. The complaint stated that the people who saw the promotional material included many reporters and influencers. It claimed that they ended up becoming consumers of a crisis PR, astroturfing, and digital retaliation campaign” allegedly orchestrated by Baldoni.
“That is precisely the goal of an astroturfing campaign. To light the fire and continue to stoke conversations secretly, blurring the line between authentic and manufactured content, and creating viral public takedowns,” the lawsuit explained.
According to the New York Post, an emergency meeting was also organized in January 2024 to address the issues between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Ryan Reynolds, Lively's husband, also attended the meeting.
He demanded that there would be “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Lively, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous "p*rnography addiction," and no more discussions about s*xual conquests in front of Lively.”
The Deadpool star also demanded that there would be no more impromptu addition of s*x scenes that were not approved by the actress when she signed the film.
Both parties have come out after the filing of the lawsuit to express their opinions in public. In a recent statement to the New York Times, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants actress said:
“I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Justin Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman, meanwhile, refuted all allegations in the lawsuit. The lawyer said that it was "shameful" that the actress and her team were making "such serious and categorically false accusations."
“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,” he said to The Post.
In the wake of Blake Lively's lawsuit, Justin Baldoni has been dropped by his talent agency as per reports.
