Who does Blake Lively play in A Simple Favor? Director Paul Feig voices support for actress in s*xual harassment suit against Justin Baldoni

Several celebrities have come out of the woodwork to share their support for Blake Lively, who recently accused her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni of s*xual harassment and spearheading a smear campaign during the movie's promotion. This news broke on December 21, after Lively filed the complaint at the California Civil Rights Department against Baldoni, who also directed the movie based on Colleen Hoover's book of the same name.

Paul Feig, who directed A Simple Favor and its upcoming sequel starring the original cast (Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick), recently came forward to support his actress.

Lively played Emily Nelson, a fashion company PR director with a mysterious past whose character befriends mommy blogger Stephanie Smothers (played by Kendrick) in the 2018 dark comedy

On December 22, the director took to X to voice his thoughts about Blake Lively's case, saying she “truly did not deserve” the alleged smear campaign.

“I’ve now made two movies with Blake and all I can say is she’s one of the most professional, creative, collaborative, talented and kind people I’ve ever worked with. She truly did not deserve any of this smear campaign against her. I think it’s awful she was put through this,” he wrote.

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Justin Baldoni called Blake Lively's accusations “categorically false"

Actress Blake Lively faced a wave of backlash while promoting her film It Ends With Us in August 2024. The actress was criticized for her seemingly flippant attitude about the movie, in which she played a domestic abuse victim.

However, Blake Lively recently alleged the hate train was not organic but a planned smear campaign launched by her co-star and director, Justin Baldoni.

In a new filing, Blake Lively also accused her co-star of s*xually harassing her on set. She claimed the work environment became so hostile that a meeting was held to address certain issues, also attended by her husband Ryan Reynolds.

According to NPR, Blake Lively's lawsuit claimed the following rules were set in the meeting, which included a ban on showcasing n*de videos of women, not mentioning Baldoni's alleged p*rn addiction, no comments about Lively's body and "no more adding of s*x scenes, oral s*x, or on camera climaxing by [Lively] outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project."

Blake Lively also alleged that Baldoni and his team launched a "multi-tiered plan" to "destroy" her reputation using "social manipulation."

Following her allegations, Bryan Freedman, Baldoni's lawyer, dubbed the accusations "categorically false" and "shameful" in a statement to Variety.

“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,” Freedman said.

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A Simple Favour summary

A Simple Favor follows Anna Kendrick's character Stephanie Smothers, who ends up befriending Emily Nelson (played by Blake Lively) after meeting her at her child's school.

Months into their friendship, Nelson is found to be missing and Smothers embarks on a journey to find her, uncovering more secrets than she bargained for.

She finds that Emily Nelson is a fake persona for a woman whose real name is Hope McLanden, who has triplet sisters Faith and Charity (who was a stillborn).

Faith and Hope conspire to kill their abusive father as teenagers and escape separately after setting their house on fire.

They meet again after Faith blackmails Hope with their father's death, causing Hope to kill her sister and fake her own death with her sister's body.

Hope returns home to collect the $4 million life insurance policy her husband took on her before planning to leave the country.

However, she is later apprehended by the police and charged with the murder of her sister and father. A sequel was announced in 2022. According to IMDb, the summary for the sequel is:

"Follows Stephanie Smothers and Emily Nelson as they head to the beautiful island of Capri, Italy, for Emily's extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman."

A Simple Favour 2 is expected to hit the theatres in 2025, however, a release date has yet to be announced.