Justin Baldoni to countersue Blake Lively amid intense It Ends With Us legal battle: Report
Blake Lively had sued It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni, alleging harassment and a coordinated campaign to attack her reputation.
Days after Blake Lively sued It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni for harassment and damaging her reputation, Justin is planning to file a countersuit against Blake. As per NBC News, Justin's lawyer claimed they are planning to respond to Blake's lawsuit with their own. (Also Read – Blake Lively's alleged texts with Justin Baldoni exposed in $250M lawsuit: ‘She invited Baldoni to…’)
What the attorney said
“Absolutely, yes. We plan to release every single text message between the two of them. We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts,” said Justin's attorney Bryan Freedman.
A report by People claims that the list of plaintiffs will include Justin, his production house Wayfarer Studios, his publicist Jennifer Abel, and his crisis publicist Melissa Nathan. Those getting sued include Blake, her publicist Leslie Sloane, and Justin's former publicist Stephanie Jones, who had also sued Justin, his publicists, and studio for “the coordinated effort to undermine her and deflect blame for the ”retaliatory smear campaign" targetted against Blake.
Blake's lawsuit
Blake sued Justin and several others tied to It Ends With Us, alleging harassment and a coordinated campaign to attack her reputation for coming forward about her treatment on the set. Her suit said that Justin, his Wayfarer Studios, and others engaged in “a carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out.”
The plan, the suit said, included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign and place news stories critical of Lively. The alleged mistreatment on set included comments from Justin on the bodies of Blake and other women on the set. And the suit says they “discussed their personal sexual experiences and previous porn addiction, and tried to pressure Ms. Lively to reveal details about her intimate life.”
It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling 2016 novel, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie's release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Blake and Justin.
