The 40-year-old actor starred alongside Gossip Girl actress Lively, 37, and after she accused him of sexual harassment on set, he has decided to take her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds,and publicist Leslie Sloane to court through his studio as part of a defamation case.
In a statement, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said: “This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in It Ends with Us. Photo / Sony Pictures
“It is clear based on our own all-out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret. Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”
The layer said Lively “attempted to bulldoze reputations” with her media campaign and insisted his client has “nothing to hide” with his choice to take it all to court.
He said: “Let’s not forget, Ms Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too,” the statement continues.
Brandon Sklenar, Colleen Hoover, Isabela Ferrer and Blake Lively pictured at a surprise screening of It Ends with Us. Photo / Getty Images
“Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”
Despite this, Lively’s lawyers recently insisted her “serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation” were “backed by concrete facts”.
They told People magazine in a statement: “This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation.
“As alleged in Ms Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set. And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Ms Lively since her filing.”
Justin Baldoni attended the New York premiere of It Ends with Us with Jamey Heath rather than with his co-stars. Photo / Getty Images
They went on to accuse Baldoni and his representatives of victim blaming and attempting to “trivialise” serious allegations.
The statement continued: “Sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry.
“A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied.
“Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender and suggest that the offender is actually the victim. These concepts normalise and trivialise allegations of serious misconduct.
“Most importantly, media statements are not a defence to Ms Lively’s legal claims. We will continue to prosecute her claims in federal court where the rule of law determines who prevails, not hyperbole and threats.”
Baldoni and his lawyers claimed Lively launched her lawsuit in an effort to “reshape her public persona” with “salacious, headline-grabbing allegations”.
Shortly after the New Year period, the lawyers of the Hollywood star confirmed he had always intended to take Lively to court.
At the time, they told UsWeekly, “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.”
