Blake Lively has responded to Justin Baldoni’s latest attempt to clear his name after the It Ends With Us star accused him of sexual harassment.
In December 2024, Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and organising a “smear campaign” against her in the months that followed the filming of the drama It Ends With Us.
Baldoni has denied all of Lively’s allegations and has since sued the New York Times for libel over their reporting of Lively’s claims.
On Tuesday (21 January), Baldoni’s legal team released a seven-minute long video showing Lively and Baldoni’s interaction while shooting a dance scene in the film, which co-starred Baldoni, who also directed the film.
The clip reveals their conversation was mostly professional, with the unedited footage showing the moment, previously highlighted by Lively, that saw Baldoni kiss her neck while commenting on Lively’s scent. In the clip, Baldoni said Lively “smells good” in response to concern she was getting spray tan on him.
However, Lively Swiftly shared her own statement in response to the unedited footage released by Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer and his lawyer Bryan Freedman, calling it “damning” evidence supporting her allegations.
“Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning,” Lively’s legal team told MailOnline, who obtained the video.
According to Lively’s legal team, “every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what” the actor “described” in her original complaint.
They also said the release of the video was “another example of an unethical attempt to manipulate the public” as well as “a continuation of their harassment and retaliatory campaign”.
Addressing the contents of the clip, Lively’s team said the actor was uncomfortable during the filming of these scenes due to Baldoni “attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character”.
They added: “Every moment of this was improvised by Mr Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance and no intimacy coordinator present. Mr Baldoni was not only Ms Lively’s co-star, but the director, the head of studio and Ms Lively’s boss.’
At one stage in the video, Lively can be seen “leaning away” from Baldoni, and her team said that “any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognise Ms Lively’s discomfort”.
“We are continuing our efforts to require Mr. Baldoni and his associates to answer in court, under oath, rather than through manufactured media stunts,” Lively’s lawyer said.
Baldoni’s decision to release the video arrives days after the actor-director filed a lawsuit against Lively, accusing her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, of attempting to “destroy” his career and reputation.
In the Gossip Girl actor’s legal filing, it was stated that there was a meeting attended by Lively, Reynolds, Baldoni and their lawyers, to address her claims.
Lively had a number of requirements in order for her to work on the film that included “no more inquiries about Blake’s weight,” as well as “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia.”
Baldoni has hit back by suing Lively and Reynolds for $400m, accusing the couple of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage.
