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Blake Lively’s lawyers are denouncing “more attacks” from Justin Baldoni and his team.
The New York Times broke the news on December 21 that Lively had sued Baldoni — her costar and director in the film It Ends With Us — for sexual harassment. Baldoni denied all allegations against him made in the lawsuit, which was obtained by Us Weekly, and days later, was among 10 plaintiffs who launched a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times for its coverage of Lively’s accusations.
On New Year’s Eve, Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, 40, in a New York federal court, mirroring her earlier claims that were submitted with the California Civil Rights Department. In addition to Baldoni, Lively is suing publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, as well as Wayfarer Studios, Baldoni’s production company.
Attorneys for the actress told People in a statement on Monday, January 6, that Lively’s “serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation” are “backed by concrete facts.”
“This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation,” the lawyers’ statement read, per the outlet. “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.”
The statement noted: “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.”
Lively’s team continued, “Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender, and suggest that the offender is actually the victim. These concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct.”
And in conclusion, they wrote, “Most importantly, media statements are not a defense 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.”
Us Weekly reached out to Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, for comment.
On Thursday, January 2, Freedman told NBC News that he “absolutely” planned to sue Lively on behalf of his client.
“We plan to release every single text message between the two of them,” Freedman told the outlet. “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.”
Previously, he shared a statement with Us, vowing to “take down” The New York Times for its “vicious smear campaign.”
As for the Times, a spokesperson told Us that the outlet is planning to “vigorously defend” itself.
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” read a statement on December 31. “Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. Those texts and emails were also the crux of a discrimination claim filed in California by Blake Lively against Justin Baldoni and his associates.”
