Blake Lively has officially filed a formal lawsuit in her legal battle against ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star and director Justin Baldoni.
The actress on New Year’s Eve, filed the documents in New York federal court, alleging sexual harassment. The lawsuit follows weeks of headlines sparked by Lively’s complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, which surfaced on December 21.
In the lawsuit, obtained by USA TODAY, the allegations echo Lively’s earlier complaint, accusing Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath of engaging in ‘inappropriate sexual conduct’ both on and off the set.Wayfarer Studios, Baldoni’s production company, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.The suit claims that “as a direct, foreseeable, and proximate result of this unlawful discriminatory conduct” by Baldoni and others named, Lively “suffered, and continues to suffer, substantial damages.”
The filing alleges that Baldoni’s actions caused Lively “severe emotional distress and pain, humiliation, embarrassment, belittlement, frustration, and mental anguish,” and that Lively “is entitled to an award of punitive damages, in an amount to be determined at trial.”
Among the many allegations made by the actress in her suit, she claims that Baldoni exhibited a pattern of misconduct, including, showing her explicit videos and images of nude women and also discussing his past pornography addiction and sexual experiences.
She also claimed that the director and actor improvised a kiss on camera and added a sex scene to the film’s script without her prior consent. She had also alleged that the director made inappropriate comments about her body and weight and claimed that he entered her trailer while she was undressed and breastfeeding her child.
Among the many allegations made against the director was one that claimed Baldoni collaborated with his PR team to plant negative stories about Lively in an effort to damage her reputation and career after she spoke out of his behaviour.
Lively’s filing comes on the heels of Baldoni’s $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on New Year’s Eve. In his suit, the director along with a group of plaintiffs including publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel and ‘It Ends With Us’ producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz, claims the newspaper published a defamatory article amplifying Lively’s accusations.
However, Lively was not named in the suit.
Responding to the suit, Lively’s legal team on Tuesday, issued a statement addressing the counterclaims. “Nothing in Baldoni’s lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint,” they said, as reported by USA Today.
Meanwhile, Baldoni’s legal team has dismissed Lively’s claims as baseless and vowed to defend the director’s reputation.