Blake Lively‘s publicist has taken to the ongoing legal dispute between Lively and Justin Baldoni, claiming that texts that she sent about Baldoni do not constitute as defaming anyone.
What did Blake Lively’s publicist say?
In a legal filing made on Thursday (via Variety), Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane said that she comments she made via text message about Baldoni were not defamatory, despite being accused of such in Baldoni’s lengthy lawsuit against the actress.
The texts in question come from Sloane to a Daily Mail reporter on August 8, 2024. After being asked for comment on a reported “power struggle” between Lively and Baldon, Sloane denied any instances of Lively being “difficult” on set and said that the “whole cast” of It Ends With Us hated Baldoni.
“They are panicking as the whole cast hates him,” Sloane wrote in the texts. In the legal filing, Sloane looked to dismiss the notion that she was defaming Baldoni. Her argument, according to the filing, is that the thought that the cast hated Baldoni was simply her opinion, and not any declaration that could constitute a defamation claim.
Sloane’s argument also notes that, in Baldoni’s lawsuit, he admits that the cast had grown to dislike him, noting that Lively and the cast had gone on to “shun” the director.
Lively’s initial complaint alleges that Baldoni created a hostile work environment
All of this stems from a formal complaint that Lively made against Baldoni in December. In it, she states that things got so bad during the filming of It Ends With Us that an all-hands-on-deck meeting was called in response to her claims of a hostile work environment. During the meeting, Lively asked that Baldoni stop showing her nude videos or images of women, that he stop mentioning his pornography addiction to her, that Baldoni stop discussing sexual experiences in front of her, and that he also stop mentioning Lively’s weight.
The complaint also claims that an agreement was made between production company Wayfarer Studios and the cast in which the promotion of the movie would focus “more on [Lively’s character’s] strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence.” However, Lively claims that Baldoni would renege on that and instead spoke in interviews about the film’s serious story.
Lively also claimed that Baldoni and his PR manager, Melissa Nathan, discussed ways to start a social media campaign to harm her reputation. The filing by Lively includes 22 pages of texts between Baldoni’s publicist and Nathan, in which they discuss wanting to have Lively “buried.”
(Source: Variety)
