After briefly being named in a report about testifying against Justin Baldoni, THR is reporting that actress Jenny Slate also made complaints against director Justin Baldoni’s producing partner while filming 2024’s It Ends With Us.
In THR’s latest report on Justin Baldoni and his involvement with It Ends With Us, as well as the many issues that arose from the making of the film, Slate is mentioned as an actress that also had issues come up with those involved with the movie. Although she isn’t named explicitly in Blake Lively’s lawsuit, she is believed to be one of two actors Lively’s lawyers are hoping will testify against Baldoni and Jamey Heath, Wayfarer Studios’ President and someone who produced the film alongside Baldoni.
According to the report, an interaction between Slate and Wayfarer Studio President Jamey Heath led to Slate issuing a complaint to film distributor Sony. The issue started after Slate rented an apartment in New York City to live out of while filming the movie. The report notes that Slate told Heath that she wasn’t happy with the space for both her or her toddler, but she didn’t want to leave because of a sizable, $15,000 security deposit she would lose.
Heath reportedly told Slate that she should move, and that Wayfarer Studios would reimburse Slate for the lost deposit in an effort to let her find better lodgings. However, Slate took issue with the language Heath was said to have used. According to sources, Heath focused “so intensely on the sanctity of motherhood and Slate’s role as a mother” that she filed a complaint as a result.
THR’s report also notes that Heath has a different recollection of the interaction, and is said to be upset that a kind gesture is being “weaponized” against the studio.
What did Blake Lively’s legal team recently say?
In an amended complaint filed on Tuesday (via The Hollywood Reporter), Lively’s legal team says that two actresses in addition to Lively are prepared to add their testimony regarding alleged uncomfortable experiences they had with Baldoni while on the set of It Ends With Us.
No actresses are named in the suit, nor are any quotes or texts regarding the issue, so it’s unclear just what they’ll be testifying. However, THR reports that the two women in question are actresses Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer, both of whom starred in the film alongside Lively.
“Importantly, however, these victim-witnesses have given Ms. Lively permission to share their communications in the Amended Complaint as they are laid out, and they will testify and produce documents in the discovery process,” said a spokesperson for Lively.
“Ms. Lively has filed an amended complaint today that provides significant additional evidence and corroboration of her original claims. That evidence includes previously undisclosed communications involving Ms. Lively, representatives of Sony and Wayfarer, and numerous other witnesses,” her lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb said in a statement. “The complaint includes significant contemporaneous evidence that Ms. Lively was not alone in raising allegations of on-set misconduct more than a year before the film was edited; as well as evidence detailing the threats, harassment, and intimidation of not just Ms. Lively, but numerous innocent bystanders that have followed defendants’ retaliatory campaign.”
