Back in August and September, the drama of It Ends With Us’s promotional tour was dominating blogs and entertainment sites. Blake Lively was being widely criticized for promoting a film about domestic violence while barely referencing the topic, and while simultaneously promoting her booze line. People were also circulating video clips of Blake’s older interviews in which she came across as rude and unpleasant. It was a real thing, where social media people (especially TikTokers) really turned their ire on Blake. We knew at the time that Justin Baldoni hired a crisis management team – the same team used by Johnny Depp, Drake and Brad Pitt – and that he was “fighting back” against what seemed like Blake’s attempts to turn public perception against him. Well, Blake is now suing Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and “social manipulation.” From what I can see, Blake has good documentation and evidence of Baldoni’s harassment and Baldoni’s toxicity. But it turns out that she also has extensive documentation on the social manipulation part of her claims too – she subpoenaed records from Baldoni’s production company and his crisis management team and it’s BAD. Magically, the NY Times had a big exclusive about it.
Last summer, as the release of “It Ends With Us” approached, Justin Baldoni, the director and a star of the film, and Jamey Heath, the lead producer, hired a crisis public relations expert. During shooting, Blake Lively, the co-star, had complained that the men had repeatedly violated physical boundaries and made sexual and other inappropriate comments to her. Their studio, Wayfarer, agreed to provide a full-time intimacy coordinator, bring in an outside producer and put other safeguards on set. In a side letter to Ms. Lively’s contract, signed by Mr. Heath, the studio also agreed not to retaliate against the actress.
But by August, the two men, who had positioned themselves as feminist allies in the #MeToo era, expressed fears that her allegations would become public and taint them, according to a legal complaint that she filed Friday. It claims that their P.R. effort had an explicit goal: to harm Ms. Lively’s reputation instead. Her filing includes excerpts from thousands of pages of text messages and emails that she obtained through a subpoena. These and other documents were reviewed by The New York Times.
“He wants to feel like she can be buried,” a publicist working with the studio and Mr. Baldoni wrote in an Aug. 2 message to the crisis management expert, Melissa Nathan. “You know we can bury anyone,” Ms. Nathan wrote.
In the following weeks, Ms. Nathan, whose clients have included Johnny Depp and the rappers Drake and Travis Scott, went hard at the press, pushing to prevent stories about Mr. Baldoni’s behavior and reinforce negative ones about Ms. Lively, the text messages show. Jed Wallace, a self-described “hired gun,” led a digital strategy that included boosting social media posts that could help their cause.
An attorney for Wayfarer said in a statement to The Times that the studio, its executives and public relations representatives “did nothing proactive nor retaliated” against Ms. Lively, and accused the actress of “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation.”
Mr. Freedman did not address her allegations about misconduct during the filming by Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath. He alleged that Ms. Lively planted “negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media” about Mr. Baldoni, which he said “was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional.”
The effort to tarnish Ms. Lively appears to have paid off. Within days of the film’s release, the negative media coverage and commentary became an unusually high percentage of her online presence, according to a forensic review she sought from a brand marketing consultant. Ms. Lively — who is married to the actor and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds of “Deadpool” fame, and is close with Taylor Swift — experienced the biggest reputational hit of her career. She was branded tone-deaf, difficult to work with, a bully. Sales of her new hair-care line plummeted.
Mr. Baldoni, by contrast, emerged largely unscathed. This month, he was honored at a star-studded event celebrating men who “elevate women, combat gender-based violence and promote gender equality worldwide.” On Saturday, however, after this article was published, the talent agency William Morris Endeavor stopped representing Mr. Baldoni, said Ari Emanuel, chief executive of Endeavor, the agency’s parent company.
In a statement, Ms. Lively said, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.” She also denied that she or any of her representatives planted or spread negative information about Mr. Baldoni or Wayfarer.
It’s true that WME has now dropped Baldoni, they did so hours after Blake filed her complaint on Friday with the California Civil Rights Department. WME also represents Blake. According to Deadline, WME’s leadership decided to dump Baldoni on Saturday morning due in part to Blake’s complaint. As I said, it looks like Blake has ample evidence of what Baldoni’s crisis management team did to her, and how they boosted certain negative stories about her. To be fair… um, there was a lot of material for Baldoni’s crisis management team to work with and I genuinely believe that some (but not all) of the backlash against Blake was organic. Anyway, I’m glad Blake is fighting back against Baldoni, his production company and those crisis managers. It feels like this could have larger repercussions for a lot of other toxic men who use crisis managers to attack women.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
