Hollywood star Blake Lively has filed legal action against “With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni, accusing him of “repeated sexual harassment” on set and in the movie After its release, there was an intensive smear campaign against her.

Lively filed the lawsuit on Friday with the California Department of Civil Rights, the Associated Press reported. Baldoni, his publicist and senior executives at Wayfarer, the studio where Baldoni produced the 2024 film, are named as defendants in the indictment.

“I hope my legal action helps lift the curtain on these sinister revenge tactics designed to harm those who dare speak out about wrongdoing and help protect others who may People who become targets.”

Baldoni, who is known for being outspoken about “toxic masculinity” and supporting women, has not personally responded to the claims. However, his legal team called the content “completely false.”

Here’s what we know about the dispute:

What is the movie “This Is Us” about?

The August 2024 series is adapted from author Colleen Hoover’s 2016 best-selling novel of the same name. The film is set in Boston, Massachusetts and tells the story of florist Lily Bloom, played by Lively. Lily was raised by an abusive father who frequently beat her mother, and eventually fell in love with and married neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (played by Baldoni).

Lily begins to see Ryall’s abusive side when her first love, Atlas, played by Brandon Skrennar, re-enters her life. She eventually found the courage to leave her marriage, strengthened by the need to protect her daughter and promised that the cycle of violence would end with her.

Lively co-produced the film with Baldoni and serves as director. The film received mixed reviews, with some critics accusing the filmmakers of romanticizing domestic violence. Despite this, the film was a box office success, grossing $351 million worldwide on a production cost of $25 million. Other Hollywood big names in the film include Jenny Slate and comedian Hasan Minhaj.

What happened on set?

According to the legal complaint obtained by The New York Times, during the filming of the film from April 2023 to early 2024, Lively complained that Baldoni and Wayfarer CEO Jamie Heath violated physical boundaries and made comments about her. Sexual, inappropriate comments.

According to the complaint, Lively expressed concerns about Baldoni before filming began and said she objected to a sex scene he wanted to add and that she didn’t think it was necessary.

She said Baldoni later talked to her about his sex life, pressured her about her religious beliefs and called a fitness trainer behind her back to inquire about her pregnancy weight. The actress gave birth to her fourth child in February 2023.

In November 2023, Lively contacted Travelers to request safeguards be implemented on set.

In meetings with Baldoni, Heath and other producers, she complained that Baldoni engaged in an impromptu unwanted kiss on set and discussed his sex life, revealing that he may have had sex without consent. Touch details.

Lively claims Heath showed her videos of his wife naked and watched the star in her trailer while she took off her clothes. She added that two men entered her trailer unannounced while she was undressing, including while she was breastfeeding.

Wayfarer agreed that neither man would be allowed into Lively’s trailer, nor would they ever show or talk to Lively about nude videos or images of women, sexual experiences, genitals, or pornographic content. Baldoni was prohibited from improvising sex scenes, asking Lively her weight, pressing her about her religious beliefs or mentioning her late father. The studio also hired an intimacy coordinator to monitor Baldoni and Lively’s scenes.

Lively later told people she worked with that their behavior had changed, The New York Times reported.

Why does Lively say she was smeared?

However, Lively also claimed in Friday’s legal action that Baldoni and Wayfall targeted her after the film’s release in a “sophisticated and well-funded” plan to damage her reputation , in retaliation for her remarks on set. Wayfarer co-founder Steve Sarowitz is also named in the complaint.

According to the New York Times, the actress obtained thousands of pages of text messages and emails between Baldoni and his team through a subpoena to support her complaint.

Lively said in the complaint that Baldoni hired publicists to spread theories about her online and publish news reports critical of her. Baldoni’s team “created, planted, amplified and reinforced content designed to undermine Ms. Lively’s credibility,” the complaint reads. “They used the same tactics to bolster Mr. Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him.”

According to text messages included in the complaint, Wayfarer and Baldoni hired public relations crisis manager Melissa Nathan, whose clients include actor Johnny Depp and rapper Drake. Well-known customers.

In their initial communication, Baldoni told Nathan that he wanted a stronger PR plan than the one she proposed. “He wanted to feel like she could be buried,” Baldoni’s publicist Jennifer Abel later texted Nathan, according to records in the legal complaint.

Later, the PR team agreed to create an “untraceable” social media strategy that would work to “change the narrative” of Lively, painting her as a bully on set and Baldoni as her victim . The team also worked to cover up stories suggesting Baldoni had engaged in inappropriate behavior on set, according to the text documents.

Has Lively’s reputation been harmed in any way?

Lively did face negative reviews online following the film’s release, although it’s unclear how much of that was orchestrated or driven by outside forces. A marketing firm hired by Lively produced a report in August concluding that she may have been the target of a “multi-channel online attack.”

Critics accused her of being “tone deaf” because in several appearances she wore floral-colored clothing that matched her character’s style in the film. Many also accused her of failing to campaign against domestic violence in the film’s media campaign.

Social media users began retweeting past instances of Lively being rude or disrespectful. At one point, Norwegian entertainment journalist Kjerssti Flaa re-uploaded a video of her 2016 interview with Lively on YouTube. In the video, Lively made comments to reporters about the actor’s baby bump. Fula has since said her actions were not part of an orchestrated campaign.

What does Baldoni have to say about the dispute?

Baldoni did not personally respond to the accusations. Attorney Bryan Freedman, who represents Lively, Wayfarer and their executives, disputed Lively’s claims, calling them “completely false, outrageous and intentionally obscene.”

Friedman said Lively threatened that she would not appear on set or promote the film if her demands were not met. He added that Wayfarer has hired a crisis manager to “proactively” address what he called “multiple demands and threats.”

Lively’s complaint alleges that Baldoni played a key role in the public relations campaign against her, encouraging his team and flagging sample social media posts for his use.

However, texts reviewed by The New York Times sometimes show that he also expressed concerns about articles critical of Lively. “How can we say we didn’t do any of this – it looked like we were trying to bring her down,” he said in a text message.

Baldoni was absent from numerous press events for the film and was never photographed with Lively.

On Monday, Vital Voices, a global nonprofit focused on empowering women, withdrew the award it had bestowed on Baldoni on Dec. 9 in recognition of his solidarity with women. Baldoni’s podcast co-host Liz Plank also announced Tuesday that she was leaving his “Man Enough” show.

What are the other stars saying?

After the movie came out, internet sleuths quickly noticed that Colleen Hoover, the author of “This Is Over,” didn’t follow Baldoni on Instagram. Additionally, Hoover described Lively as “honest, kind, supportive and patient” in a statement posted to the social media site on Saturday. She did not comment directly on the allegations against Baldoni.

Co-star Sklennar defended Lively in an Instagram post, saying it’s “disheartening to see so much negativity projected on women in movies,” adding that the negative press distracts from the film’s message .

Meanwhile, America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel co-starred with Lively in 2005 movie, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants , also issued a joint statement on Instagram in support of her on Sunday.

“Throughout the filming of This Is Us, we watched her find the courage to demand a safe workplace for herself and her colleagues on the set, and we were horrified to see evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that followed. bring her reputation into disrepute,” the statement read.