Actor Blake Lively has filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department accusing her director and co-star on the film It Ends With Us of sexual harassment on the set and a campaign to destroy her reputation. The complaint, which precedes a lawsuit, says that Justin Baldoni hired a crisis public relations expert to run a campaign smearing Lively after she objected to his behavior, USA Today reports. In addition to Baldoni, Friday's filing names Wayfarer Studios, producer Jamey Heath, public relations professionals, and others. A lawyer for Baldoni and Wayfarer called the claims "categorically false accusations," per the Hollywood Reporter.
Lively complained during shooting for the film, which was released in August, that men working on the production had violated physical boundaries and made inappropriate remarks to her, many of them sexual. Wayfarer agreed to provide a full-time intimacy coordinator on the set, add an outside producer, and install other safeguards, per the New York Times. A meeting during production in January with producers addressed rules Lively sought before completing the project, including not showing her nude videos of other women, no more discussions about sexual experiences in front of Lively and others, no more mentions of the genitalia of cast and crew members, and no more asking about Lively's weight. In addition, the studio agreed in a letter to not retaliate against Lively.
By the time of release, Baldoni and Heath were concerned that Lively's accusations would become public, the complaint says, claiming that the new strategy was retaliation. The Times reviewed excerpts from thousands of pages of text messages and emails among the people Lively accuses, which she subpoenaed. The documents include a publicist's boast to the crisis expert that, "You know we can bury anyone." (More Blake Lively stories.)
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