Justin Baldoni’s crisis team allegedly named Taylor Swift in his ‘plot to take down Blake Lively’.
This comes after the two starred together in 2024’s It Ends With Us film, which is based on the 2016 novel written by Colleen Hoover.
It was after the film was released to theaters in August that fans began to notice that the pair were intentionally not carrying out their press interviews together, sparking rumors of a feud.
Yesterday (December 21), it was made public that Lively had filed a lawsuit (obtained by the New York Times), alleging sexual harassment and that Baldoni attempted to create a smear campaign against her.
Baldoni’s lawyer has responded to the claims made in the legal complaint, and called them ‘categorically false’ and a ‘desperate attempt to fix her negative reputation’.
Nevertheless, the legal document reveals some eyebrow-raising exchanges which allegedly took place between Baldoni and his team.
Lively told The New York Times: “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.”
Since then, The New York Times has obtained a copy of the compliant, which shows a number of alleged text messages between Baldoni, his PR representative and his crisis management expert.
One text appeared to show that Baldoni was attempting to use a negative news story about Hailey Bieber as inspiration to ‘destroy’ Lively’s reputation, and that’s not all.
Now, it has been claimed by Lively that Baldoni’s team considered using her best friend, pop star Swift, to change public perception of the actress.
Exhibits within the complaint allegedly showed Melissa Nathan, his crisis management expert, writing in an email dated August 6: “Our team can also explore planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people like Taylor Swift have been accused of utilizing these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want.”
According to US Weekly, the email reads: “We have seen the most innocuous issues turn giant due to socials or the hugest crises have no effect on social whatsoever.
“You just cannot tell at this stage. But, BL does have some of the same TS fanbase so we will be taking it extremely seriously.”
In the complaint, it was alleged that during the filming process, Lively had made requests following a meeting about an alleged environment being fostered on set where she requested that there ‘being no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project’.
Other alleged requests included: “No more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”
UNILAD contacted representatives for Justin Baldoni for comment.
