Blake Lively’s claims against Justin Baldoni put spotlight on ‘hostile’ Hollywood tactics | Global News Avenue

Actress Blake Lively was arguably the internet’s public enemy number one for a few weeks this summer. She has now filed an explosive legal action that she claims uncovers the truth about a “hostile work environment” created to damage Hollywood’s reputation, raising questions about who and what to believe.

Blake Lively has always been a pretty mild-mannered actress.

She has appeared in successful television shows and movies such as Gossip Girl and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She is married to superstar Ryan Reynolds. She is friends with Taylor Swift.

Then in August, while promoting her latest film “With Us,” she sudden controversy, on the verge of cancellation.

She was criticized for comments that appeared to downplay the film’s theme of domestic violence. And embarrassing old interviews resurface and are reused as evidence of bullying.

Public opinion—at least among those who knew and cared about her—seemed to be turning against her.

After the movie was released, the furor subsided and social media continued to grow.

But Lively has now filed legal action, claiming she was sexually harassed by “With Us” co-star and director Justin Baldoni, and when she complained, he and his studio Wayfarer launched a ” campaign to destroy” her reputation in retaliation.

Her lawyers said she was the subject of “a sophisticated, coordinated and well-funded revenge plan” aimed at “silencing her” that included a “weaponized digital army” and targeted “unknown “Informed journalists” provide false stories. – That’s why she became the focus of negative publicity.

In the roughly 80-page complaint, Lively’s team repeatedly accused Bardoni and Wayfarer of creating a “hostile work environment that nearly derailed the film’s production.”

Her attorneys released text messages sent between Baldoni’s publicist Jennifer Abell and Melissa Nathan, a crisis communications expert hired by Baldoni’s studio to help handle harassment complaints. They seem to offer a rare glimpse into conversations that usually stay out of the spotlight.

According to legal documents, Nathan came up with a strategy to “launch theoretical leads” on social media, “create, seed and promote content that appears to be true” and engage in “social manipulation.”

“You know we can bury anyone,” Nathan wrote to Abel during a heated discussion.

Now, the people hired to do crisis communications for Baldoni are doing it for themselves.

Abel said Lively’s lawyers “cherry-picked” information to include in their case without key context and “did not commit ‘libel'”.

“There is no negative press, no plans for social struggle, although we are prepared because our job is to be ready for any situation.

“But we don’t need to implement anything because the Internet is doing the work for us.”

Abel said the backlash against Lively was natural and did not require their help.

Attorney Bryan Freedman, who represents Baldoni and his studio as well as Abel and Nathan, agreed.

He said Baldoni hired a crisis manager because Lively allegedly made “multiple demands and threats,” including “threats not to go to the set, threats not to promote the film, and eventually, if she asked, causing the film to die during its release.” Not encountered”.

He said the plan put in place by Nathan’s company “proved unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s behavior, interviews and marketing during the promotional tour offensive and reacted organically to it, while the media themselves I also noticed this.”

Overall, Friedman called Lively’s complaint “shameful” and full of “absolutely false accusations.”

Lively has received support from a series of former co-stars and others in Hollywood in recent days.

The name of one of her supporters stands out.

Amber Heard, Johnny Depp’s ex-wife, tell nbc: “Social media is absolutely the embodiment of the classic adage, ‘A lie has traveled halfway around the world before the truth can emerge.’

“I’ve seen this firsthand, up close and personal. It’s horrific and devastating.”

Heard faced hostility on social media during two high-profile libel trials involving Depp in the UK and the US in 2020 and 2022. Nathan also reportedly works for Depp.

Friedman responded to Heard by saying that the only connection between her and Lively was that “every move they made was visible to everyone for decades” so that the public could “make their own decisions — —They did it organically.”

Alexi Mostrous, head of investigations at Tortoise Media, hosted a Who deceived Amber? She said there were similarities between the two when she reviewed the abuse she suffered earlier this year.

“In both the Blake Lively and Amber Heard cases, you saw PR firms working with digital media experts and other ‘contractors’ to promote their wealthy clients in ways that were opaque and difficult to understand. online stories,” he told BBC News.

“It’s an unregulated world where all kinds of tactics can be done behind the scenes.”

Variety show Lively’s case “exposes a show business process that operates in the shadows – hiring expensive crisis communications experts to influence public opinion and increase customer satisfaction.”

Her accusations suggest a “sinister shadow campaign” that “goes beyond what most Hollywood promotions would consider acceptable,” Sharon Waxman of The Wrap writes.

Rory Lynch, partner and head of reputation management law at Gateley Legal, said that in Hollywood and business disputes it was “a mistake to have publicists on both sides spread negative and sometimes false stories about the other side” A fairly common tactic.”

“Even as early as Hollywood’s Golden Age, there were rumors that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor used public relations professionals to create negative publicity for each other.”

However, Baldoni told BBC News that publicists working for Baldoni and his studio “kind of slipped up” by discussing strategy in text messages.

“I’m not surprised, especially in America and Hollywood, that crisis communications people are very aggressive.

“But I think the fact that they put it in writing is probably not the wisest thing to do. Normally they might do something like that over the phone.”

Lynch added that Lively herself is “an experienced operator” who “also has her own publicists working in the background.”

new york timesLively’s complaint was reported over the weekend, saying she “denies that she or any of her representatives planted or spread negative information about Mr. Baldoni or the hikers.”

The newspaper also noted that “it’s impossible to know how much of the negative publicity against Lively” was originally sown by those representing Baldoni, “and how much was noticed and amplified by them.”

Many fans who were once against Lively now view the situation in a different light.

“We are easily manipulated into hating a woman, and all it takes is a concerted public relations effort to change our stance against a victim of domestic violence, or a long-time beloved America’s sweetheart,” Maddy Moussen writes in The Standard.

“Will we be harder to fool now that our eyes are open? Or will we still want any excuse to attack a famous woman who suddenly no longer has value in the eyes of us and those who manipulate us?”

Laura Snipes of The Guardian writes She and her friends are now “shocked as we reflect on what we have said to her in recent months”.

She added: “Lively’s complaints make my head spin. What on earth can you believe?”