Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni latest: Text messages show plan to 'bury' Lively

Blake Lively’s legal complaint against "It Ends With Us" co-star and director Justin Baldoni includes explosive allegations of sexual misconduct and a high-profile retribution campaign.

The complaint, filed Friday with the California Civil Rights Department, accuses Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a "multi-tiered plan" to damage her reputation after a meeting where she and her husband Ryan Reynolds addressed "repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior" by Baldoni and one of the film’s producers.

It names Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios Baldoni's publicists among the defendants.

What does Lively accuse Baldoni of? 

According to The New York Times, which reviewed thousands of pages of text messages and emails tied to the case, Lively accused Baldoni of improvised unwanted kissing during filming and also discussing his sex life, "including encounters in which he said he may not have received consent," The Times reports. 

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are seen on the set of "It Ends with Us" on January 12, 2024 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

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Lead producer Jamey Heath had allegedly shown her a video of his wife naked, she said, and he refused to look away when she was topless in her trailer and having body makeup removed. She accused both men of repeatedly entering her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed. 

Lively complained to the studio, which added safeguards to the set in response. Lively told people that both men’s behaviors had improved after the studio made changes, but then creative differences arose when she made her own cut of the movie and ended up getting a producer credit. Sony and Wayfarer released Lively’s version – furthering the rift between Lively and Baldoni. 

‘It Ends With Us’ controversy

"It Ends With Us," based on Colleen Hoover's bestselling 2016 novel about domestic violence, exceeded box office expectations in August with a $50 million debut. It made nearly $350 million in theaters worldwide, according to The New York Times, but the movie’s success was clouded by rumors of discord between Lively and Baldoni. Critics also raised concerns that "It Ends With Us" romanticized domestic violence.

RELATED: ‘It Ends With Us’ film prompting conversations on domestic violence awareness

Before the film’s debut, Lively and other cast members told Sony and Wayfarer that they wouldn’t do any promotional events with Baldoni. Hoover, the author who inspired the movie, said the same, according to text messages from Baldoni and Heath reviewed by The Times. 

Baldoni took a backseat in promoting the film while Lively took centerstage along with Reynolds, who was on the press circuit for "Deadpool & Wolverine" at the same time.

Text messages show smear campaign against Lively

Around the same time as the film’s release, Baldoni and his associates had retained a high-profile crisis public relations expert named Melissa Nathan, according to The Times. Criticism of Lively online was skyrocketing. 

Speaking about Baldoni, one of his associates reportedly told Nathan: "I think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios. He wants to feel like she can be buried."

"Of course- but you know when we send over documents we can’t send over the work we will or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble," Nathan responded.

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"We can’t write we will destroy her … Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands."

"You know we can bury anyone," she wrote.

Those efforts to "bury" Lively included proposals to hire contractors to dominate social media through "full social account take downs," by "threads of theories" and generally working to "change narrative."

"All of this will be most importantly untraceable," Nathan, the PR expert, told her clients, according to The Times. 

Their efforts to smear Lively were successful, The Times reports.  Shortly after "It Ends With Us" was released, Lively was braided online as tone-deaf and a bully who was hard to work with. Sales of the new hair-care line she launched around the same time as the film plummeted.

What does Baldini say about the complaint? 

An attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios denied the accusations.

"These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media," attorney Bryan Freedman said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Freedman said the studio was proactive and hired a crisis manager "due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production."

He said Lively threatened to not appear on set and not promote the film "if her demands were not met." He didn’t specify what those demands were.