Justin Baldoni is reported to have been dropped by talent agency WME as former co-star Blake Lovely sues him for sexual harassment. He has vehemently denied the claims
Baldoni has reportedly been dropped from the talent agency (Image: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
According to Deadline, the decision was made by the talent agency on Saturday to part ways with the actor/director. It’s reported that this in part due to Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni.
Lively is still being represented by the prestigious talent agency.
On Friday, Lively, 37, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni, 40. In the lawsuit, she claimed Baldoni’s alleged behavior on set of movie It Ends With Us caused her “severe emotional distress”.
Baldoni directed the motion picture based on Colleen Hoover’s popular novel and starred as antagonist, Ryle Kincaid, while Lively served as an executive producer and took on the role of protagonist, Lily Bloom.
The lawsuit claims that a meeting was held in January 2024 during the making of the movie to address Lively’s claims of a “hostile work environment” on set.
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively stared opposite each other in It Ends With Us ( Image: Sony Pictures)
The meeting was reportedly attended by multiple people working on the movie, including Lively, Baldoni and Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
During the meeting, Lively is said to have shared a list of demands, including “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.”
Baldoni has slammed the allegations. In a statement to Mirror UK, the star’s lawyer Bryan Freedman called the lawsuit “shameful” and called the claims “categorically false” and a a “desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.”
Lively is suing Baldoni ( Image: WWD via Getty Images)
“He also acknowledged that Wayfarer Studios, owned by Baldoni, hired a crisis manager before the film’s marketing campaign and press tour started. He said this was “due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.
“It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address,” the statement continued.
It added: “The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”