What texts and messages is Blake Lively's legal complaint against the show co-star of It Ends With Us

Documents from actress Blake Lively’s legal complaint against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni claim to show how her PR team deliberately “planted material showing how horrible he is to work with Blake” in the press and on social networks.

The legal complaintfiled Friday with the California Department of Civil Rights, contains pages of text messages allegedly sent between Baldoni and his public relations team.

Lively, 37, claims Baldoni, 40, who is also the film’s director, hired crisis PR management to engage in a “multi-layered” plan to damage his reputation after she and her husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, complained about “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” on the set of the film.

An attorney representing Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios says the allegations are “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”

It adds that the studio and its PR team “did nothing proactive or retaliatory” against Lively – and that they hired crisis PR people “due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production.

The text messages, which Lively says she acquired through a subpoena, involve exchanges between Jennifer Abel, of public relations firm RWA Communications, Melissa Nathan, of The Agency Group PR, and Baldoni.

They include:

Details of two PR package quotes – one costing “£175,000” for a “3-4 month period” including “complete removal of Reddit and entire social accounts”;
Another PR package costing “$25,000 per month” for “at least 3 months” that includes “creating fan social engagement to engage with any negative accounts, helping to change the narrative and stay on the right path”;
Baldoni asks Ms. Abel “What is the TikTok strategy” and says “I wish you would start posting to me ONLY talking about domestic violence and music videos and why this movie is so important”;
Ms. Abel told Ms. Nathan that she “had reckless thoughts in wanting to plant pieces this week of the horror of working with Blake”;
Ms. Abel saying: “The narrative online is so good and the fans continue to defend Justin” and telling Ms. Nathan “you have done such an amazing job”;
Ms. Nathan tells Ms. Abel: “The majority of social media is so pro Justin and I don’t even agree with half of them lol”;
Ms. Nathan responding to Ms. Abel: “The story is CRAZY good”;
Mrs. Nathan telling Mrs. Abel: “We can’t write to her… We can’t write her, we’ll destroy her”;
Mrs. Nathan adds: “you know we can bury anyone”;
Mrs. Nathan tells Mrs. Abel, “Don’t worry, I didn’t kill her and send her in a box to your house,” to which Abel responds, “DAMNIT”;
Ms. Nathan told Ms. Abel that social media is “really stepping up,” to which Ms. Abel added: “It’s actually sad because it just shows that people really want to hate women.”

The text messages appear to be from between May 15 and August 18 of this year. It Ends With Us was released on August 9.

In another exchange, Baldoni expresses concerns that his PR team might have deployed fake “bots” to “take her (Lively) down” on social media, to which Ms. Nathan responds: “I can fully confirm that we do not have robots. »

The legal documents also include the purported list of conditions submitted by Lively for her “return to production” after she alleged sexual harassment on set.

They include “no one entering BL’s trailer while she is undressed” and “no discussion of her personal experience with sex or nudity.”

Lively’s legal complaint claims that Baldoni “abruptly distanced himself” from the film’s marketing plan and “used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image” after the sexual harassment allegations came to light.

Baldoni calls Lively’s claims ‘shameful’

Mr. Freedman, representing Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said in his statement: “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, in connection with another desperate attempt to “repair” his negative reputation which was acquired from his own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film and press activities which were observed publicly, in real time and without editing, this Who allowed the use of the Internet; to generate their own views and opinions.

“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious, intended to cause public harm and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager in advance of the film’s marketing campaign, to work alongside their Jonesworks representative employed by Stephanie Jones, due to multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production, including threatening not to show up on set, threatening not to promote the film. , This which ultimately led to his disappearance while released if his demands were not met.

“It was also discovered that Ms. Lively had hired her own representative, Leslie Sloan of Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to spread negative, completely fabricated and false stories to the media, even before the film was released to market. This is another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to begin internal scenario planning in the event they needed to respond.

“Wayfarer Studios representatives have still done nothing proactive or retaliatory, and have only responded to media requests to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitor social activity. Which is conspicuously missing from the curated correspondence on the strand, this is evidence that there have been no proactive steps taken with the media or otherwise just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to develop a strategy which is standard operating procedure with professionals; public relations.

Lively said in a statement to the New York Times: “I hope my legal action helps bring back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics aimed at harming people who speak out about misconduct and protecting others who may be targeted.”

The August release of It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel, was surrounded by speculation about discord between the two leads.

Baldoni took a back seat in promoting the film while Lively took center stage with Reynolds, who was on the Deadpool & Wolverine press circuit at the same time.

Sky News has contacted Jessica Abel and RWA Communications for comment.