Allegations against actress Blake Lively and director Justin Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us have been rocking Hollywood. Lively has accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, saying he improvised intimate scenes without her consent and pressured her during a birthing scene to simulate nudity. She also claimed that Baldoni retaliated by hiring a crisis PR team to smear her reputation.
Baldoni denied the allegations vociferously and filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, which first broke the story on Lively’s claims. His lawyers claimed the article omitted important details, including that Lively had refused to meet with the intimacy coordinator before filming.
The drama has reopened a more far-reaching debate about Hollywood’s PR machine and the bending of public narratives. There have been comparisons to myriad other celebrity scandals, from Amber Heard’s high-profile legal tussles to current media manipulation and misuse of power across the industry concerning gender dynamics.
The legal and PR war has now become so intense that both sides are dug in, with Hollywood sitting to watch the drama unfold.
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