Blake Lively lawsuit revelations: Actress sues Justin Baldoni, cites 'severe emotional distress'

Blake Lively has formally filed a lawsuit against her "It Ends With Us" co-star Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment.

The lawsuit, obtained by USA TODAY, was filed Tuesday in New York federal court and comes weeks after the "Gossip Girl" alum filed a headline-generating complaint with the California Civil Rights Department against Baldoni, which surfaced Dec. 21. It follows rumors of a summer-long feud between the pair on the set of the buzzy film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's New York Times bestseller.

The lawsuit mirrors Lively's earlier claims laid out in her complaint, which allege that Baldoni — along with Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath — engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct in and out of the workplace.

Wayfarer, Baldoni's production company, is also named in the complaint and official suit.

Lively's lawsuit was filed on New Year's Eve, the same day Baldoni filed his own lawsuit against The New York Times for libel after the news organization published Lively's smear campaign accusations.

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Blake Lively sues Justin Baldoni for 'emotional distress and pain'

While filming the movie from May to June 2023, up until the writers' strike, according to Lively's lawsuit, she and "other cast and crew experienced invasive, unwelcome, unprofessional, and sexually inappropriate behavior" by Baldoni and Heath, one of the producers.

"Because Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath held all leadership positions on the production, they answered to no one, and brushed off or ignored the concerns Ms. Lively and others expressed," the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit also claims that "as a direct, foreseeable, and proximate result of this unlawful discriminatory conduct" by Baldoni and others named, Lively "suffered, and continues to suffer, substantial damages."

The damages listed include but are not limited to "severe emotional distress and pain, humiliation, embarrassment, belittlement, frustration, and mental anguish," and Lively "is entitled to an award of punitive damages, in an amount to be determined at trial."

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Blake Lively says multiple cast and crew members complained about Justin Baldoni's behavior

In Lively's lawsuit, she alleges multiple complaints about Baldoni and Heath's conduct on set were raised but that they went unheeded. Lively says that when she reached out to the film's distributor, Sony, she was told the company had no jurisdiction over the director and producer's behavior and that any concerns must be brought up to Wayfarer.

However, the lawsuit says, "Despite receiving multiple, detailed reports by Ms. Lively and others about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath's misconduct, Wayfarer failed to investigate those reports or to otherwise institute protections for the cast."

An unnamed cast member allegedly filed a sexual harassment complaint about Baldoni's "gross and unwanted" comments toward her and others on May 29, 2023, Lively's suit claims. It also states that another actress made a complaint about Baldoni's "comments on her appearance early in the film's production" and that the actor "expressly acknowledged her concerns in writing, stating 'adjustments will be made accordingly.' "

"Yet on June 8, 2023, that actress informed Ms. Lively that 'outside of anything in a scene, I actually cannot talk to Justin at all,'" the lawsuit says.

After the dual Hollywood strikes ended, Lively's attorneys allegedly handed Wayfarer's legal team a document titled "Protections for Return to Production," which detailed the actress' terms for resuming filming as detailed in a 17-bullet-point list. It included provisions such as "No one will enter, attempt to enter, interrupt, pressure, or request entrance to (Lively's) trailer while she is in a state of undress for any reason."

Lively and Heath, as a representative of the film, signed off on the terms in a contractual rider. During a Jan. 4, 2024, meeting, "the parties discussed a list of twenty examples of the behaviors that gave rise to the contract rider from (Lively's) contemporaneous notes," Lively's suit states and goes on to note, "Neither Mr. Baldoni nor Mr. Heath denied the veracity of Ms. Lively’s examples."

The rest of Lively's lawsuit mirrored her earlier complaint and included alleged copies of communications between Baldoni and his PR team strategizing about how to protect his and his studio's image after social media users caught on to a potential rift when Baldoni's co-stars did not follow him back on Instagram and made appearances without him.

They engineered a "social manipulation" campaign to "create and sustain a negative news cycle and social media algorithm around Ms. Lively," her suit claims. She is seeking a jury trial and requests "compensatory damages," "statutory and civil penalties" and "an award of money judgment for mental pain and anguish and severe and serious emotional distress, in an amount to be proven at trial."

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Justin Baldoni sues NYT for libel on New Year's Eve

According to court documents obtained by USA TODAY, Baldoni's $250 million lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and he's among a group of 10 plaintiffs, who also include publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel and "It Ends With Us" producers Heath and Steve Sarowitz.

They are suing the newspaper for libel and false light invasion of privacy over the article outlining Lively's accusations.

Lively, 37, alleges Baldoni, 40, showed her videos and images of nude women, discussed his past pornography addiction, detailed his sexual experiences, described his genitalia, improvised kisses on camera, spoke to Lively's personal trainer about her weight, entered her trailer while she was naked, added sex scenes to the film's script and subjected her to personal and sexual comments.

The complaint also alleges Baldoni colluded with his PR team to plant negative stories about Lively after she came forward about his alleged behavior in a coordinated effort to "destroy" her career.

Her lawyers also accuse Baldoni of initiating unwanted discussions with her about past sexual encounters in which he didn't seek consent from his partners.

Blake Lively's legal team addresses Justin Baldoni's lawsuit

On Tuesday, Lively's legal team addressed Baldoni's lawsuit in a statement to USA TODAY. "Nothing" in Baldoni's lawsuit "changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively's California Civil Rights Department Complaint," her legal team said.

"This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively's administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice 'not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,' and that 'litigation was never her ultimate goal,' " the statement said. "As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false. While we will not litigate this matter in the press, we do encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s complaint in its entirety. We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court."

Lively's attorneys also said Tuesday that "unfortunately, Ms. Lively's decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks. As alleged in Ms. Lively's federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns."

Now, her attorneys add, "the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court."

"Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law," the statement concluded.

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In the wake of the allegations levied by Lively, Baldoni lost his podcast co-host Liz Plank, who quit in an open letter to listeners, and was stripped of a domestic and sexual violence prevention advocacy award given to him by global non-profit organization Vital Voices.

The controversy surrounding "It Ends With Us" is a swift change for Baldoni, who built a career promoting his progressive views on masculinity after he became a breakout star on the Emmy-nominated CW dramedy "Jane the Virgin," which aired from 2014 to 2019.

"It Ends With Us" follows a flower shop owner named Lily Blossom Bloom (Lively), who falls in love with Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni), a dashing neurosurgeon, and reconnects with her stoic childhood sweetheart, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar).

Fan speculation surrounding the drama between Baldoni and Lively derailed the film's August media tour, but the movie was still a hit for Sony, grossing $148 million at the North American box office.

Contributing: Edward Segarra and KiMi Robinson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blake Lively lawsuit details: Actress formally sues Justin Baldoni