Yahoo Lifestyle Kaitlin Olson Supports Blake Lively Amid Justin Baldoni Complaint: “Kind, Lovely, Honest”
Following Blake Lively‘s allegations against It Ends with Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni, Kaitlin Olson is the latest to express her support for the actress.
On Thursday, the 3x Emmy nominee called Lively “a kind, lovely, honest and generous person (and an incredible mom) FYI” as she shared an article to her Instagram Story about Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation accusations against Baldoni.
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Olson’s husband and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-star Rob McElhenney co-owns Welsh football club Wrexham A.F.C. with Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds.
Lively previously denounced Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, as well as others on the domestic violence film for sexually harassing her and subsequently enacting “a coordinated effort to destroy her reputation.”
“I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted,” Lively said in a statement provided to Deadline.
Baldoni, who has since been dropped by WME, called the allegations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” through his lawyer Bryan Freedman.
Still, in a dense 10-claim complaint filed last week with the California Civil Rights Department, Lively details at length “the hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film” and the multi-pronged “Astroturfing” campaign that was allegedly launched against her by self-declared feminist Baldoni and his company.
“Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates embarked on a sophisticated press and digital plan in retaliation for Ms. Lively exercising her legally-protected right to speak up about their misconduct on the set, with the additional objective of intimidating her and anyone else from revealing in public what actually occurred,” declares the 80-page complaint, packed with seemingly damning text messages between Baldoni and “crisis communications specialist named Melissa Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (TAG).”
Stephanie Jones, the founder of Baldoni’s own former PR company Joneworks, has since filed a lawsuit against him, Wayfarer Studios and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel for defamation, breach of contract and more. In the complaint, her attorney accuses the actor of attempting “to publicly pin blame for this smear campaign on Jones—when Jones had no knowledge or involvement in it.”
Meanwhile, Baldoni is reportedly preparing to file a counter-lawsuit after the New Year, the Daily Mail reported, claiming that it was Lively who conducted a smear campaign against him and allegedly presented WhatsApp messages from Baldoni’s team out of context in her complaint.
Although Freedman would not confirm or deny the pending countersuit, he told Deadline, “I am not going to speak to when or how many lawsuits we are filing but when we file our first lawsuit, it is going to shock everyone who has been manipulated into believing a demonstrably false narrative. It will be supported by real evidence and tell the true story. In over 30 years of practicing, I have never seen this level of unethical behavior intentionally fueled through media manipulation. It reminds me of what NBC tried to do to Megyn Kelly and Gabrielle Union and we all know how that ended up. Standby.”
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