A refrain of help is rising behind actress Blake Lively after she filed a grievance alleging sexual harassment and a smear marketing campaign towards “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni.
Actress Amber Heard on Monday turned the newest superstar to talk out on behalf of the “Gossip Girl” alum over what she says was a coordinated social media effort to tarnish her title.
Over the weekend, Lively filed a grievance claiming that Baldoni and a lead producer had behaved unacceptably in the course of the filming of field workplace hit “It Ends With Us.”
The allegations included that Baldoni — who additionally directed the movie — had spoken inappropriately about his intercourse life, and had sought to change the movie to incorporate intercourse scenes that weren’t within the script and had not been agreed to.
They additionally detailed how lead producer Jamey Heath had watched Lively whereas she was topless, regardless of having been requested to show away.
But the grievance goes into nice element — together with with texts and emails — on a PR marketing campaign to wreck her fame and to divert consideration from any public feedback she may make concerning the males’s alleged misbehavior.
This was “a carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others from speaking out about the hostile environment that Mr Baldoni and Mr Heath created,” the grievance says.
It contains allegations that the 2 males employed a disaster PR workforce that amplified or planted damaging tales about Lively on social media platforms.
“You know we can bury anyone,” Melissa Nathan, a member of the workforce, is alleged to have mentioned, in line with messages contained within the grievance.
Heard’s ex-husband Johnny Depp employed the identical PR workforce in the course of the high-profile defamation trial between the couple in 2022, by which a jury unanimously discovered that Heard defamed Depp over allegations he abused her.
“Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on,'” Heard mentioned in a press release carried by NBC News.
“I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
Heard’s help got here on the heels of a joint assertion by America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel, who starred with Lively in “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”
“As Blake’s friends and sisters for over 20 years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the reported campaign waged to destroy her reputation,” they wrote on Instagram.
“Throughout the filming of ‘It Ends with Us’, we saw her summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set, and we are appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice.”
A lawyer for Wayfarer, the studio behind the movie, mentioned in a press release launched to the New York Times that neither the studio, its executives, nor its PR workforce did something to retaliate towards Lively.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” lawyer Bryan Freedman wrote.
The grievance was lodged with the California Civil Rights Department, and is a precursor to a lawsuit.
Major Hollywood expertise company WME — which represents Lively — has reportedly dropped Baldoni as a shopper.
© 2024 AFP