On Saturday, news broke that Blake Lively accused her It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment, as well as mounting a campaign to ruin her reputation. The latter point was unfortunately unsurprising, given that Baldoni had hired Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group, a PR crisis firm that represented Johnny Depp, in August. The complaint, which The New York Times published this weekend, includes text messages from Nathan, one of which reads: “And socials are really really ramping up. In his favour, she must be furious. It’s actually sad because it just shows you have [sic] people really want to hate on women.”
If there’s anyone who knows about this from practically every conceivable angle, it’s Amber Heard. The actor became the subject of a hate campaign during her trial against ex-husband Depp in 2022, and has since relocated outside of the United States. Today, in a statement to NBC News, she said as much in support of Lively. “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 wrote. “I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
In 2022, Heard was found liable when Depp sued her for defamation over a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post wherein Heard identified herself as a victim of domestic abuse. Heard countersued, alleging that Depp launched a “smear campaign” against her. She was awarded $2 million in the 2022 verdict—a paltry sum compared to the $15 million Depp won against her. (Not to mention the reputational damage, which is arguably impossible to put a price tag on.) As noted in the Times report, brand marketing consultant Terakeet deduced in August that Lively had been subjected to a “targeted, multichannel online attack” comparable to the one crafted against Heard. In a statement to The A.V. Club, Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman maintained that the "only correlation between both individuals was that for decades every move they have made has been out there for everyone to see, widely filmed and documented for the public to make up their own minds - which they did, organically."
This story has been update to include a statement from Baldoni's attorney.
