As many us know, most industries are either low-energy or labor-less during the days between Christmas and New Year's. But the attorneys and publicists employed by Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni? Well, it doesn't seem like they clocked out for the holidays at all.
On Sunday, Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, told People that his client has a forthcoming lawsuit levied at his former co-star that will "expose those who believe themselves untouchable.” Yikes.
"This is not a response or countersuit—it’s a deliberate pursuit of truth,” Freedman said. Said "pursuit of truth" comes a week after Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, alleging he had not only sexually harassed her and created a hostile work environment on the set of It Ends with Us, but participated in a retaliatory smear campaign led by crisis PR publicists.
A New York Times investigation published a number of damning text messages between Baldoni and a publicist Melissa Nathan, whose clients have included Johnny Depp, Drake, and Travis Scott. Nathan, the Times reported, “went hard at the press, pushing to prevent stories about Mr. Baldoni’s behavior and reinforce negative ones about Ms. Lively.”
“He wants to feel like she can be buried,” a publicist working with Wayfarer and Baldoni wrote in an Aug. 2 message to Nathan.
“You know we can bury anyone,” she replied.
However, in a statement to People, Freedman claimed Baldoni's suit will show that the NYT didn't perform a "thorough fact checking process" regarding the text messages and used "nefarious sources."
“This lawsuit will uncover and expose the false and destructive narrative that was intentionally engineered by a trusted media publication who relied upon nefarious sources and neglected a thorough fact checking process to confirm the validity of these texts,” Freedman said. “There is an insurmountable collection of authentic evidence, including timelines and communications, which have not been doctored or spliced without context, unlike the altered [New York Times] story that ran on Saturday, December 21st, 2024,” he continued.
Freedman doubled down on the charges against legacy media, claiming that publications like the NYT have "long weaponized their platforms to distort the truth, exploit vulnerabilities, and destroy lives without accountability." He added that this is a "recurring pattern in Hollywood and the mainstream media."
Representatives for Lively have yet to respond to Freedman's statements. Meanwhile, her publicist, Leslie Sloan, has denied ever planting unflattering stories about Baldoni during the film's production or afterward in the press. Instead, she claimed Nathan's sister, Sara, who just happens to be an editor-at-large at the New York Post, first contacted her regarding allegations of on-set turmoil.
“I was contacted on 8/11 by Sara Nathan (Melissa Nathan’s sister) forwarding an anonymous tip that Page Six received, regarding allegations of HR complaints on the set of It Ends with Us,” Sloan told People. “After that, I was contacted by various press outlets asking about allegations of HR complaints. When contacted, I responded to press questions by referring them to Wayfarer or Sony for information regarding HR complaints.”
“It’s clear that Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer Associates are suggesting that I originated press stories about HR complaints on set, which is false," she added.
The mess, it seems, will keep on messing in 2025.
