Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s Legal Battle Is Riveting Hollywood | The Daily

from The New York Times I'm Natalie. kitro this is the. [Music]. daily the legal battle we've been paying. a close eye on this is between former. co-stars Blake Lively and Justin baldon. over the last few weeks two Hollywood. stars Blake Lively and Justin baldoni. have gone to battle over exactly what. happened during the making and promotion. of their latest film BL has filed a.

federal lawsuit claiming her it ends. with us co-star Justin baldoni sexually. harassed her Justin baldon is now suing. his former co-star Blake Lively and it's. a dispute that's pulled back the curtain. on an alleged smear campaign and the new. set of tools that celebrities can use to. defend themselves and redefine their. enemies in the court of public opinion. the tea is piping hot I mean there's. just so much currently being said about. it ends with us today my colleague Megan.

Tui on the legal complaint that started. it all it's a mess so let's get into. it it's Tuesday January. [Music]. 28th Megan welcome back to the show. thanks for having me so you have broken. and covered some of the biggest stories. of sexual harassment in Hollywood but. your latest article has generated an. extraordinary amount of attention.

even for you and I have to confess to. being pretty read in on this one it has. been difficult to avoid the online. conversation around it and it all began. with this story that you wrote tell me. how you came to that story so in. December Blake Lively the movie star. filed a legal complaint it was made with. the California civil rights agency and. it is a formal complaint against Justin. baldoni her co-star and the director of.

the latest hit movie that she just made. it ends with us yeah who she says. sexually harassed her and what's. particularly interesting to us was the. information that forms the foundation of. the filing which are excerpts from. thousands of pages of text messages and. emails that Lively's team acquired. through a subpoena in them in these. documents baldoni and his publicists. orchestrated what Lively describes as a.

modern-day smear campaign what she said. was a coordinated push to tank her. reputation out of fear that our. allegations may come to light and what. really interested me and my colleagues. Mike McIntyre and Julie Tate in this. complaint and in what it purported to. show is not just how to protect. someone's reputation but how to harm. someone else's that's the alleged smear. campaign yes okay let's talk talk about.

the campaign as described in the filing. where does that story. start it starts with the filming of it. ends with us what is this place going to. be a flower shop and the movie is about. this young woman chasing her dream of. opening a flower shop Who falls in love. with this seemingly perfect guy what do. you do for a living. neurosurgeon I'm terrible I'm sorry I I. thought you were a crypto bro but as the.

relationship. progresses he becomes physically abusive. hee just listen to me please promised me. I didn't know he was coming just talk to. me baby please just stop you stop. please the film was based on a novel by. Colleen Hoover one of the most popular. novelists today yes I know her I think. I've seen her books like a million times. at the airport for example yeah yeah of. course and you know there was actually.

huge anticipation for the movie rights. because of how many Hoover fans there. are out there and a studio called wayf. farer eventually gained the rights and. baldoni who is also co-chair and. co-founder of the studio called it an. act of Providence for him to get to. direct the film so this is something. he's really excited about yes it was. right up his alley he had gotten his. start as an actor on the show Jane the.

Virgin but in recent years he'd become. like a very vocal critic of toxic. masculinity are you confident. enough to listen to the women in your. life and actually believe them even if. what they're saying is against you he. hosted a TED Talk will you actually. stand up and do something so that one. day we don't have to live in a world. where a woman has to risk everything and. come forward to say the words me too. he wrote multiple books on the topic.

final question why did you after reading. my book for the first time mhm look at. me we were in bed look at me and say. babe you need to read your own book and. he also co-hosted a podcast called man. enough because you're still doing that. Journey that you talk about in the book. The Journey from your head to your. heart so this movie which is about you. know yes it's about domestic violence.

but is also about ending the cycle of. abuse and uplifting women is a good fit. for him to tell so he signed on to. direct and he casts as his co-star Blake. Lively you know this popular actress. wife of Ryan Reynolds friend of Taylor. Swift big star yeah and a lot is coming. together that would seem to put this. project on a path to. success but then according to her.

complaint when filming begins a number. of incidents happen that make her. uncomfortable like what for example so. the complaint says that baldoni wanted. to add some sex scenes to the movie that. she felt were gratuitous she also. alleges that he improvised unwanted. kissing discussed his sex life with her. and entered her trailer without. permission while she was. breastfeeding and she also has made. allegation against one of the film's.

lead producers Jamie Heath who is the. CEO of the studio wayf farer and Lively. says that Heath also entered her trailer. when she was breastfeeding watched her. when she was topless and having body. makeup removed despite her asking him to. look away and showed her a video of his. wife naked during. childbirth and she alleges that both men. also discuss pornography with her wow so. what does she do in response.

well in the midst of filming there was a. writer strike which put a pause on. things and Lively use that pause to try. to fix some of the issues that she said. she had experienced on set and actually. said she wouldn't come back to set. unless they met certain conditions okay. so according to Lively's complaint there. are a number of things on set that make. this situation. unworkable what are the conditions that. she asks for to deal with them so one.

was a full-time intimacy coordinator to. be with her on the set at all times like. not just during intimate scenes and. another was no more unwanted comments or. discussion about sex and she also asked. them not to retaliate against her for. raising these issues or requesting these. safeguards and Wayfair agrees to all. these conditions.

writing that I'll quote here Although. our perspective differs in many aspects. ensuring a safe environment for all is. Paramount now baldoni and Heath are now. disputing her claims of misconduct and. saying that they only agreed to the. terms because they feared that Lively. would pull out of the movie and it would. fall apart but yeah at the time they. agreed and filming. continued okay so Lively gets the. conditions that she asks for how do.

those work out in the. end well you know that's interesting. Lively says that when they return to. work baldon's Behavior improved with. these new Protections in place it kind. of sounds like the situation was handled. relatively well in the end I mean she. asks for certain things to happen they. happen and according to her the. situation on set is better yeah I mean I. think that by her account this was is. like a situation of problem identified.

problem solved everybody moves on but. while she doesn't have any other. allegations of misconduct once they come. back to finish making the movie they do. end up having major creative differences. what do you mean so baldoni does an edit. of the movie one way but Lively did her. own edit and in the end Sony the. distributor of the film supports her. version H and as the premiere approaches.

the public starts to pick up on. indications that there had been some. drama behind the scenes you know Lively. and some other cast members had. unfollowed baldon on Instagram fans. wondered like why was that right then. Lively the cast and Hoover did not do. any appearances alongside baldoni and it. seemed increasingly apparent that. something had gone wrong right I mean in.

Instagram World being unfollowed you. couldn't get a more obvious sign of a. disagreement than that yes and as. speculation grows and people start. asking more and more questions according. to the text messages baldoni is getting. more and more worried he's concerned. that the allegations that Lively had. made against him during the filming of. the movie could now become public H so. by the first week of August he makes a. move he hires a crisis PR firm Megan in.

my reporting I'm used to people hiring. crisis PR firms to deal with a corporate. crisis or a political problem in this. case I'm assuming the function is. essentially the same I mean you're. hiring a crisis PR firm to avert a. reputational. crisis right and in this case he hired a. PR firm led by a woman named Melissa. Nathan. and she's worked with a variety of.

high-profile clients including Johnny. Depp who was accused of physical abuse. as you may recall by his ex-wife Amber. herd yep and Nathan as soon as she comes. on presents baldoni with an initial. strategic plan that included back. channeling with journalists to try to. push positive messaging about him and. defend against any negative stories that. might arise but the text messages.

included in Lively's complaint which we. reviewed suggest that baldoni wanted to. go further can you just read me some of. this because I think a lot of what we're. going to be talking about here are about. the internal Communications that are. going on I just think it would be useful. to to hear some of these messages sure. so Balon wrote in a text message to a. publicist not in love with the document. they sent not sure I'm feeling the.

protection I felt on the call H and. after receiving that message the. publicist texted Nathan saying I think. you guys need to be tough and show the. strength of what you guys can do in. these scenarios he wants to feel like. she meaning Lively can be buried H and. the text message back from Nathan is of. course but you know when we send over. documents we can't send over the work we.

will or could do because that could get. us in a lot of trouble we can't write we. will destroy her and Nathan wrote. imagine if a document saying all the. things that he wants ends up in the. wrong hands and added you know we can. bury anyone wow that's pretty strong. yeah and a few days later baldoni texted. his PR team a social media thread that. accused a female celebrity of being a. bull MH and this threat had something.

like 19 million views and he writes this. is what we would. need so in these texts in the complaint. you do see a shift from just protecting. balon's reputation to potentially. targeting Blake Lively going after her. yes and soon these text messages show. Nathan presented a plan for how to do. that and it would involve hiring digital.

contractors to dominate social media. through quote full social takedowns and. by starting quote threads of theories. you know there's also a reference to the. quote creation of social fan engagement. to go back and forth with any negative. accounts helping to change narrative and. stay on track all that is sort of. jargony but it sounds like what's being. discussed is a proposal for an allout.

push on social media to take control of. the public narrative here you know. intervening in the online conversations. about Lively and Boni and influencing it. specifically to benefit Boni and to hurt. Lively right and Nathan writes all of. this will be most importantly. untraceable. [Music].

we'll be right. [Music]. back so Megan what did this plan which. was supposed to be untraceable actually. look like when it was put into action. well they hired a digital contractor who. offers crisis Management Services his. name is Jed Wallace and there's actually. very little trace of him online but in a.

deleted LinkedIn profile he described. himself as a quote Hired Gun with a. proprietary formula for defining artists. and Trends okay and court records show. that his clients have included Paramount. Pictures and YouTube celebrity Aiden. Ross other than that we don't actually. know that much about him but in the. documents included in Lively's complaint. there references in emails to quote.

social manipulation and quote proactive. fan posting and text messages site. efforts to boost and amplify online. content that was favorable to valdoni. and critical of lively okay so this. sounds in keeping with the kinds of. things they had outlined in their plan. to baldoni what does that actually. involve we don't know we can't be sure. but last August after the film premieres.

instead of the negative press that. baloni feared there was a flood of. negative press and comments online about. Blake. Lively and what is that criticism saying. well the official promotion plan for the. movie instructed the cast to focus more. on the uplifting aspects of the movie. hello Blake Lively here Colleen Hoover. and it ends with us is in theaters now. so grab your friends wear your florals.

and head out to see it and to embrace a. floral theme you know her character owns. a flower shop I'm seeing Blake Lively in. a whole new light you can she is so. toned deaf honestly like oh and Lively. got criticized for appearing to ignore. one of the movie's main subjects she. really did with all seriousness say like. grab your florals grab your besties and. sit down to enjoy this movie and the. movie is about domestic. violence in several appearances like. never even made reference to domestic.

violence at all you guys we talked about. our movie not at all thanks for joining. us in theaters August 9th she faced. additional criticism when her Betty. Boo's alcoholic beverage company. promoted the film given the role that. alcohol can play in abusive. relationships like are you promoting a. film or are you promoting yourself. because those are some real potential. missteps here certainly that's how they. were being publicly received and you. know according to Lively's legal. complaint and numerous text messages.

when baldon's team saw this they decided. that baldoni would make domestic. violence a focus of his interviews and. social media the one thing you want. people to take away from this project. what would you say hope that everybody. has the ability to end a cycle that they. didn't ask for we can all say it ends. with us in our life. [Music]. you know clearly some of this criticism.

is organic but as this backlash is. gaining momentum we see in the texts. that baldon's PR people are taking. credit for the online narrative there's. one text from a PR person that reads. we've started to see a shift on social. due largely to Jed and his team's. efforts to shift the narrative toward. shining a spotlight on Blake and Ry in. and according to Lively's complaint.

baldoni himself took an active role in. this process I mean text messages show. that he encouraged the pr team sometimes. flagging social media posts for. amplifying on August 15th he actually. proposes quote flipping the narrative on. a positive story about Lively and. Reynolds by quote using their own words. against them you know at other times in. these text messages baldoni appears to.

worry that his team is going too far and. he seeks assurances that he won't be. implicated in the backlash for example. when he notices a tabloid article. critical of lively he sends a worried. text quote how can we say somehow that. we are not doing any of this it looks. like we are trying to take her down H. and on another occasion he wondered. whether his team was deploying fake bot. accounts on social media and Nathan.

writes I can fully confirm we do not. have Bots and she adds that any digital. team would be too intelligent to quote. utilize something so obvious Jed. Wallace's operation she wrote quote is. doing something very specific in terms. of what they do I know Jamie and Jed. connected on this okay so you see baloni. kind of vacillating you see Nathan. responding but Megan do we know actually.

whether the online backlash against. Lively is the result of these quote very. specific things that the team is doing. we don't I mean it's difficult to know. how much of the backlash was authentic. and how much they might have seeded and. Amplified the. discussion what we do know is that in. addition to the backlash against Lively. by the end of the movie's promotional. run there was also a very strong Pro. Justin narrative online which baldon's.

team was celebrating describe that well. for instance one PR person texts Melissa. Nathan quote The Narrative online is so. freaking good and fans are still. sticking up for Justin you did such. amazing work she writes and Nathan. replies narrative is crazy good the. majority of Socials are so projest and I. don't even agree with half of them LOL. when you reached out to them to the.

baldoni team what did they say about all. this so before the story was published. we contacted them and we detailed each. allegation item by item so they could. respond to each point and told them that. we needed to hear back within 14 hours. standard operating practice for stories. like this the no surprises email right. and less than 2 hours later we got a. statement prepared by a lawyer that said.

the story was false denying that a smear. campaign existed and broadly denying the. allegations in liveliest complaint. baldoni and his team did not address. specific allegations text messages and. other documents referenced in the story. they did not agree to interviews nor did. they provide any additional information. then 10 days after our story was. published baldoni and his associates.

filed a legal complaint against the New. York Times let's talk about that lawsuit. what does it say the lawsuit takes on. two issues first is the alleged smear. campaign and second Lively's allegations. of misconduct during. filming baldon's team continues to deny. that a smear campaign ever took place. and they accused Lively and the times of. cherry-picking or misrepresenting text.

messages to suggest that it did what do. they mean by cherry-picking well the. lawsuit for example signals out one text. exchange between the pr people which we. quoted in the story in which they appear. to take credit for a negative article. about Lively that was published last. summer baldon's team says other parts of. the exchange indicate that it was. sarcastic and showed they were not. really taking credit for the article. right and this is something his. supporters have really seized on online.

right mhm well they also claim that this. exchange between the pr people was. Lively's only evidence of a smear. campaign but as you just heard that. wasn't the extent of it her complaint in. our story referenced many text messages. and other documents and we should say. for listeners that before this interview. the team at the daily got an official. statement on this lawsuit from The New. York Times company it says that the.

times stands by the story saying it was. meticulously and responsibly reported. and that the company plans to quote. vigorously defend against the suit so. Megan how did baldon's legal team. respond to the second issue Lively's. allegations of sexual harassment during. filming here they don't deny that Lively. made allegations during shooting and. that Wayfair agreed to accommodate her. requests in instead they are disputing. her characterization of events and.

taking aim at her. credibility so for example they cite a. text message that she sent baloni in. which she said I'm pumping in my trailer. if you want to work on lines to suggest. that this means she wouldn't have minded. if he saw her breastfeeding they don't. say whether he did come to her trailer. at that time or if he did whether she. continued to pump in front of him in. effect wafers saying yes we made. accommodations to Lively on set but they.

weren't because of Any underlying. wrongdoing on our part yes and they're. also saying that Lively made the. allegations as a way to rest control of. the movie away from baldoni and his. production company they say that all of. this was a power grab and that her legal. complaint was part of a smear campaign. that she's been waging against him Megan. after all this this whole discussion. that we've had I feel genu ly confused. about what to think here and I'm also.

keenly aware that this has been about. public narratives and public perceptions. all along so where do we stand with that. tug of war over narratives now so after. Lively filed her legal complaint against. baldoni and our story came out there was. an outpouring of support for her but. since that time baldoni has gone on the.

offensive he is being represented by a. well-known Hollywood lawyer named Brian. fredman who has been very aggressive in. defending his client he has attacked. Lively and the New York Times in. multiple press interviews and has. released a flood of information that he. says proves that baldoni is the real. victim here last week for example a. scene was leaked from filming of the. movie and it was a scene where baldoni.

and Lively were dancing together and. talking and Lively said that his. behavior in this moment was an example. of him being. inappropriate baldon's team said that it. shows he did nothing wrong yeah I. watched the video and and read a lot of. commentary about it and what was. striking to me was just how differently. people were interpreting what it. actually proved yeah and all of this the. video the interviews is getting nonstop.

coverage in the tabloids and. entertainment Publications and it's. being sliced and diced and spread on. social media and as I've watched all. this unfold I keep thinking of an. exchange that was actually cited in. Lively's legal complaint between two of. baldon's publicists as they were working. on their campaign last summer one of the.

publicists wrote quote so are we in the. clear now did we survive and Melissa. Nathan responded we survived all press. is so overwhelming we've confused people. so much mixed messaging it's actually. really funny if you think about it why. is that stuck in your mind what is that. tell you well Natalie you are obviously. not the only one confus used and it. seems like at least according to these.

messages that were cited in her legal. complaint the mixing of messages. confusing people that was the goal Megan. after spending all of this time looking. deep into this story and this alleged. smear campaign seeing the responses from. both sides the debates about the. responses what's your takeaway from all. this you know when our story was.

published I got a ton of response from. people saying how eye openening this was. even among people in Hollywood who say. they had never seen anything like this. before and I think the fact that this. kind of thing is happening or can happen. the kind of campaign that liveliest. complaint and these text messages. purport to show speaks to what might be. a next phase in claims of harassment or.

misconduct how so well over the years. we've seen what these allegations can. mean for someone's reputation for. someone's career like how utterly. damaging they can be and now we are also. seeing the links that people will go to. protect their. reputations and their livelihoods and. the new tools that are available to them. right and so in your mind it sounds like.

the very existence of a campaign like. the one alleged in the complaint that. uses these new tactics and tools to. prevent reputational damage that's. what's most significant here right and. this is really only a glimpse behind the. [Music]. curtain there's a lot more for us to. look into and try to figure out out. about exactly how these tools work and.

who is using them and you know I think. it would actually be a mistake to think. that this is limited that these kind of. strategies are limited just to like. Hollywood or to me too you know if this. much effort was expended over the two. stars of this movie it makes you wonder. how these strategies are being applied. in other Realms by politicians by. governments by business executives.

so I think this story raises broader. questions about just how much of what we. consume online is being manipulated to. serve one interest or. another Megan thank you so much oh. thanks for having me.

we'll be right. back here's what else you need to know. today A jolt of panic hit technology. stocks on Monday after the debut of a. chatbot from the Chinese company deep. seek deep se's models appear to rival. those from open AI Google and meta and.

the company says it created its chatbot. with a small fraction of the specialized. computer chips that its American. competitors. use hardest hit in the selloff was. chipmaker Nvidia which dropped nearly. 177% and lost roughly 600 billion in. market value the Assumption in the tech. industry was that in order to build. bigger and better AI systems companies. would have to spend billions on new data. center ERS that relied on nvidia's chips.

an assumption that deep seek has. potentially. [Music]. upended today's episode was produced by. Will Reed and muj zadii with help from. Michael Simon Johnson it was edited by. Mike benois contains original music by. aliciaa eup Rowan Nimo Diane Wong and. Marian Lozano and was engineered by. Chris wood our theme music is by Jim.

brunberg and Ben lansburg of. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Natalie kro see you tomorrow. [Music].