On December 21, 2024, Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and what she claims is a coordinated effort to destroy her reputation. Her lawyers subpoenaed texts from Baldoni and his Public Relations teams’ phones as evidence.
In a lawsuit revealed by The New York Times, Lively filed in her complaint that Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath had repeatedly violated physical boundaries and made sexual and other inappropriate comments to her. Wayfarer Studios agreed to Lively’s needs to provide a full-time intimacy coordinator, bring in an outside producer, and put other safeguards on set. The men also signed a contract to not retaliate against the actress. However, Baldoni and Heath hired a PR Crisis management and campaigned to ruin Lively’s reputation.
Baldoni’s lawyers and Wayfarer Studios responded to the suit. They wrote, “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
Justin Baldoni and his team’s texts reveal the great lengths they went to ruin Lively’s side of the story. Read them all below.
In the lawsuit, PR representative Melissa Heath of The Agency Group circulated a “SCENARIO PLANNING” document to Justin Baldoni and Jamey Heath in the case of Blake Lively making her grievances public. In messages sent by Baldoni to Heath and Jamie Abel, Baldoni wrote that he was “not in love with the document they sent” but they assured that they were the right people for the campaign
Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel exchanged texts after they texted Justin Baldoni. Abel writes that Baldoni wants Lively’s reputation to “be buried” Meanwhile Nathan assures the case, “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.” She also added, “Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands.”
Melissa Nathan writes to Jamey Abel, “You know we can bury anyone. But I can’t write that to him.”
On August 5, 2024, Justin Baldoni sent a screenshot of a post on X reading, “Hailey Bieber’s history of bullying many women who aren’t Selena Gomez. A thread.” He wrote, “this is what would need.” Abel wrote back assuring that the strategy would be put in place on Reddit, TikTok, and Instagram.
Jennifer Abel’s team sent a text about the news pickup updates based on the strategy.
Melissa Nathan noticed the shift on social media and expressed her opinion to Jennifer Abel where she doesn’t “agree with half of them.”
Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel exchange text messages about the success of the strategy including shutting down the rumors that would have revealed how Mr. Baldoni’s behavior including whispering sexual connotations in cast members’ ears.
In more exchanges between Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, they lauded at how successful the plan is.
Melissa Nathan circulated an article titled “String of hard to watch’ videos that have surfaced following ‘tone deaf’ Q&A to promote It Ends With Us could tarnish 36-year-old star’s golden Hollywood image for good.” Jennifer Abel lauded the efforts, and Nathan replied, “That’s why you hired me right? I’m the best.”
After the premiere of the movie and in order to cancel speculation on why he hasn’t been promoting the movie with the cast, Baldoni changed his social media presence and instructed his team to look for sexual assault survivors’ reactions.
Baldoni directed his team to share on his public Instagram feed the private messages he had received from survivors sharing their stories of domestic violence with him. His team talked out him out of it, but was more than willing to deploy survivors’ stories, reactions, and images to protect Baldoni’s image.
Baldoni proposed a strategy to focus on showing off his neuro divergance and can attribute what he’s been “accused of” to social awkwardness and impulsive speech.
Melissa Nathan texted a text chain with Ms. Abel and Mr. Heath providing pricing quotes ranging from $75,000 to $ 175,000 for The Agency Group’s crisis mitigation services.
Jennifer Abel writes to Jamey Heath about having dinner with a friend who writes for multiple outlets and is willing to write harmful stories towards Blake Lively.
Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel write to each other saying that Justin Baldoni was questioning whether the plan was aggressive enough, but Nathan assures they are doing what they need but cannot write it down because it would get them in trouble.
Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan expressed how tired they are of Blake Lively and want to plant stories against her.
Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan refer to their plan as a social combat plan.
Abel and Nathan share more text messages about the work they’ve done.
Abel and Nathan write to each other that after an article describing Blake Lively as “uncomfortable” on set, the public is now confused.
Nathan writes to Abel that Justin Baldoni’s religion should be taken out of stories.
After the uncomfortable story didn’t get picked up by news sources, Nathan pointed out that socials are a majority pro-Justin.
Jed Wallace, an independent contractor working for The Agency Group pointed out about the social trends with the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni feud. Nathan and Abel then texted each other about the social trends really “ramping up.”
Abel wrote to her team about pickup was dying down and that they were seeing a shift on social.
On August 9, a woman posted a social media post about Justin’s show My Last Days about how he used her friend and exploited her story. “Justin weaponizes therapeutic language, presenting himself as thoughtful and supportive, yet his actions reveal a very different reality. He portrays himself as an ally to women and the vulnerable, but it’s all a façade—he manipulates the vernacular of care to mask his true intentions.In reality, none of the proceeds from the show benefited the individuals he profiled.
Abel, Nathan, and Wallace planned to retaliate against her claim, while also planning to do the same with another girl who came forward with another claim.
Several media outlets questioned the HR complaints made on set of It Ends With Us. Abel asserted that the claims were already out there and they would “need to position” the claims as “claims that are already out there about the kiss and the weight comment.”
Justin Baldoni suggested “flipping the narrative” that came from unnamed sources who had made false claims about Ryan Reynolds’ involvement in the script of It Ends With Us, and suggested ways to manipulate those rumors to make Reynolds appear to be anti-feminist.
