What happened
Actor Blake Lively filed a legal complaint accusing Justin Baldoni, her costar and director in the summer hit "It Ends With Us," of sexually harassing her during the filming of the romantic comedy, then launching a "sophisticated, coordinated and well-financed retaliation" campaign to "destroy" her reputation after she complained, The New York Times said over the weekend.
Who said what
Blake Lively's "bombshell complaint" was filed Friday with the California Civil Rights Department, Variety said. It alleges that Baldoni retaliated after she convened a January meeting to address his and producer Jamey Heath's "repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior," including discussing their sex lives, entering her trailer unannounced when she was topless and trying to add unapproved sex scenes and kissing improvisation.
The meeting and agreed-to safeguards improved conditions on the set, but Baldoni and Heath, "who had positioned themselves as feminist allies in the #MeToo era, expressed fears that her allegations would become public and taint them," the Times said, citing the complaint. The public relations team they hired outlined their plan to "bury" Lively in text messages included in the complaint, and their effort "appears to have paid off."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A lawyer for Baldoni and his production company called Lively's claims "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious." The talent agency William Morris Endeavor dropped Baldoni on Saturday.
What next?
Lively's complaint is "a precursor to a lawsuit," the Times said.
-
Has ‘poppy politics’ got out of hand?Talking Point ‘Toxic’ debate over red and white poppies is another front in the culture wars
-
Vladimir Putin’s ‘nuclear tsunami’ missileIn The Spotlight Russian president has boasted that there is no way to intercept the new weapon
-
Sudoku hard: November 11, 2025The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
The 5 best nuclear war movies of all timeThe Week Recommends ‘A House of Dynamite’ reanimates a dormant cinematic genre for our new age of atomic insecurity
-
To the point: the gender divide over exclamation marksTalking Point ‘Men harbouring urges to be more exclamative’ can finally take a breath – this is what using the punctuation really conveys
-
The 8 best dark comedies of the 21st centuryThe Week Recommends From Santa Claus to suicide terrorism, these movies skewered big, taboo subjects
-
Film reviews: Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Frankenstein, and Blue MoonFeature A rock star on the rise turns inward, a stressed mother begins to unravel, and more
-
8 of the best horror comedy films of all timeThe Week Recommends From parodies to ‘requels,’ these movies will make you laugh and scream at the same time
-
Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
5 of the best kid-friendly scary moviesThe Week Recommends Hardcore horror is for grown-ups only, but light scares can be startling fun for the whole family
-
Film reviews: Roofman and Kiss of the Spider WomanFeature An escaped felon’s heart threatens to give him away and a prisoner escapes into daydreams of J.Lo.
