#Justin baldoni

[blessicablimpson]

[maaarine]

'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine (Megan Twohey and Mike McIntire and Julie Tate, The New York Times, Dec 21 2024)

"Last summer, as the release of “It Ends With Us” approached, Justin Baldoni, the director and a star of the film, and Jamey Heath, the lead producer, hired a crisis public relations expert.

During shooting, Blake Lively, the co-star, had complained that the men had repeatedly violated physical boundaries and made sexual and other inappropriate comments to her.

Their studio, Wayfarer, agreed to provide a full-time intimacy coordinator, bring in an outside producer and put other safeguards on set.

In a side letter to Ms. Lively’s contract, signed by Mr. Heath, the studio also agreed not to retaliate against the actress.

But by August, the two men, who had positioned themselves as feminist allies in the #MeToo era, expressed fears that her allegations would become public and taint them, according to a legal complaint that she filed Friday.

It claims that their P.R. effort had an explicit goal: to harm Ms. Lively’s reputation instead.

Her filing includes excerpts from thousands of pages of text messages and emails that she obtained through a subpoena.

These and other documents were reviewed by The New York Times. (…)

Mr. Baldoni was best known for the CW satirical romantic dramedy “Jane the Virgin.”

Wayfarer provided the resources for bigger ambitions. It was bankrolled by the billionaire Steve Sarowitz, who is co-chair of the studio with Mr. Baldoni.

They and Mr. Heath, the chief executive, are all deeply involved with the Baha’i religious organization, which promotes unity, peace and gender equality.

Mr. Baldoni has presented himself as an ally to women, writing books, co-hosting a podcast with Mr. Heath and giving talks on toxic masculinity. (…)

She claimed Mr. Baldoni had improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life, including encounters in which he said he may not have received consent.

Mr. Heath had shown her a video of his wife naked, she said, and he had watched Ms. Lively in her trailer when she was topless and having body makeup removed, despite her asking him to look away.

She said that both men repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding. (…)

As the film release neared, Ms. Lively and other cast members informed Sony and Wayfarer that they would not do any appearances alongside Mr. Baldoni.

So did Ms. Hoover, the author, who had her own dissatisfactions with him and had become more upset after he told her about Ms. Lively’s allegations, according to text messages from Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath.

By the first week of August, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni had retained Ms. Nathan, who had worked with high-profile clients including Mr. Depp, whose ex-wife, Amber Heard, accused him of physical abuse. (…)

Three days later, Mr. Baldoni texted Ms. Abel, flagging a social media thread that accused another celebrity of bullying behavior and had generated 19 million views. “This is what we would need,” he wrote.

Ms. Nathan soon floated proposals to hire contractors to dominate social media through “full social account take downs,” by starting “threads of theories” and generally working to “change narrative.”

“All of this will be most importantly untraceable,” she wrote. (…)

When Ms. Abel wrote to her Aug. 4 that “I’m having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible Blake is to work with. Just to get ahead of it,” Ms. Nathan replied that she had spoken off the record to an editor at The Daily Mail.

“She’s ready when we are,” Ms. Nathan wrote.

A flurry of articles followed the Hollywood Reporter piece. Many made it seem as if the only rift was over creative control.

Some journalists had gotten wind of complaints about Mr. Baldoni’s behavior, but none of the most serious ones were published.

“He doesn’t realise how lucky he is right now,” Ms. Nathan texted Ms. Abel. (…)

It is unclear exactly how Mr. Wallace operated.

There are references in emails to “social manipulation” and “proactive fan posting,” and text messages cite efforts to “boost” and “amplify” online content that was favorable to Mr. Baldoni or critical of Ms. Lively.

“We are crushing it on Reddit,” Mr. Wallace told Ms. Nathan, according to a text she sent Ms. Abel on Aug. 9.

The next day, one of Ms. Nathan’s employees texted, “We’ve started to see shift on social, due largely to Jed and his team’s efforts to shift the narrative.”

Ms. Nathan wrote to Ms. Abel: “And socials are really really ramping up. In his favour, she must be furious. It’s actually sad because it just shows you have people really want to hate on women.” (…)

On Aug. 16, Ms. Nathan shared the Daily Mail article headlined “Is Blake Lively set to be CANCELLED?” with references to ‘hard to watch’ videos and a ‘tone deaf’ promotional Q. and A.

“Wow. You really outdid yourself with this piece,” Ms. Abel responded.

“That’s why you hired me right?” Ms. Nathan replied. “I’m the best.”"

[justiceamberheard]

In an exclusive statement shared with NBC News, Heard, who now lives in Spain, said: “Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.’ I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”

[envelopandkissme]

[userautumn]

there's actually no reason to say "blake lively is bad too" btw. her being "bad" doesn't mean she was not sexually harassed. her being "bad" does not mean justin baldoni is not still (allegedly) a piece of shit. the only reason anyone would say "blake lively is bad too" is to justify their own guilt for falling prey to the hate train, which is ridiculous. grow the fuck up, own your shit, work on dismantling your internalized or overt misogyny, move the fuck on, and realize that people who have caused harm can still be harmed on account of the fact that they are, in fact, people. genuinely, what is not clicking for you?

[akajustmerry]

I don't like Blake Lively and was openly critical of how inappropriate her handling of Domestic Violence as a topic was in interviews ie using it as way to promote her lifestyle brands. But I don't have to like someone to believe them when they present a shit tonne of evidence that they're victims of sexual/workplace harrassment and an intense smear campaign. The NYT's exposè on Justin Baldon's PR campaign (link with paywall removed) against Lively, and the evidence she's submitted in her subsequent harrassment suit is eye-opening. Baldoni used the same PR team and tactics Johnny Depp used to smear Amber Heard. Regardless, whether or not someone is likeable is immaterial to the person's right to be safe and unharmed, but these PR firms really play on the masses synomysing likeability and innocence. Once again, the cruel and violently misogynistic legacy of Johnny Depp's DARVO-ing of Amber Heard rears its ugly head.

[duchessofostergotlands]

This is a link to Blake Lively's full complaint against Justin Baldoni and holy shit is it incredibly damning. Most of the news outlets are skimming over the details but it is absolutely worth a read:

https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/1629cc34e562e325/4410b1d9-full.pdf

[faithlesslovee]

it's actually so crazy that people were dogging on blake for not talking about the dv aspect of the movie only for it to come out that the studio asked the cast to avoid the topic and justin did the opposite specifically to make her look bad

[killjoyfem]

Blake Lively is currently suing Justin Baldoni for sexually harassing her during the making of “It Ends With Us”, and the response to it is already deeply disappointing, to say the least.

Congratulations to everyone who keeps falling for misogynistic smear campaigns against women and going to battle to defend the abusive men orchestrating them. It is always “believe victims” until it’s a woman you dislike.

[darkshrimpemotions]

I cannot stress this enough: Blake Lively made insensitive remarks in press tour interviews where she was explicitly told and contractually obligated to act and speak a certain way about a film she was in. For this, the internet was extremely quick and loud about wanting her to disappear off the face of the earth.

Justin Baldoni sexually harassed and assaulted, and encouraged an environment where it was normalized to harass and assault not only Blake Lively but multiple other women on set during the production of said film.

Justin Baldoni abused his power on set to put Blake Lively in situations where she was naked and vulnerable and being touched in ways that fell outside what was previously agreed upon in her contract and the script.

Justin Baldoni is a sexual predator who used feminism and combating toxic masculinity as part of his brand to hide his own vast shortcomings as a human being.

Justin Baldoni body shamed Blake Lively when she was four months post-partum under the spurious guise of avoiding exacerbating a back injury while lifting her, despite having full creative control over the script and despite stunt doubles existing, meaning there was no reason whatsoever he would ever have to lift her in the first place.

Justin Baldoni hired Johnny Depp's PR firm to "bury" Blake Lively (his word) when she pushed back against his treatment of her and other women on set.

Justin Baldoni intentionally departed without warning from the agreed upon Marketing campaign they were both meant to adhere to explicitly in order to appear sensitive and thoughtful on the issue of DV, and to make Blake, who adhered to her contractual obligations, look even more out of touch and callous by comparison.

Justin Baldoni shared the stories of sexual assault and domestic violence survivors on his socials to further paint himself as an ally to women in contrast to Blake Lively. Read it again. He explicitly used DV and SA survivors to cover up his own sexual abuse and further smear the woman he abused in retaliation for her pushing back.

Justin Baldoni is an abuser and a sexual predator, and he explicitly set out, in his own words, to destroy and bury one of the women he targeted for daring to fight back.

Where's the volume. Where's the VOLUME? It was EVERYWHERE within hours when it was her, but now it's been days and it's all so quiet and cautious and slow despite the court documents and text messages! Where are all the countless thinkpieces, youtuber video essays, notes app apologies for conclusions wrongly jumped to, why is it HALF as loud for something orders of magnitude worse than anything Blake Lively said on that press tour? Is this thing on??? IS ANYONE OUT THERE? HELLO???

[fatalforesight]

Women are allowed to be annoying, bitchy, mean spirited, unkind, lousy, lazy, finicky, anxious, disinterested, disingenuous, disrespectful, and also be believed when they come forward about sexual harassment or assault. Women are allowed to be unliked and also believed. We cannot keep equating our own inability to like someone to our ability or lack thereof to believe them. I don’t see this inability when it comes to men. In fact, I think so many people love a redeeming arc in a man, but hate it seen in women. Why? Why? Why do men get to have comeback stories from things like addiction, theft, bad workplace behavior, even things as heinous as manslaughter… but a woman can’t come back from a bad interview? A bad press junket? A bad relationship? I can’t think of men so hated the way women like Amber Heard and Blake Lively are hated right now. Even beyond them. It’s so easy to hate women right now. Cynthia Erivo, Lea Michele, Jennifer Lopez, Brie Larson, Rachel Zegler, Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift, and so on. I see unprecedented amounts of hate for these women and more nearly everytime they make a headline, but I don’t see the same energy for men. And if any one of them were to come out about sexual harassment or assault, I guarantee I’d have to see more comments about how it doesn’t matter because they’re famous, or how they brought it on themselves, or how they’re probably lying because they need the engagement or sympathy. It is so much more important to believe women than it is to belittle them, even the ones you dislike or distrust. Even if she did lie, I promise you, the men that they “ruin” the career of can always come back. The internet will open their arms to any man with half a jawline or lukewarm wit.

[feministfang]

This loser positioned himself as a feminist ally supporting DV survivors and still sexually harassed a woman and also tried to destroy her career. Yup! Radfems are always right when we say these males can never be feminists and we don’t want them as our allies!!!!

[djarinsyndulla]

I really wish you all would let the “Blake Lively promoted that movie terribly” talking point go already considering we know Blake Lively was made a REAL LIFE victim due to the production and filming of this movie. Justin Baldoni and his buddy Heath repeatedly violated Blake’s space and entered her trailer while she was nude and/or breastfeeding, they showed nude photos of their spouses to Blake and other cast members, they repeatedly brought up their pornography addictions, they allowed their friends not associated with the movie on set during nude scenes with Blake, Justin and Heath pressured Blake to film the birth scene nude and the guy Justin got to play the OBGYN was just his friend, the studio didn’t have COVID insurance so they kept a covid exposure a secret which resulted in Blake AND her infant getting covid, Baldoni repeatedly would tell Blake he talks to her dead father, and Baldoni straight up admitted to Blake there’s been times he didn’t ask for consent and wouldn’t listen to his sexual partners who told him “no”.

This isn’t even close to being all the things mentioned in that sexual harassment and retaliation complaint and I didn’t even get into how the studio specifically told the cast to promote the movie the way Blake did, but people are still stuck on how this stupid movie was promoted. Y’all care more about a fictional story than an actual real victim like that’s crazy.

[lemurchick]

In my opinion the most important quote from Lively-Baldoni scandal is this one. When even the PR person hired to tarnish a woman’s reputation admits how easy it is because people on the internet so ready to hate women 💁🏻‍♀️

[stfulara]

all this fiasco around 'it ends with us' has made me lose the love I had for Blake Lively- dude branding a movie abt DV as the romcom of the year is just sick and twisted and promoting your new brand instead of actually taking about the issue what are we 2???? lol they even mean girl-ed Justin Baldoni who actually wants to talk about the real issue here- and there's this deadpool x wolverine x it ends with us drama

the fact that young adults would actually romanticize this shitshow is so disheartening, normalizing domestic violence is NOT OKAY

[faithlesslovee]

and they were calling him a feminist king

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