Justin Baldoni, the filmmaker behind It Ends With Us, has been threatened by two "extremely powerful individuals," according to his lawyer, Bryan Freedman, causing fans to buzz with speculation about their identity.
The statement was released yesterday (December 23) by Freedman as a response to accusations levied against Baldoni by Blake Lively, the film's star and his co-star, accusing him of sexual harassment.
Highlights
- Justin Baldoni claims he's threatened by two powerful figures according to lawyer.
- Blake Lively accuses Baldoni of sexual harassment and of orchestrating a smear campaign against her.
- Fans suspect celebrities like Hugh Jackman or Ryan Reynolds as Baldoni's intimidators.
- Public opinion is split between supporting Lively's harassment claims and Baldoni's defense.
Lively also claimed that the filmmaker had orchestrated a "targeted smear campaign" against her, but Freedman dismissed the allegations, arguing that the actress ruined her image through her own actions.
Netizens, on the other hand, have been divided over the conflict, with one side believing Blake's claims and the other seeing Baldoni as a victim of much more influential celebrities.
"Blake and Ryan want to prove they are Hollywood and untouchable," a reader argued.
Fans are scrambling to identify the two "powerful people" threatening Justin Baldoni after his lawyer claimed he was being intimidated
Image credits: Gotham/Getty Images
As the complex legal and social media battle between the two stars continues, netizens have been trapped in a complex web of alleged facts, accusations, and statements carefully curated by each of the actors' PR firms.
Bryan Freedman, Baldoni's lawyer, addressed the claims of a smear campaign being run by his client, stating: "TAG PR operated as any other crisis management firm would when hired by a client experiencing threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources."
Image credits: Katie Jones/Beauty Inc/Getty Images
Names like Hugh Jackman, Taylor Swift, and others have been thrown around by readers following the lawyer's claims, but without concrete evidence.
Baldoni's supporters see him as the victim of powerful Hollywood figures punching down in retaliation for what they perceive as Lively's self-inflicted decrease in popularity, which Freedman said made the work of Baldoni's PR team easier.
Image credits: Sony Pictures Entertainment
"It's ironic that the New York Times, through their effort to 'uncover' an insidious PR effort, played directly into the hands of Lively's own dubious PR tactics by publishing leaked personal text exchanges that lack critical context," he said.
Image credits: Sony Pictures Entertainment
These leaked texts, supplied by Lively's legal team as part of her sexual harassment suit against the filmmaker, detail an intricate set of services.
These include the manipulation of online forums like Reddit, the pushing of videos on TikTok, and the takedown of accounts that go against Baldoni, all in order to create "social fan engagement," "go back and forth with any negative accounts," and help "change the narrative."
The legal back-and-forth is the latest development in the controversy between the co-stars, dating back to the movie's premiere in August
Image credits: Sony Pictures Entertainment
The legal fight between the co-stars started in August, during the film's debut campaign when rumors of tension between Lively and Baldoni were noted.
Fans of the movie started suspecting some drama behind the scenes as Baldoni was unfollowed on Instagram by Lively, and the co-stars were never seen posing in any pictures together.
Image credits: extratv
Rumors started gaining traction as People Magazine reported that Baldoni had hired a public relations manager on August 13, following a press tour that saw him be noticeably apart from the rest of the cast.
Baldoni's team is composed of TAG PR's Melissa Nathan, who previously represented Johnny Depp, and Jennifer Abel.
Image credits: blakelively
Correspondence between the two celebrates the public's animosity towards Lively stating: "The narrative online is so freaking good [...] Fans remain supportive and believe the 'feud' is because she took control of the movie."
Details of what exactly happened behind the scenes have remained nebulous, with both parties sharing conflicting accounts
Image credits: Gotham/Getty Images
Baldoni shed some light on his struggles while directing the movie in an interview with Today, confessing to having gotten "out of the way too much" at some points, fueling the rumors of the couple's attempt at taking creative control away from him.
Lively's fans, on the other hand, believe her sexual harassment claims come precisely due to creative decisions, as they accuse the actor of trying to add intimate scenes that were not in the book the movie was based on, as well as "improvising" during the ones they filmed.
Image credits: MEGA/Getty Images
Lively's legal complaint also alleges that Baldoni showed her explicit videos, asked her about her personal sex life, bullied her into losing weight, and interrupted her while she was breastfeeding.
Image credits: CBS Mornings
The filing also notes a series of demands Lively made, like hiring a full-time intimacy coordinator and asking the production to stop adding sex scenes "outside the scope of the script [she] approved when signing onto the project."
Netizens remain divided over the controversy, with one side believing Lively's claims of sexual harassment and the other taking Baldoni's side
"Bet you $20 the "two powerful people" he is alluding to are Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman," one reader argued. "Jackman was at several of the red carpet premieres for this movie, and it stuck out to me as if he was showing solidarity."
"Intimidation? He has no power. She's the one with the big names attached to her like Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift," another theorized.
"A working, married, nursing mother should not be subjected to men coming in and out of her private space unannounced, being bullied into nude scenes that were not scripted, asked about her sexual relationships, groped or kissed outside of contract obligations," a user countered with.
"Justin crossed those boundaries multiple times."
"There is no excuse for him to have physically assaulted her like he reportedly did, biting her inner lip while performing kisses not written in the script, causing her to bleed," another said. "That is aggravated assault."
