Justin Baldoni has shared alleged pictures of his family “being held” in the basement during the New York premiere of It Ends With Us.
The drama between It Ends With Us star and director Baldoni and his co-star Lively has reached new heights.
As previously reported, the 37-year-old actress, who plays Lily Bloom in the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her, per the New York Times.
Bryan Freedman – the attorney for Baldoni – slammed the allegations, saying that it was a “desperate attempt to ‘fix’ [Lively’s] negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign”.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” he told the outlet.
The Jane The Virgin star has fought back against Lively’s accusations in his $400 million countersuit, which was filed on Thursday (January 16) and submitted to the Southern District of New York.
Baldoni is suing Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, her publicist Leslie Sloane, and Sloane’s firm Vision PR.
In the lawsuit, which was obtained by E! News, the actor accuses all defendants of various offenses, including civil extortion, defamation, and invasion of privacy.
Meanwhile, Lively and Reynolds are facing specific accusations, including breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, and economic advantage.
Baldoni has alleged that Lively sidelined him during the film’s New York premiere and relegated him and his family to a basement-level room.
The filmmaker shared pictures allegedly taken on August 6 to prove his claim. In one image, Baldoni, his wife Emily, and several family members are shown sitting around a red table in a stark, windowless room. Surrounding them are popcorn boxes, bottles of Coke, and water.
In another shot, Baldoni – wearing the same outfit he donned on the red carpet earlier – posed with seven female friends and relatives next to pallets of unopened Dasani and Coke bottles.
The lawsuit states that Lively allegedly used “threats and extortion” to ensure Baldoni and his guests would “sit out their own premiere” in the lower-level space. It also claims Baldoni’s group was “ushered” into the room to prevent any interaction with the actress or her guests once she arrived at the red carpet event.
“They were confined to a makeshift holding area surrounded by concession stand stock, with only fold-out tables and chairs arranged in a square,” the lawsuit alleges. “Surrounded by close friends, family, soda bottles, and a lot of love, the irony of being held in a basement on what was arguably one of the most important nights of Baldoni’s career thus far, was not lost on anyone.”
Check out the alleged pictures below:The Jane the Virgin star further accused Lively of excluding him from the official celebrity after-party, which was paid for by Sony and his own production company, Wayfarer.
“As a result, Baldoni had to quickly organize and fund a separate after-party for himself and the Wayfarer team,” the lawsuit states, “forcing the company to cover the costs for two events—one for Lively and everyone else, and one for Baldoni and Wayfarer’s own friends, family, crew, and team.”
The mom-of-three’s legal team has dismissed Baldoni’s countersuit as “meritless,” accusing him of trying to shift the narrative.
In a statement shared on January 16, her lawyers said: “They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer.”
The Five Feet Apart star previously opened up about his feelings about the night in a voice message played during his lawyer’s appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show earlier this month.
“We were down there together – my friends and family, the people that love me the most,” the actor said in the undated clip. “And we start laughing because of the ridiculousness of this whole thing.”
Following the release of the audio message, Lively’s representative accused Baldoni’s team of attempting to discredit her.
“A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied,” they said, cited by Rolling Stone.
“Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender and suggest that the offender is actually the victim. These concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct,” they added.
You can read everything Justin Baldoni has alleged in the $400,000,000 lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds here.
