Baldoni retained the PR crisis manager Johnny Depp used during his high-profile defamation trial against Heard in 2022. In an exclusive statement to NBC News, Heard said social media misinformation is “as horrifying as it is destructive.”.
Amber Heard said social media is where a lie becomes the truth in response to the complaint Blake Lively filed against her “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni, telling NBC News on Monday she “saw this firsthand.”
Lively accused Baldoni, the film’s director, of sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment and trying to tarnish her reputation with a targeted social media campaign in an undated complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department.
The complaint said Baldoni retained prominent PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan — the woman Johnny Depp hired during his high-profile trial defamation trial against Heard, his former wife.
In an exclusive statement shared with NBC News, Heard, who 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.”
A jury unanimously found that Heard had defamed Depp, and he was awarded $5 million in punitive damages and $10 million in compensatory damages. Heard was also awarded $2 million in compensatory damages in her counterclaim but nothing in punitive damages.
At the time, Depp said “the jury gave me my life back,” but Heard said the decision “sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated.”
According to Lively’s complaint, Baldoni hired a crisis communications team to launch a “retaliatory social manipulation campaign” against Lively during the film’s promotion aimed at destroying her reputation.
Nathan delivered Baldoni a plan consisting of “social media mitigation,” including “proactive fan posting” and “social manipulations,” to “help change narrative” during the film’s promotion, the complaint said.
The film’s promotion made headlines at the time because the two stars appeared to avoid each other as rumors swirled on social media that they did not get along on the set.
Fans also noticed that Baldoni was doing media separately from his co-stars and that some of the film’s stars, including Lively and Jenny Slate, did not follow him on Instagram.
Bryan Freedman, who is representing Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and all its representatives, called the allegations in Lively’s complaint “categorically false.”
He alleged that Wayfarer hired a crisis communications team because Lively threatened not to show up on the set during filming and threatened not to promote the film.
Freedman said Monday in response to Heard’s comments, “TAG PR must be the most powerful group of publicists the world has ever seen for it to be able to completely change the perception of both Amber Heard and Blake Lively.”
He said the only correlation between both cases is that “every move they have made has been out there for everyone to see, widely filmed and documented for the public to make up their own minds — which they did, organically.”
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Ryan Reynolds hints at difficult time in first post since wife Blake Lively’s Justin Baldoni lawsuit
Ryan Reynolds has reprised the role of Deadpool in his first post since his wife, fellow actor Blake Lively, filed a lawsuit accusing Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment.
Lively has been publicly supported by many Hollywood stars after she accused her It Ends With Us co-star and director of sexually harassing her during filming and of arranging a “smear campaign” against her in the run-up to the hit movie’s release earlier this year.
In Lively’s lawsuit, she claimed she was zoned out by the media in “a coordinated effort to destroy” her reputation”, noting that the “emotional impact” of the fallout on her was “extreme”.
The actor said the negative press also affected her husband, Deadpool actor Reynolds, whom she married in 2012, and their four children.
While Reynolds has not addressed the furore directly, he hinted at a difficult time in the post, which saw him appear in character as the Marvel antihero for a short clip that co-starred Wonder Woman actor Lynda Carter.
In the caption, he suggested that recent experiences had eaten away at him, calling it a time where he “really didn’t feel like putting the suit on”.
The video was made to raise awareness of his campaign with Lively on behalf of Sick Kids Hospital, a charity for children.
According to Reynolds, he and Lively will match donations of up to $500,000 that were made before Christmas Eve.
On Monday (23 December), he wrote: “It’s almost Christmas Eve. Last day to donate to @sickkids. @blakelively and I are matching any donation to $500k”
“This organisation is a sanctuary for so many kids and their parents traversing the unimaginable.”
Referring to the video, he said: “Thank you @rowlandbb for directing this amazing little piece during a time I really didn’t feel like putting the suit on,” and he also thanked Carter for her “time, grace and talent”.
Lively’s initial complaint against Baldoni, which was filed with the California Civil Rights Department and is the precursor to a lawsuit, is the culmination of months of speculation from fans and the media, after rumours of a rift between the pair overshadowed its promotion.
Legal documents seen by The Independent as well as an investigation by The New York Times accuse Baldoni and associates of a targeted effort to “destroy” the actor and drag her in the media, which Lively says has caused her “severe emotional distress”.
Lively filed a legal complaint on Friday in which she claimed that a meeting took place in early January to address the “hostile work environment that had almost derailed the film.” She accused Baldoni and lead producer Jamey Heath of “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior,” including unwanted improvised kissing from Baldoni.
According to the complaint, the actor had a number of requirements in order for her to continue work on the film, which included no more mention of Baldoni’s “pornography addiction” and no more showing nude videos or images of women to Lively and/or her employees.
Baldoni’s lawyer has called all claims against him “categorically false”.
Blake Lively’s Brother-In-Law Defends Her Amid Justin Baldoni Lawsuit
Blake Lively ’s brother-in-law defended the actress amid her sexual harassment lawsuit against Justin Baldoni .
Bart Johnson took to the Instagram comments section of a post from the New York Times on Lively’s case. “Her complaints were filed during the filming. On record. Long before the public conflict. The cast unfollowed him [Baldoni] for a reason,” the High School Music actor wrote, per Page Six.
“His PR team was stellar. Gross and disgusting but highly effective,” he added. “Read the article, their text message exchanges and his PR campaign strategy to bury her by any means necessary. No one is with out [sic] faults. But the public got played.”
While he said Lively isn’t without fault, he pointed out that she has a lot of responsibilities, like raising her and Ryan Reynolds ’ four kids.
“Just IMAGINE being a stay at home mom raising 4 kids, married to the busiest man in Hollywood and at the same time being a girl boss running multiple companies while writing, producing, running non profits and working 16+ hour days from home so you can be with your kids,” Johnson explained.
“Launching 2 new businesses you been working on / developing for many years (launch scheduled by distributors, not you, btw) all while getting attacked by a VERY expensive PR smear campaign because you filed a sexual harassment claim for the very film you have to go out and promote with just the right tone or you get cooked!?”
On Dec. 21, news surfaced that Lively had filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, her co-star and director of the film, This Ends With Us. The 37-year-old accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, and trying to tarnish her reputation with a targeted social media campaign. Baldoni has rejected her claims.
Blake’s sister, Robyn—who’s married to Johnson—also responded to the actress’ legal complaint: “FINALLY justice for my sister @blakelively,” Robyn wrote on her IG Story alongside screenshots of a New York Times article about Lively’s suit.
