If The Law Isn’t On Blake Lively’s Side, It Isn’t On Yours Either: Why The Average Person Should Care About Lively’s Lawsuit
I originally wrote this up for a friend who knows I have followed this case and was interested in learning what it was about. I realized that this might be helpful for people who haven't read past the headlines, so I jazzed it up a bit to make it into a post. This explains in the broadest of strokes what Lively's lawsuit is about, and why it matters (or should matter) to the average person.
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The long lived legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni finally has an end in sight, but what most people don’t seem to realize is that the seemingly endless conflict is far more than a silly celebrity feud.
At the core of it, Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and his PR team is about the right to a safe working environment, and the right to raise concerns about harassment without being retaliated against.
Lively’s lawsuit is exceedingly simple. She—and multiple other women on the set of It Ends With Us—experienced sexual harassment by Justin Baldoni and Jamey Heath, and all raised concerns about the conduct and behavior. Only there wasn’t a single HR person hired to work on the production of the film. All HR related complaints were funneled up the chain of Wayfarer studios, to Justin Baldoni (the co-owner of the studio) and Jamey Heath (the CEO), the very individuals that those on set were raising concerns about.
How would the average person feel if they raised a concern at work about sexual harassment, only to find out that the person who harassed them is the one who handles complaints? It’s very easy to see how problematic that would be, and it’s exactly what happened to Blake Lively and others who raised concerns on set.
Counting HR Complaints Like Trump Counted COVID Cases
(There Can’t Be HR Complaints If There Is No HR)
Legally, Wayfarer (and Justin Baldoni and Jamey Heath), were obligated to investigate any and all concerns that they were made aware of. We know now from various documents and filings on the legal docket that Justin Baldoni and Jamey Heath were both fully aware of the issues on set and even went so far as to issue apologies and promise to do better in response to being made aware of them. But they never launched an official investigation, never brought in any HR personnel to document issues, and continued to engage in the behaviors on set despite the mounting number of complaints and increasingly toxic work environment. Baldoni himself went so far as to make a joke when Jenny Slate expressed discomfort at him telling Blake Lively she looked sexy during prep for a scene. After he was called out for commenting on his employee’s body, Baldoni rolled his eyes and told a group of cast and crew including Lively and Slate, “sorry I missed the HR meeting.”
In fact, most of the cast had missed the meeting because it was never held to begin with. Wayfarer studios was responsible for handling HR concerns and providing guidance to those on set, but despite having a PowerPoint presentation for this very purpose many of the cast who were deposed stated under oath that they had never been shown the content or given information on how to file complaints or who to contact in the event they had concerns.
What sort of workplace is so stacked against its employees? There is no harassment training even though this is standard in nearly every workplace and included in employee handbooks and manuals. But not only is there no training, there’s also no HR department, and all HR concerns are relayed to the co-owner and CEO of the company, who have a vested interest in suppressing complaints. Especially when the complaints are against themselves.
Alex Saks, a producer for the film, even testified during her deposition that when she first began relaying concerns about the issues on set to Jamey Heath he was receptive and apologetic. But as filming continued, Heath later informed her that it would be very bad for them if any of the complaints were in writing and implied they should not be documented.
A prevailing talking point related to this case has been that there were no HR complaints ever filed on set. Legal filings and evidence in this case prove concerns were raised, but Baldoni dismissed them, and Heath actively discouraged others from documenting them because he feared it would make them look bad.
There can’t be HR complaints if you don’t allow anyone to formally file them.
There Isn’t A Bring Your Porn Addiction To Work Day
(Someone Should Have Made Sure Justin Baldoni Knew This)
The concerns raised on set cover a series of interactions that range from things that could be written off as an awkward misunderstanding, to things that would make the head of Wayfarer’s HR (if they actually had one) lose their shit. For reference, here’s an assortment of things that happened on set. This is not an exhaustive list but only a snapshot of some of the behaviors. The judge ruling on this lawsuit acknowledged that each of these issues could reasonably constitute or contribute to a hostile work environment:
- Baldoni remarking on Lively and Slate’s appearance and referring to them multiple times as sexy
- Baldoni making a joke (as quoted above) when Slate spoke up and said commenting on actors’ bodies wasn’t appropriate or necessary
- Baldoni telling Slate, “I can say this because my wife is here, but you look sexy in what you’re wearing.”
- Heath entering Lively’s trailer while she was wearing only a thong. Heath knocked and was told by four women NOT to enter the trailer. He proceeded to do so anyway.
- Heath insisting Lively must allow him into her trailer or he would not meet with her to discuss her concerns. Then proceeding to stare at her naked body in a mirror.
- Heath and Baldoni insisting that Lively must be fully naked in order to film a birth scene. No nudity was written into the script, and according to SAG all scenes of this nature require prior written consent from the actor or actress. This was NOT obtained for this scene.
- Baldoni telling Lively that he and his wife orgasm together, and asking if she and Ryan Reynolds do as well.
- Baldoni telling Lively he knew all about porn because of his porn addiction.
- Baldoni reassuring Lively that the sexually explicit scenes he had added to the script without her consent were not porny. He—the guy with a porn addiction—would definitely know if they were porny.
- Baldoni relaying to cast and crew that Lively doesn’t watch porn (like Baldoni)
“So much fear of Blake coming out and going public about how I’m a bad person and unsafe and not who I say I am”
(A Real Live Text Justin Baldoni Sent To Other People)
Despite Justin Baldoni originally claiming that he was never aware of any complaints made on set, he later sent text messages to his PR team and Jamey Heath saying he was worried about the things Lively could say about him publicly, and how those things would be viewed. He was fully aware at this point that his actions were wrong and he was terrified other people might find out what he’d done.
So what did he do about it?
This is the part where normal people would take accountability, apologize, and finally hire the HR personnel they desperately needed to handle the concerns. Instead of doing this, Justin Baldoni and Jamey Heath doubled down on their own behaviors and hired a crisis PR team right around the time promotion for the film ramped up.
They hired a PR team that wrote that “we can bury her,” and then proceeded to do exactly that. If you step back for a second and really think about it, the PR campaign is actually excellent. None of the facts in the legal filings make Baldoni look good. He never even really denies engaging in many of the alleged behaviors. His defense since the beginning has always been that hey, these things happened, but Blake Lively is kind of a bitch, so…
And it’s worked astonishingly well. The average person can’t state what the major claims are in her case, nor do they know most of the information covered in this breakdown (Justin Baldoni and Jamey Heath handling their own HR complaints, the lack of harassment training in general, the fact that multiple women testified under oath in their depositions to Justin Baldoni and Jamie Heath’s behaviors, the laundry list of things that are clearly sexual harassment).
A quick cruise across the internet or social media concerning this topic dredges up countless click bait articles, acerbicly titled videos, and assorted Tik Tok personalities offering legal breakdowns despite having no legal expertise. The vast majority of this content is anti-Lively, and curiously features the same set of talking points. Lively is a bully, Lively is a mean girl, Lively is tone deaf, Lively lied about everything, Lively stole the movie, Lively is a bitch. There are no facts to be found, and the biggest concerns seem to be where Lively got married, or how Lively behaved in an interview recorded over a decade ago.
Content creators and Tik Tok “lawyers” have made coverage of this case their entire personality and appear to be more credible sources of information. They often pick through the actual legal filings on their videos, but they rarely evaluate the legal filings in their entirety. Instead, they zero in on specific and often irrelevant details and hyperfixate on them to create a narrative that ignores much of the information on the legal docket. An example is VanZan, or VanSham, which is what a lot of content creators called a subpoena that was filed by Lively before she sued Justin Baldoni.
This subpoena was lawful and filed by an entity owned by Blake Lively and Reybolds and it was used to collect some of the earliest information on the smear campaign. CC’s claimed for months on end that there never was a subpoena, that Lively had illegally obtained information, that her entire case was about to be thrown out, her lawyers would be sanctioned, and Lively might even be thrown into jail! This was the nail in the coffin of Blake Lively’s case.
Except after weeks of fervently proclaiming this everyone suddenly stopped talking about it and never mentioned it again. VanZan was nothing but content for the PR cycle, and the moment the topic had served its purpose, content creators completely blocked out this supposedly pivotal part of the case in favor of harping on the next big thing (like Taylor Swift, her texts, and oh yeah her deposition that never happened).
In defense of the smear campaign accusation, Juistin Baldoni and his PR team insisted that the backlash against Lively has been purely organic. But what about that pesky paper trail that leads directly from Justin Baldoni’s team to various content creators who have profited off their coverage of this case?
For example, Popcorned Planet, a YouTube channel run by a creator who was himself accused of sexual harassment, boldly claimed that he had no contact with Justin Baldoni’s legal or PR team. However, a judge in Florida revealed that he had actually exchanged hundreds of messages with a member of Baldoni’s PR team.
Another filing revealed that Bryan Freedman, Justin Baldoni’s lawyer, sent information directly to Sage Steele, who runs a YouTube channel called The Sage Steele Show. The creator posted a lengthy episode titled “Shame on Blake Lively and the New York Times,” where she relays disparaging information about Blake Lively at Freedman’s direction.
Maybe not everyone likes Blake Lively, but not this many people hate her. There’s a busy busy busy PR team that wants to make the world believe she’s the absolute worst, but she’s just not the witch they’ve made her out to be.
You Probably Forgot What We Were Talking About
(Girl keep up, It’s About Your Right To a Safe Workplace)
Blake Lively raised valid concerns about inappropriate behaviour at work, but instead of investigating these complaints as he was legally obligated to do, Baldoni dismissed the concerns and made jokes about them.
Then, after months of bad behavior, Justin Baldoni panicked because he finally realized that sexual harassment is in fact, a pretty bad look. Especially when you’ve built your brand on being a feminist. Justin Baldoni then hired a crisis PR team “to bury” Blake Lively in the press and silence her.
The thing is… Blake Lively has to date never given a public interview or statement discussing the things that occurred on set. Even during filming, she never relayed to those outside of a select few close friends and colleagues what was happening. She completed the press and promotional tour for the movie and never publicly spoke a single bad word about Justin Baldoni during that time. The only reason anyone knows about the allegations is because Lively filed a lawsuit about them, and began the litigation process.
Lively just wanted what most people want—to be able to go to work and do their job without being harassed—but Justin Baldoni and his colleagues failed to create a safe workplace and investigate complaints even though they were legally obligated to do so.
To add insult to injury, they retaliated against Lively because they were scared she might do something crazy like tell people who they actually were. This is also illegal, because reporting sexual harassment or forms of discrimination is a protected activity. You cannot and should not be punished for raising concerns, but Lively’s reputation is currently in tatters because of Baldoni’s crisis PR team and their efforts to punish and silence her for raising concerns on set.
The thing about the Lively lawsuit is that it comes off as a silly celebrity feud, but for women in particular, Lively’s case is a kind of horror story about what can happen when you raise valid concerns about harassment. Legally everyone in the workplace is supposed to be able to come forward and raise complaints about things like sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination without threat of retaliation. But when Lively spoke up, Justin Baldoni retaliated by trying to silence her. Even with so many facts on Lively’s side, her legal battle has been a lengthy struggle that still may not end in her favor.
If Blake Lively—a Met Gala darling, an A-List celebrity, a wealthy and privileged individual—can’t land a resounding victory in court for what is clear sexual harassment and retaliation, what hope does anyone else have?