Justin Baldoni has been dropped by WME.
The decision to part ways with the “It Ends with Us” director and star came from the agency Saturday after Blake Lively filed a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint against him Friday night, sources have confirmed.
Baldoni was informed of the decision Saturday, sources said. WME also reps Lively, and based on the seriousness of the allegations in Lively’s complaint, the agency felt action needed to be taken swiftly.
WME had no comment.
In a copy of the complaint acquired by Variety, Lively cited “severe emotional harm” inflicted upon her and her family by Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and of launching a smear campaign against her following the release of “It Ends With Us.” Shortly after the news broke, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman slammed the accusations as “shameful” and “categorically false.”
According to the complaint lodged with the California Civil Rights Department, a meeting was held in January 2024 between Lively and Baldoni to address her return to the “It Ends with Us” set after the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes had ended. Ryan Reynolds, Lively’s husband, was reportedly present.
At said meeting, Lively claimed that Baldoni complained about her weight to her trainer, inappropriately discussed his sex life and pressured her to disclose her religious beliefs. She also claimed that Jamey Heath, a “It Ends with Us” producer and the CEO of Wayfarer Studios, showed her a video of his wife giving birth.
Lively also alleged that, after she demanded Baldoni not add any more sex scenes than what was already in the script, which was approved by Sony Pictures according to the complaint, Baldoni launched a campaign of “social manipulation” to “destroy” Lively’s reputation. Variety has reached out to Sony Pictures for comment.
Other claims in the filing include Heath and Baldoni describing their “previous pornography addiction” and barging into her make-up trailer unannounced while she was breastfeeding her newborn baby. The complaint also included emails and texts between Lively, Baldoni and his publicity team explaining plans to push back on the actress’s complaints if they ever became public.
“It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni,” reads Freedman’s statement to Variety about the complaint. “Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.”
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” Freedman continued. “Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met. It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address.”
The statement concluded that “the representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
A spokesperson for Lively referred Variety to a statement she gave to The New York Times, which read: “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
