Blake Lively’s lawyers blast Justin Baldoni for launching ‘more attacks’ against the actress

Lawyers for actress Blake Lively are condemning actor/director Justin Baldoni for launching even ‘more attacks’ against his client.

Lively, 37, starred in It Ends With Us opposite Baldoni, 40, who also directed the film, which was released in theaters this past August and is currently streaming on Netflix.

After months of rumors, Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, alleging Baldoni had improvised unwanted kissing scenes and created a hostile work environment through sexual harassment and more.

Just a day later, The New York Times published an article revealing Baldoni hired a crisis PR team to ‘bury’ Lively and destroy her credibility, with Lively then suing Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios company later that day.

Baldoni responded by filing a $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times for their report that he claimed pushed an, ‘unverified and self-serving narrative.’

Now Lively’s legal team insists to People that Lively’s, ‘serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation’ are in fact, ‘backed by concrete facts.’

Just a day later, The New York Times published an article revealing Baldoni hired a crisis PR team to ‘bury’ Lively and destroy her credibility, with Lively then suing Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios company later that day

‘This is not a ‘feud’ arising from “creative differences” or a “he said/she said” situation,’ Lively’s lawyers’ statement began.

‘As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set,’ the attorneys added.

‘And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Ms. Lively since her filing,’ they continued.

‘Sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry,’ the lawyers added while breaking down some ‘classic tactics’ employed by abusers.

‘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,’ the statement continued.

‘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 said.

‘Most importantly, media statements are not a defense to Ms. Lively’s legal claims. We will continue to prosecute her claims in federal court, where the rule of law determines who prevails, not hyperbole and threats,’ the statement concluded.

Lively claimed in her lawsuit that the smear campaign employed by Baldoni employed caused her to suffer ‘financial harms’ which ‘continue to the present’.

‘This is not a ‘feud’ arising from “creative differences” or a “he said/she said” situation,’ Lively’s lawyers’ statement began

‘As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set,’ the attorneys added

Lively claimed in her lawsuit that the smear campaign employed by Baldoni employed c aused her to suffer ‘financial harms’ which ‘continue to the present’

She states that her haircare brand, Blake Brown, and her two drinks ranges, Betty Buzz and Betty Booze, both suffered huge losses in sales due to the backlash she received.

The lawsuit states that Blake Brown sales plummeted by up to 78 per cent after the ‘social manipulation campaign started’.

It said: ‘Based on internal sales projections, the sudden and unexpected negative media campaign launched against Ms. Lively depressed retail sales of Blake Brown products by 56-78 per cent.’

The lawsuit added: ‘This dramatic drop was completely at odds with the high satisfaction scores that Blake Brown products received in the significant consumer testing performed before launch or its initial success after launch’.