Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal feud now includes the names of music sensation Taylor Swift and model Hailey Bieber. In the texts submitted as evidence against Justin Baldoni, Swift and Bieber’s names appear as part of their takedown list. The texts suggest utilising the names and public image of these celebrities to manipulate Lively’s public image.

For the unversed, Blake Lively has sued her ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star and director Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment. Moreover, she accuses him of orchestrating a smear campaign to tarnish her reputation. In the legal complaint filed by Lively, Baldoni’s ‘crisis management plan’ to discredit Blake Lively has surfaced. The part of the document reveals some surprising details.

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According to the lawsuit section, obtained by US Weekly, a crisis expert working for Baldoni’s team noted how they can target Swift to manoeuvre Lively’s public image. The expert iterated the influence of Swift’s massive fanbase, suggesting that they could use it to intensify their response to Lively’s allegations. An email allegedly sent on August 6 reads, “We have seen the most innocuous issues turn giant due to socials or the hugest crises have no effect on social whatsoever. You just cannot tell at this stage. But, BL does have some of the same TS fanbase so we will be taking it extremely seriously.”

 

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Another document revealed that Baldoni’s team was looking to plant stories about the misuse of feminism. The team noted the criticism Swift has faced for allegedly mis-utilising feminism for her gain. “Our team can also explore planting stories about the weaponisation of feminism and how people like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilising these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want.” Meanwhile, as per Weekly, Hailey Bieber’s name also surfaced in the same crisis management strategy. Text exchanges submitted show the director sharing a screenshot of a thread that accused Bieber of bullying women. They wanted to leverage the instances to set a precedence against Lively.

Lively’s complaint also accuses Justin Baldoni’s crisis communication specialist, Melissa Nathan of “astroturfing.” It refers to the practice of fabricating public comments and views to manipulate the larger public opinion.

Meanwhile, coming to how Blake Lively obtained the texts, the complaint reveals that she followed due legal procedure. The original complaint read, “Ms. Lively obtained the communications set forth in this Complaint through legal process, including a civil subpoena.” However, another intriguing news has come to light over the text exchanges.

Justin Baldoni was a Jonesworks client. Both the founder Stephanie Jones and her in-house publicist Jen Abel worked on his PR and image. As per Variety, on August 21, Stephanie asked Jen to sign documents and asked her to submit the office phone. Apparently, Stephanie discovered that Jen was looking to start her own firm. Four months later, the contents of Jen’s phone are out in public via a New York Times story and a complaint filed by Blake against Justin.

However, Bryan Freedman, the representative of Jen, Justin, crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios and others involved refutes the claims. He states that none of his clients were subpoenaed over the matter.

Last week Blake Lively filed a complaint against Justin Baldoni accusing him of sexual harassment. This included forcing unwanted kiss scenes on set and watching her naked. She also shared exhibits, including alleged text exchanges over email between Baldoni’s publicists. Blake claims these as part of a campaign to tarnish her reputation.

Following the release of the texts, recently, Baldoni’s lawyer reacted to the claims. He said that the leaked texts used against him were taken “out of context.”

For more context: Blake Lively sues ‘It Ends with Us’ co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment