Justin Baldoni slammed for 'blatant' smear campaign of Blake Lively
Fox News national correspondent Griff Jenkins discusses documents detailing a smear campaign against actress Blake Lively created by 'It Ends with Us' co-star Justin Baldoni on 'Mediabuzz'.?
A journalist caught in the cross-fire between Hollywood stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's public back-and-forth claimed the actress used her "as a pawn."
Norwegian entertainment reporter Kjersti Flaa was included in Lively's sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni after the two starred together in the Colleen Hoover-adapted film, "It Ends With Us." Since the premiere of the movie, Lively has accused Baldoni of participating in a deliberate smear campaign to ruin the actress' reputation.
During the "It Ends With Us" press tour in August, Flaa uploaded a video interviewing Lively in 2016 titled, "The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job." Flaa seemingly experienced an uncomfortable moment with Lively after she congratulated the "Gossip Girl" star on her pregnancy.
"My name is just printed in the lawsuit, and there’s not really any context around it – just a headline from a news outlet [that covered Flaa’s video] .... But they haven’t mentioned more about my video in the lawsuit because they know that it had nothing to do with [Baldoni’s] campaign, so they could not put that in any legal papers. Instead, they fed it to the New York Times," the journalist told The Ankler. "They saw that they could insinuate that I had something to do with it."
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are seen on the set of "It Ends with Us" on Jan. 12, 2024 in New Jersey. (Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
In the video, Flaa congratulated Lively on her "little bump." Lively responded, "Congrats on your little bump." However, Flaa was not pregnant at the time. The video gained traction on social media, garnering over six million views on YouTube.
Flaa claimed the inclusion of her video in the lawsuit insinuated that she was a part of Baldoni's alleged smear campaign, but the journalist insisted she had nothing to do with it. The New York Times, who first reported on Lively's claim, noted Flaa had published clips of interviews with Johnny Depp during his trial against Amber Heard — noting Depp was also a client of Baldoni's crisis PR representative.
"It’s in [Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds'] interest to drag me down and discredit me as a journalist and paint me as corrupt, because then that makes her look better," Flaa told The Ankler. "The public can be very simple to persuade sometimes, and they just want to believe the narrative that fits right then. The way that they did that was so dirty to me because I can’t defend myself. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, they’re a powerhouse in Hollywood… They use me as a pawn."
Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for Lively, The New York Times and Flaa for additional comment.
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Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, Dec. 31. (Getty Images)
"Considering that Lively's lawyers had access to thousands of pages of text messages and emails, it is hard to believe they were unaware that I had no involvement in the alleged smear campaign," Flaa wrote in a statement to USA Today.
"This makes it all the more troubling that The New York Times chose to insinuate my involvement based solely on a hashtag from a Johnny Depp video on my YouTube channel from 2022."
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Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds attend the "It Ends With Us" premiere months before the actress sued her co-star Justin Baldoni. (Getty Images)
Lively detailed allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional affliction of emotional distress, negligence and more made by Baldoni and film producer Jamey Heath in a complaint first filed with the California Civil Rights department and later in federal court.
According to the complaint, obtained by Fox News Digital, the actress convened an "all hands" meeting on Jan. 4, 2024 regarding the alleged behavior of Baldoni and Heath, in which her husband, Ryan Reynolds, attended.
"Ms. Lively was forced to address concerns about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath's misconduct with them directly, and began doing so months before filming began," the complaint read. "The concerns she raised were not only for herself, but for the other female cast and crew, some of whom had also spoken up."
Justin Baldoni attends the "It Ends With Us" premiere with his wife. The actor has denied Blake Lively's allegations against him. (Getty Images)
In a statement previously given to The New York Times, Lively said, "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."
Additionally, Lively denied that she or any of her representatives planted or spread negative information about Mr. Baldoni or Wayfarer, according to The Times.
Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer, told The Times, "These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."
Freedman added that Wayfarer, and its executives and PR team "did nothing proactive nor retaliated" against Lively. Freedman claims Lively's complaint is "another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation."
Baldoni's lawyer has hinted at the possibility of a lawsuit against Lively. (Getty Images)
Baldoni has since sued The New York Times for defamation. The actor's lawyer has hinted at the possibility of a separate lawsuit against Lively as well.
However, Lively's team noted her allegations are "backed by concrete facts."
"This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation," her lawyers told Fox News Digital. "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. And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Ms. Lively since her filing."
Lively's lawyer says her allegations are "backed by concrete facts." Baldoni's lawyer says they will release "all of the evidence" showing a "pattern of bullying." (Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Baldoni and his team are alleging there is more to come.
"It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending ‘The New York Times’ grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint," Freedman claimed in a statement to People.
"We are releasing all of the evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie," Freedman added. "None of this will come as a surprise because consistent with her past behavior Blake Lively used other people to communicate those threats and bully her way to get whatever she wanted. We have all the receipts and more," he alleged.
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