A journalist caught within 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 leisure reporter Kjersti Flaa was included in Full of life’s sexual harassment lawsuit in opposition to Baldoni after the 2 starred collectively within the Colleen Hoover-adapted movie, “It Ends With Us.” For the reason that premiere of the film, Full of life has accused Baldoni of collaborating in a deliberate smear marketing campaign to destroy the actress’ popularity.
Through the “It Ends With Us” press tour in August, Flaa uploaded a video interviewing Full of life in 2016 titled, “The Blake Full of life interview that made me wish to give up my job.” Flaa seemingly skilled an uncomfortable second with Full of life after she congratulated the “Gossip Woman” star on her being pregnant.
“My title is simply printed within the lawsuit, and there’s not likely any context round it – only a headline from a information outlet [that covered Flaa’s video] …. However they haven’t talked about extra about my video within the lawsuit as a result of they know that it had nothing to do with [Baldoni’s] marketing campaign, so they may not put that in any authorized papers. As an alternative, they fed it to the New York Instances,” the journalist advised The Ankler. “They noticed that they may insinuate that I had one thing to do with it.”
Blake Full of life 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 Pictures)
Within the video, Flaa congratulated Full of life on her “little bump.” Full of life responded, “Congrats in your little bump.” Nonetheless, Flaa was not pregnant on the time. The video gained traction on social media, garnering over six million views on YouTube.
Flaa claimed the inclusion of her video within the lawsuit insinuated that she was part of Baldoni’s alleged smear marketing campaign, however the journalist insisted she had nothing to do with it. The New York Instances, who first reported on Full of life’s declare, famous Flaa had printed clips of interviews with Johnny Depp throughout his trial in opposition to Amber Heard — noting Depp was additionally a shopper of Baldoni’s disaster PR consultant.
“It’s in [Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’] curiosity to tug me down and discredit me as a journalist and paint me as corrupt, as a result of then that makes her look higher,” Flaa advised The Ankler. “The general public might be quite simple to influence typically, and so they simply wish to imagine the narrative that matches proper then. The best way that they did that was so soiled to me as a result of I can’t defend myself. Blake Full of life and Ryan Reynolds, they’re a powerhouse in Hollywood… They use me as a pawn.”
Fox Information Digital reached out to a consultant for Full of life, The New York Instances and Flaa for extra remark.
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Blake Full of life accused Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, Dec. 31. (Getty Pictures)
“Contemplating that Full of life’s legal professionals had entry to 1000’s of pages of textual content messages and emails, it’s arduous to imagine they have been unaware that I had no involvement within the alleged smear marketing campaign,” Flaa wrote in an announcement to USA Today.
“This makes it all of the extra troubling that The New York Instances selected to insinuate my involvement based mostly solely on a hashtag from a Johnny Depp video on my YouTube channel from 2022.”
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Blake Full of life and Ryan Reynolds attend the “It Ends With Us” premiere months earlier than the actress sued her co-star Justin Baldoni. (Getty Pictures)
Lively detailed allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional affliction of emotional misery, negligence and extra made by Baldoni and movie producer Jamey Heath in a grievance first filed with the California Civil Rights division and later in federal court docket.
In response to the grievance, obtained by Fox Information Digital, the actress convened an “all palms” assembly on Jan. 4, 2024 relating to the alleged conduct of Baldoni and Heath, by which her husband, Ryan Reynolds, attended.
“Ms. Full of life was pressured to handle issues about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath’s misconduct with them immediately, and started doing so months earlier than filming started,” the grievance learn. “The issues she raised weren’t just for herself, however for the opposite feminine forged and crew, a few of whom had additionally spoken up.”
Justin Baldoni attends the “It Ends With Us” premiere together with his spouse. The actor has denied Blake Full of life’s allegations in opposition to him. (Getty Pictures)
In an announcement beforehand given to The New York Times, Full of life stated, “I hope that my authorized motion helps pull again the curtain on these sinister retaliatory ways to hurt individuals who converse up about misconduct and helps defend others who could also be focused.”
Moreover, Full of life denied that she or any of her representatives planted or unfold destructive details about Mr. Baldoni or Wayfarer, in line with The Instances.
Bryan Freedman, an legal professional for Baldoni and Wayfarer, advised The Instances, “These claims are fully false, outrageous and deliberately salacious with an intent to publicly damage and rehash a story within the media.”
Freedman added that Wayfarer, and its executives and PR workforce “did nothing proactive nor retaliated” in opposition to Full of life. Freedman claims Full of life’s grievance is “one other determined try to ‘repair’ her destructive popularity.”
Baldoni’s lawyer has hinted at the opportunity of a lawsuit in opposition to Full of life. (Getty Pictures)
Baldoni has since sued The New York Times for defamation. The actor’s lawyer has hinted at the opportunity of a separate lawsuit in opposition to Full of life as nicely.
Nonetheless, Full of life’s workforce famous her allegations are “backed by concrete info.”
“This isn’t a ‘feud’ arising from ‘artistic variations’ or a ‘he stated/she stated’ scenario,” her legal professionals advised Fox Information Digital. “As alleged in Ms. Full of life’s grievance, and as we are going to show in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in illegal, retaliatory astroturfing in opposition to Ms. Full of life for merely making an attempt to guard herself and others on a movie set. And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch extra assaults in opposition to Ms. Full of life since her submitting.”
Full of life’s lawyer says her allegations are “backed by concrete info.” Baldoni’s lawyer says they’ll launch “all the proof” exhibiting a “sample of bullying.” (Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Pictures)
Baldoni and his workforce are alleging there may be extra to come back.
“It’s painfully ironic that Blake Full of life is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media when her personal workforce orchestrated this vicious assault by sending ‘The New York Instances’ grossly edited paperwork previous to even submitting the grievance,” Freedman claimed in an announcement to People.
“We’re releasing all the proof which can present a sample of bullying and threats to take over the film,” Freedman added. “None of this can come as a shock as a result of constant along with her previous conduct Blake Full of life used different folks to speak these threats and bully her strategy to get no matter she needed. We’ve got all of the receipts and extra,” he alleged.
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