Blake Lively’s Lawsuit Highlights Alleged ‘Hostile’ Hollywood PR Strategies

Actress Blake Lively faced significant public criticism online for a period during the summer. She has since initiated a substantial legal action, asserting that it exposes “hostile work environments” in Hollywood designed to damage reputations, prompting questions about credibility. Prior to this, Blake Lively was generally perceived as an uncontroversial actress, known for successful roles in TV shows and films such as Gossip Girl and The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. She is married to actor Ryan Reynolds and is known to be friends with Taylor Swift. In August, during the promotion of her recent film It Ends With Us, she unexpectedly became the subject of controversy, nearing cancellation. Criticism arose regarding comments she made that seemed to minimize domestic violence, a central theme of the movie. Additionally, past interviews were brought back into public discourse and presented as proof of bullying conduct. Public sentiment, particularly among her followers, appeared to shift negatively towards her. However, after the film’s release, the intense public outcry subsided, and social media attention shifted elsewhere. Nevertheless, Lively has now initiated a legal complaint alleging sexual harassment by her It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni. She further claims that following her complaint, Baldoni and his studio, Wayfarer, retaliated by orchestrating a campaign to “destroy” her reputation. Her legal representatives assert that she was targeted by “a sophisticated, co-ordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan” intended “to silence her.” This plan allegedly involved a “weaponised a digital army” and the dissemination of fabricated stories to “unwitting reporters,” which they claim led to her negative public image. The 80-page complaint consistently alleges that Baldoni and Wayfarer fostered a “hostile work environment that nearly derailed production of the film.” Lively’s legal team has released text messages exchanged between Jennifer Abel, Baldoni’s publicist, and Melissa Nathan, a crisis communications specialist employed by his studio to address the harassment claim. These messages offer an unusual insight into discussions typically kept private. The legal documents indicate that Nathan proposed a strategy to “start threads of theories” on social media, to “create, seed, and promote content that appeared to be authentic,” and to engage in “social manipulation.” In a notable exchange, Nathan communicated to Abel, “You know we can bury anyone.” Currently, those initially engaged for Baldoni’s crisis public relations are now managing their own public relations. Abel stated that Lively’s lawyers “cherry picked” messages for their case, omitting vital context, and asserted that “no ‘smear’ implemented.” She added, “No negative press was ever facilitated, no social combat plan, although we were prepared for it as it’s our job to be ready for any scenario.” However, she continued, “But we didn’t have to implement anything because the internet was doing the work for us.” Abel maintained that the public backlash against Lively developed organically and did not require their intervention. Bryan Freedman, the lawyer representing Baldoni, his studio, Abel, and Nathan, corroborated this perspective. He stated that Baldoni engaged a crisis manager in response to “multiple demands and threats” purportedly made by Lively, such as “threatening to not [show] up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.” Freedman further explained that the strategy devised by Nathan’s firm “proved unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful, and responded organically to that, which the media themselves picked up on.” In summary, Freedman characterized Lively’s complaint as “shameful” and containing “categorically false accusations.” Recently, Lively has garnered support from several former co-stars and other figures within Hollywood. Notably, Amber Heard, the former spouse of Johnny Depp, informed NBC: “Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying, ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.'” She added, “I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.” Heard experienced significant social media hostility during two prominent libel trials against Depp in the UK and US in 2020 and 2022. It has also been reported that Nathan previously worked for Depp. Freedman, in response to Heard, stated that the sole commonality between her and Lively was that “for decades every move they have made has been out there for everyone to see,” allowing the public to “make up their own minds – which they did, organically.” Alexi Mostrous, head of investigations at Tortoise Media and host of the podcast Who Trolled Amber? which explored the abuse Heard faced earlier this year, identified similarities. He informed BBC News, “In both the Blake Lively case and the Amber Heard case, you see PR companies working with digital media specialists and other ‘contractors’ to promote online stories beneficial to their wealthy clients in ways that are opaque and not well understood.” He further commented, “It’s an unregulated world where all sorts of tactics can take place behind closed doors.” Variety reported that Lively’s lawsuit “lays bare a show business process that’s meant to operate in the shadows – the hiring of expensive crisis communications experts to sway opinion and uplift clients.” Sharon Waxman of The Wrap wrote that Lively’s allegations imply a “sinister shadow campaign” that exceeded “beyond what most publicity firms in Hollywood see as acceptable.” Rory Lynch, a partner and head of reputation management law at Gateley Legal, stated that it is “quite a common tactic” in Hollywood and business conflicts for “PRs on both sides planting negative stories, sometimes false stories, about the opposition.” He added, “Even back in the golden era of Hollywood, there were rumours that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were using PR professionals to negatively brief against each other.” However, Lynch informed BBC News that the public relations personnel working for Baldoni and his studio “dropped the ball a little bit” by discussing strategies via text messages. He remarked, “It doesn’t surprise me, especially in the US and Hollywood, that you’ve got quite aggressive crisis PR people.” He continued, “But the fact that they put that in writing, I think, was possibly not the wisest thing. Normally they might do something like that over the phone.” Lynch also noted that Lively herself is “a sophisticated operator” who will “have her own PR people working away in the background as well.” The New York Times, which first reported Lively’s complaint over the weekend, stated that she “denied that she or any of her representatives planted or spread negative information about Mr Baldoni or Wayfarer.” The newspaper further observed that “it is impossible to know how much of the negative publicity” directed at Lively was initially generated by Baldoni’s representatives, “and how much they noticed and amplified.” While some fans have emphasized the authenticity of their criticisms, many who previously opposed Lively now view the circumstances differently. Maddy Mussen wrote in the Standard, “We are so able to be manipulated into hating a woman that all it takes is a co-ordinated PR effort for us to switch sides against a domestic abuse victim, or a long-beloved American sweetheart.” She questioned, “Now our eyes are open, will we be harder to fool? Or will we still want any excuse to turn on a famous woman who is suddenly, in our eyes and the eyes of the ones manipulating us, no longer worthy?” Laura Snapes of The Guardian wrote that she and her friends had “looked back, horrified, on what we had said about her in recent months.” She concluded, “Lively’s complaint has left my head spinning. What can you really trust?”