The list of Blake Lively’s grievances against Justin Baldoni is a long one, but the most damning of all is her claim that he sexually harassed her while filming It Ends With Us with unwanted kissing, talking about his sex life and trying to insert gratuitous raunchy scenes into the script.
After Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni in January, he quickly filed a $400million countersuit against Blake, her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicist Leslie Sloane over claims of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy and has launched a website, thelawsuitinfo.com, outlining his version of events.
Amongst the pages of documents, emails and text messages is an intriguing set of handwritten notes made by Baldoni during his meeting with the film’s intimacy co-ordinator which may well prove to be the key to the whole case.
Lively has painted a picture whereby there was no intimacy co-ordinator involved in the production until she demanded one; Baldoni introduced unwanted kissing in intimate scenes, and he spoke to her about his own sex life.
However, his timeline appears to show that there was in fact an intimacy co-ordinator engaged from the outset, who Lively declined to meet until filming began. This ultimately resulted in Baldoni, who was also the director, having to convey the intimacy co-ordinator’s notes to Lively himself.
Her depiction of his adding graphic scenes to the film, Baldoni insists, was simply him filling her in on what had been discussed, such as her character ‘orgasming’ – and, damningly, he claims that Lively seemed unable to discern between a professional conversation about acting out sex scenes and being sexually harassed.
Baldoni allegedly met with the intimacy coordinator on April 21 and made handwritten notes during the meeting (pictured), which he claimed were shared with Lively
Lively claimed in her lawsuit against Baldoni that he sexually harassed her by adding unwanted kisses into romantic scenes
April 5, 2023 – Lively declines to meet the intimacy coordinator before filming starts
Texts sent by Baldoni to his co-star prior to shooting the movie appear to show that Lively declined to meet the intimacy coordinator before filming started.
Baldoni, who served as director and starred as Ryle Kincaid – the partner of Lively’s character Lily Bloom – hired the coordinator on April 5, 2023, and tried to set up a meeting or call between her and his co-star.
He sent Lively a message to say: ‘Just hired intimacy coordinator who I LOVE. Will set you up to meet/FT with her next week for intro.’
However, Lively responded to decline his invitation, saying: ‘I feel good. I can meet her when we start 🙂 thank you though!’
Baldoni then raised the issue with an unnamed female producer, who gave him the go-ahead to meet the coordinator without Lively and report back to her on the guidance given.
Baldoni’s text read: ‘Just wanted to tell you about this – seems she doesn’t want to meet intimacy coordinator until we start which may mess up the workflow, but I can still meet with her of course.’
The producer responded: ‘That’s fine if she doesn’t want to meet her now. You’ll just have to walk her through what you and [intimacy coordinator] are thinking.’
Baldoni’s complaint alleged that because of Lively’s rejection of the meeting, ‘many sex scenes were not written with simultaneous collaboration and input from both Lively and the intimacy coordinator, as Baldoni had long intended’.
‘In the end, Lively rejected all of the intimacy coordinator’s proposals to rewrite the scenes herself,’ the complaint added.
Lively also stands accused of ‘falsely’ suggesting that there was no intimacy coordinator on set, despite one being engaged by Wayfarer six weeks before production started.
It Ends With Us had to cease filming in June 2023 due to the writers’ strike.
Lively filed a complaint to the California Civil Rights Department and followed it up with a federal court lawsuit, in which she has made allegations of sexual harassment against Baldoni.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are pictured while filming It Ends With Us in New Jersey
According to her lawsuit, Lively’s lawyer sent an email to Wayfarer Studios lawyers in November 2023, containing a list of 17 provisions she requested to be fulfilled before she resumed filming or she would take legal action.
Amongst those provisions was the request that an intimacy coordinator during scenes featuring both Lively and Baldoni and that no unwanted touching or sexual comments would be made without consent
Baldoni has argued that this seems to ‘suggest’ that no intimacy co-ordinator had been present during the first leg of filming, despite the fact one had been hired right from the offset.
April 21, 2023 – Baldoni meets with the intimacy coordinator and later feeds back ‘orgasm’ notes to Lively
Baldoni says he met with the intimacy coordinator and made handwritten notes during the meeting, which he claimed were shared with Lively during one of their ‘script-writing meetings’ at her residence in New York.
‘It was important to [Baldoni] that the intimacy coordinator be a woman to help craft sex scenes that would speak to the book’s mostly female audience—i.e., be written from the ”female gaze”,’ his lawsuit claims.
In her lawsuit, Lively claimed that there was ‘inappropriate, improvised’ kissing on set, but Baldoni’s complaint has contradictorily alleged that ‘any improvisation was made by Lively’
Baldoni’s handwritten notes were also published on his website, showing that the suggestions about Lively’s sex scenes were given to him by the intimacy coordinator.
The complaint alleges that the notes disprove Lively’s allegation that Baldoni personally added ‘graphic content’ to the film and spoke about his own sex life, ‘including a scene in which Ms. Lively was to orgasm on camera’.
Claiming her accusation is ‘false’, Baldoni insists that the orgasm direction came directly from the intimacy coordinator before being shared with Lively – which they say is proven by Baldoni’s notes
The handwritten notes from the meeting show words and phrases such as ‘goes down on her’, ‘orgasm’, ‘foreplay’ and the ‘cl*t test’.
‘Ideally, these conversations would have taken place directly between Lively and the intimacy coordinator directly, as Baldoni had requested,’ the document continued.
‘However, Lively declined to meet with her, leaving Baldoni in the less than ideal position of having to relay these notes to Lively in her penthouse.’
Baldoni claims that having an intimacy co-ordinator present for kissing scenes is not standard practice
When hearing the orgasm suggestion, ‘Lively [allegedly] remarked, ”Oh no, I’m too old for that”,’ and Baldoni offered another suggestion instead, also from his notes from the meeting with the intimacy coordinator’.
Baldoni claims that Lively was unable to distinguish these conversations about their characters, which contained sexual language, from reality.
He said that she ‘mispresented these ideas as personal, despite the fact that they were workshopping scenes for their characters’.
‘Lively’s inability to discern the basic premise of the divide between collaborating on a film and personal interactions with her co-star and director is woven throughout her claims of sexual harassment,’ his lawsuit claims.
May 5-12, 2023 – Baldoni speaks with the intimacy coordinator and Lively is given her nudity rider
In a meeting in January 2024 with the It Ends With Us team, Lively allegedly requested that no additional sexual scenes outside of what she had originally signed up for would be permitted, according to a filing from Baldoni.
The document also stated that all sex scenes would also have to be monitored by a representative of the actress.
It also requested that everyone working on these intimate scenes had to be hired professionals that Lively pre-approved, not ‘friends’ of the producer or director.
She also said that she would not film any more nude scenes without a SAG-compliant nudity rider – a document outlining the scene’s specifics – in place. Any scenes shot without one, Lively said, should not be used without her legal team’s consent.
However, Baldoni’s timeline has refuted her allegation that there was not a nudity rider in place, claiming she received one long before any intimate scenes were filmed.
According to the timeline, Baldoni emailed the intimacy coordinator on May 5, 2023, with his notes on the sex scenes after discussing Lively’s comfort levels with her.
The document claimed: ‘Justin emphasizes that ”the way these are shot and what is shown will be a ”Collaboration between [Baldoni] and Blake”.’
Just days later, on May 8, emails claim Lively’s team was provided with the nudity rider – which serves as confirmation that Lively and the intimacy coordinator ‘discussed and mutually approved the sex scenes’.
Baldoni’s complaint refuted any suggestion that Lively shot scenes without a nudity rider and claimed she never requested a ‘closed set’ during the negotiations – though production ultimately agreed to this.
While sex scenes were scheduled to be shot that week, they were rescheduled multiple times due to illness and the subsequent strikes, and were not shot until January 2024, the complaint added.
On May 12, Baldoni and Lively then allegedly worked at her apartment, making ‘final script changes’ ahead of production officially beginning on May 15.
May 22, 2023 – Lively and Baldoni perform a kissing scene in hospital
In her lawsuit, Lively claimed there was ‘inappropriate, improvised’ kissing on set, while Baldoni also allegedly spoke ‘frequently of a pornography addiction and sexual encounters’.
In a meeting in which she set 30 demands of her co-stars, Lively set clear boundaries when it came to filming the movie’s sex and intimacy scenes.
She demanded an intimacy coordinator be present at all times in every scene involving Lively and Baldoni, adding there should be no more ‘improvising’ kissing.
‘No biting or sucking of lip without [Lively’s] consent,’ the document read.
A later demand said that all sex scenes need coordinator present, as well as a ‘monitor’ pre-approved by Lively to oversee them.
However, regarding her kissing claims, Baldoni’s complaint has contradictorily alleged that ‘any improvisation’ in the scenes were ‘made by Lively herself’ and all kisses were scripted.
The co-stars performed a kissing scene in which their characters got engaged at the hospital on May 22, and Baldoni’s camp have insisted Lively ‘initiated’ the kissing on that occasion.
The document claimed: ‘In one take, she pulls Baldoni in and kisses him once; in another, twice.
‘Lively determined the number of kisses based on what she felt necessary for the scene.’
It is alleged that Lively ‘improvised’ the number of kisses in the scene, but added that the kiss itself was in no way improvised and was included in the script.
‘If no one was supposed to improvise, Baldoni would have no way of knowing based on Lively’s own actions,’ the complaint added.
‘Lively demonstrated, again and again, that this was a normal and acceptable part of filming romantic scenes.’
The timeline also noted that while there was no intimacy coordinator on set on that day, it is not required for scenes where purely kissing is involved and no other intimacy or nudity is filmed.
Lively and her attorneys allegedly stated that she wanted an intimacy coordinator present for kissing scenes, but Baldoni’s team claimed that is not in line with industry practice, with one solely brought on for ‘simulated sex and nudity scenes’.
MailOnline have contacted Lively’s representatives for comment.
Baldoni also revealed in his legal complaint how Lively made 30 demands of her It Ends With Us co-stars to address the set’s alleged ‘hostile work environment’.
At the January 4 meeting, Lively stated the issues she had with Baldoni and the show’s producer Heath, according to the filing.
Everyone in attendance reportedly agreed to the 30 conditions the actress demanded in order to prevent further discomfort on set. Most of the points Lively brought up were sex-related.
The first request was ‘no more showing of nude videos or images of women, including the producer’s wife’ to Lively or her employees, according to the filing released by the New York Times.
Another jaw-dropping requirement was that people on set stop discussing Baldoni and Heath’s previous ‘pornography addiction’ and Lively’s ‘lack of pornography consumption.
Lively also asserted that no one should be talking about their sex lives, their genitalia or ‘personal times that physical consent was not given in sexual acts, as either the abuser or the abused’.
The complaint revealed that Lively said no one was to bring up any previous HR complaints made against WayFarer Studios, which Baldoni is co-founder of. She also forbid anyone from asking her or her trainer about her weight.
For cast safety, an ‘experienced’ producer was asked to oversee the set and it was agreed that Lively would not receive any ‘abusive’ or ‘retaliatory’ reactions to wanting to put the safeguards in place.
