Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni. Getty Images (2)
Blake Lively has responded to the new It Ends With Us video footage that Justin Baldoni’s attorney released.
“Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning. Every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what Ms. Lively described in Paragraph 48 of her Complaint,” Lively’s legal team said in a statement to Us Weekly on Tuesday, January 21. “The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character.”
The statement continued: “Every moment of this was improvised by Mr. Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance and no intimacy coordinator present. Mr. Baldoni was not only Ms. Lively’s costar, but the director, the head of [the] studio and Ms. Lively’s boss.”
The message also noted that in the clip Lively, 37, was “leaning away and repeatedly asking for the characters to just talk.”
“Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort,” the statement concluded. “They will recognize her attempts at levity to try to deflect the unwanted touching. No woman should have to take defensive measures to avoid being touched by their employer without their consent.”
Lively’s legal team also slammed Baldoni, 40, and his legal time for releasing the video to the public rather than keeping it in court.
“This matter is in active litigation in federal court. Releasing this video to the media, rather than presenting it as evidence in court, is another example of an unethical attempt to manipulate the public,” the statement read. “It is also a continuation of their harassment and retaliatory campaign. While they are focused on misleading media narratives, we are focused on the legal process. We are continuing our efforts to require Mr. Baldoni and his associates to answer in court, under oath, rather than through manufactured media stunts.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Baldoni’s team for comment.
The footage, which was obtained by Us Weekly earlier on Tuesday, features the costars romantically slow dancing and laughing in character for a montage with no dialogue during the film, but the actors could be heard exchanging ideas for the scene as they swayed back and forth.
“Ms. Lively’s complaint alleges that during a scene Mr. Baldoni and Ms. Lively were filming for a slow dance montage, Mr. Baldoni was behaving inappropriately,” a statement at the start of the video read. “The following videos captured on May 23, 2023, clearly refute Ms. Lively’s characterization of his behavior. The scene in question was designed to show the two characters falling in love and longing to be close to one another. Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism. These are all three takes filmed of the sequence.”
This story is developing.