\tJenny Slate is standing by her \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d co-star Blake Lively after she accused the film\u2019s director and leading man Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment and attempting a smear campaign. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cAs Blake Lively\u2019s castmate and friend, I voice my support as she takes action against those reported to have planned and carried out an attack on her reputation,\u201d Slate said in a statement to Today. \u201cBlake is a leader, loyal friend and a trusted source of emotional support for me and so many who know and love her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tShe added that \u201cwhat has been revealed about the attack on Blake is terribly dark, disturbing and wholly threatening. I commend my friend, I admire her bravery and I stand by her side.\u201d \t<\/p>\n
\tIn \u201cIt Ends With Us,\u201d Slate plays Allysa, the sister of Baldoni\u2019s Ryle Kincaid and sister-in-law of Blake Lively\u2019s Lily Bloom. After Lily admits to Allysa that Ryle has been abusing her, Allysa supports her in leaving him. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t \t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t \t \t\t \t \tRepresentatives for Slate did not immediately respond to Variety\u2018s request for further comment.<\/p>\n
\tLively first accused Baldoni of sexual harassment in a complaint filed on Dec. 20, in which she alleged that his behavior caused her and her family \u201csevere emotional harm\u201d and that he attempted to mount a smear campaign against her. Bryan Freedman, who is representing Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, called Lively\u2019s complaint \u201cshameful\u201d and full of \u201ccategorically false accusations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAccording to the complaint, a meeting was held in January to address Lively\u2019s concerns when returning to the \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d set after the actors and writers strikes. During the meeting, for which Lively\u2019s husband Ryan Reynolds was present, Lively alleged that Baldoni had discussed her weight with her trainer, pressed her to disclose her religious beliefs and talked about his sex life in inappropriate ways. She also allegedly demanded that Baldoni not add any more sex scenes than what was already in the script, which the film\u2019s distributor, Sony Pictures, reportedly approved according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
\tLively\u2019s filing includes texts and emails between Baldoni and his PR team detailing their online strategy after rumors of an on-set feud between the two began brewing. \u201cMr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates embarked on a sophisticated press and digital plan in retaliation for Ms. Lively exercising her legally-protected right to speak up about their misconduct on the set, with the additional objective of intimidating her and anyone else from revealing in public what actually occurred,\u201d the complaint alleges. \t<\/p>\n
\tSince Lively\u2019s filing, several big names have spoken up in support of her, including \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d co-star Brandon Sklenar and author Colleen Hoover. \u201cYou have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met,\u201d Hoover wrote, sharing a picture of her and Lively hugging. \u201cThank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.\u201d SAG-AFTRA and Sony also backed Lively.<\/p>\n
\tAmber Heard spoke out on Monday, noting that Baldoni hired the same crisis PR team as her ex-husband Johnny Depp during their highly publicized 2022 defamation trial. \u201cSocial media is the absolute personification of the classic saying \u2018A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on,\u2019\u201d Heard said in a statement on the situation to\u00a0NBC News. \u201cI saw this firsthand and up close. It\u2019s as horrifying as it is destructive.\u201d <\/p>\n
\tLively\u2019s \u201cSisterhood of the Traveling Pants\u201d co-stars America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel also posted a message of support, writing in a joint statement on social media: \u201cThroughout the filming of \u2018It Ends with Us,\u2019 we saw her summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set, and we are appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice. Most upsetting is the unabashed exploitation of domestic violence survivors\u2019 stories to silence a woman who asked for safety. The hypocrisy is astounding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jenny Slate is standing by her \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d co-star Blake Lively after she accused the film\u2019s director and leading man Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment and attempting a smear campaign. \u201cAs Blake Lively\u2019s castmate and friend, I voice my support as she takes action against those reported to have planned and carried out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}