Following Blake Lively‘s allegations towards It Ends with Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni, Kaitlin Olson is the most recent to precise her assist for the actress.
On Thursday, the 3x Emmy nominee known as Lively “a kind, lovely, honest and generous person (and an incredible mom) FYI” as she shared an article to her Instagram Story about Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation accusations towards Baldoni.
Olson’s husband and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-star Rob McElhenney co-owns Welsh soccer membership Wrexham A.F.C. with Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds.
Lively beforehand denounced Baldoni and his manufacturing firm Wayfarer Studios, in addition to others on the home violence movie for sexually harassing her and subsequently enacting “a coordinated effort to destroy her reputation.”
“I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted,” Lively stated in a press release offered to Deadline.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in ‘It Ends with Us’
Sony
Baldoni, who has since been dropped by WME, known as the allegations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” by his lawyer Bryan Freedman.
Still, in a dense 10-claim criticism filed final week with the California Civil Rights Department, Lively particulars at size “the hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film” and the multi-pronged “Astroturfing” marketing campaign that was allegedly launched towards her by self-declared feminist Baldoni and his firm.
“Mr. 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,” declares the 80-page criticism, filled with seemingly damning textual content messages between Baldoni and “crisis communications specialist named Melissa Nathan, and her company The Agency Group PR LLC (TAG).”
Stephanie Jones, the founding father of Baldoni’s personal former PR firm Joneworks, has since filed a lawsuit towards him, Wayfarer Studios and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel for defamation, breach of contract and extra. In the criticism, her legal professional accuses the actor of trying “to publicly pin blame for this smear campaign on Jones—when Jones had no knowledge or involvement in it.”
Meanwhile, Baldoni is reportedly getting ready to file a counter-lawsuit after the New Year, the Daily Mail reported, claiming that it was Lively who carried out a smear marketing campaign towards him and allegedly introduced WhatsApp messages from Baldoni’s group out of context in her criticism.
Although Freedman wouldn’t affirm or deny the pending countersuit, he informed Deadline, “I am not going to speak to when or how many lawsuits we are filing but when we file our first lawsuit, it is going to shock everyone who has been manipulated into believing a demonstrably false narrative. It will be supported by real evidence and tell the true story. In over 30 years of practicing, I have never seen this level of unethical behavior intentionally fueled through media manipulation. It reminds me of what NBC tried to do to Megyn Kelly and Gabrielle Union and we all know how that ended up. Standby.”