Last summer, as the release of \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d approached, Justin Baldoni, the director and a star of the film, and Jamey Heath, the lead producer, hired a crisis public relations expert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During shooting, Blake Lively, the co-star, had complained that the men had repeatedly violated physical boundaries and made sexual and other inappropriate comments to her. Their studio, Wayfarer, agreed to provide a full-time intimacy coordinator, bring in an outside producer and put other safeguards on set. In a side letter to Ms. Lively\u2019s contract, signed by Mr. Heath, the studio also agreed not to retaliate against the actress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But by August, the two men, who had positioned themselves as feminist allies in the #MeToo era, expressed fears that her allegations would become public and taint them, according to a legal complaint<\/a> that she filed Friday. It claims that their P.R. effort had an explicit goal: to harm Ms. Lively\u2019s reputation instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her filing includes excerpts from thousands of pages of text messages and emails that she obtained through a subpoena. These and other documents were reviewed by The New York Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There have long been figures behind the scenes shaping public opinion about celebrities \u2014 through gossip columns, tabloids and strategic interviews. The documents show an additional playbook for waging a largely undetectable smear campaign in the digital era. While the film, about domestic violence, was a box office hit \u2014 making nearly $350 million worldwide \u2014 online criticism of the actress skyrocketed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe wants to feel like she can be buried,\u201d a publicist working with the studio and Mr. Baldoni wrote in an Aug. 2 message to the crisis management expert, Melissa Nathan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know we can bury anyone,\u201d Ms. Nathan wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the following weeks, Ms. Nathan, whose clients have included Johnny Depp and the rappers Drake and Travis Scott, went hard at the press, pushing to prevent stories about Mr. Baldoni\u2019s behavior and reinforce negative ones about Ms. Lively, the text messages show. Jed Wallace, a self-described \u201chired gun,\u201d led a digital strategy that included boosting social media posts that could help their cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An attorney for Wayfarer said in a statement<\/a> to The Times that the studio, its executives and public relations representatives \u201cdid nothing proactive nor retaliated\u201d against Ms. Lively, and accused the actress of \u201canother desperate attempt to \u2018fix\u2019 her negative reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” the lawyer, Bryan Freedman<\/a>, wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Freedman did not address her allegations about misconduct during the filming by Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath. He alleged that Ms. Lively planted \u201cnegative and completely fabricated and false stories with media\u201d about Mr. Baldoni, which he said \u201cwas another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The effort to tarnish Ms. Lively appears to have paid off. Within days of the film\u2019s release, the negative media coverage and commentary became an unusually high percentage of her online presence, according to a forensic review she sought from a brand marketing consultant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Lively \u2014 who is married to the actor and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds of \u201cDeadpool\u201d fame, and is close with Taylor Swift \u2014 experienced the biggest reputational hit of her career. She was branded tone-deaf, difficult to work with, a bully. Sales of her new hair-care line plummeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs Blake Lively set to be CANCELLED?\u201d read a Daily Mail headline<\/a> one week into the attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Baldoni, by contrast, emerged largely unscathed. This month, he was honored at a star-studded event<\/a> celebrating men who \u201celevate women, combat gender-based violence and promote gender equality worldwide.\u201d On Saturday, however, after this article was published, the talent agency William Morris Endeavor stopped representing Mr. Baldoni, said Ari Emanuel, chief executive of Endeavor, the agency\u2019s parent company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Lively\u2019s complaint \u2014 against Mr. Baldoni; Mr. Heath; Wayfarer; Steve Sarowitz, a co-founder of the studio; Mr. Wallace; Ms. Nathan; and Jennifer Abel, another public relations executive involved in the campaign \u2014 alleges sexual harassment and retaliation, among other claims. The complaint, filed with the California Civil Rights Department, is a precursor to a lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement, Ms. Lively said, \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She also denied that she or any of her representatives planted or spread negative information about Mr. Baldoni or Wayfarer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, several months after the filming wrapped, Mr. Baldoni realized that Mr. Reynolds had blocked him on Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe should have a plan for IF she does the same when movie comes out,\u201d Mr. Baldoni wrote of Ms. Lively in a text exchange that included Ms. Abel, a publicist who has long worked with him and Wayfarer. \u201cPlans make me feel more at ease.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Baldoni, 40, and Mr. Heath, 55, had a lot riding on the film, which is based on a best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Baldoni was best known for the CW satirical romantic dramedy \u201cJane the Virgin.\u201d Wayfarer provided the resources for bigger ambitions. It was bankrolled by the billionaire Steve Sarowitz, who is co-chair of the studio with Mr. Baldoni. They and Mr. Heath, the chief executive, are all deeply involved with the Baha\u2019i religious organization, which promotes unity, peace and gender equality. Mr. Baldoni has presented himself as an ally to women, writing books, co-hosting a podcast with Mr. Heath and giving talks on toxic masculinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Lively, 37, was by far the bigger star. The TV show \u201cGossip Girl\u201d catapulted her to early fame, and she appeared in films ranging from \u201cThe Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants\u201d to \u201cThe Town.\u201d She built businesses outside the entertainment industry, appeared on the covers of glossy magazines and amassed more than 45 million Instagram followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Lively had expressed concerns about Mr. Baldoni from the beginning, according to her legal complaint. Before shooting began, for example, she objected to sex scenes he wanted to add that she considered gratuitous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In November 2023, as the cast of \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d was preparing to resume shooting after a monthslong writers\u2019 strike, Ms. Lively went to Wayfarer with the side letter seeking safeguards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur client is willing to forego a more formal HR process in favor of everyone returning to work and finishing the Film as long as the set is safe moving forward,\u201d her legal team wrote to the studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She detailed her complaints during a meeting with Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath and other producers in January, according to the legal filing. She claimed Mr. Baldoni had improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life, including encounters in which he said he may not have received consent. Mr. Heath had shown her a video of his wife naked, she said, and he had watched Ms. Lively in her trailer when she was topless and having body makeup removed, despite her asking him to look away. She said that both men repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In agreeing to the terms that Ms. Lively sought, Wayfarer acknowledged that \u201cAlthough our perspective differs in many aspects, ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount,\u201d according to her legal complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the spring, Ms. Lively told people she worked with that the men\u2019s behavior had improved with the new protections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But she was now in a creative battle with them. With the support of Sony, the film\u2019s distributor, she made her own cut of the movie, bringing in editors and a composer and adding one of Ms. Swift\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, Sony and Wayfarer went with Ms. Lively\u2019s cut, and she got a producer credit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the film release neared, Ms. Lively and other cast members informed Sony and Wayfarer that they would not do any appearances alongside Mr. Baldoni. So did Ms. Hoover, the author, who had her own dissatisfactions with him and had become more upset after he told her about Ms. Lively\u2019s allegations, according to text messages from Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the first week of August, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni had retained Ms. Nathan, who had worked with high-profile clients including Mr. Depp, whose ex-wife, Amber Heard, accused him of physical abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Depp successfully sued Ms. Heard for defamation, and the trial became a spectacle amid suspicions<\/a> of an online campaign to damage her credibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year, after a decade at the New York consultancy Hiltzik Strategies, Ms. Nathan started her own firm, TAG PR. Its majority stakeholder is a company run by the entertainment industry executive Scooter Braun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an initial planning document sent to Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni on Aug. 2, Ms. Nathan suggested media talking points, including that Ms. Lively used an imbalance of power to take creative control of the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Mr. Baldoni wanted more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot in love with the document they sent,\u201d he responded in a text exchange that included Ms. Abel and Mr. Heath. \u201cNot sure I\u2019m feeling the protection I felt on the call.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Abel relayed his frustration to Ms. Nathan: \u201cI think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios. He wants to feel like she can be buried.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOf course- but you know when we send over documents we can\u2019t send over the work we will or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble,\u201d Ms. Nathan responded, adding, \u201cWe can\u2019t write we will destroy her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moments later, she said, \u201cImagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know we can bury anyone,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three days later, Mr. Baldoni texted Ms. Abel, flagging a social media thread that accused another celebrity of bullying behavior and had generated 19 million views. \u201cThis is what we would need,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Nathan soon floated proposals to hire contractors to dominate social media through \u201cfull social account take downs,\u201d by starting \u201cthreads of theories\u201d and generally working to \u201cchange narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll of this will be most importantly untraceable,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within days, the group was working with Mr. Wallace, whose company, Street Relations, offers services ranging from public relations to more opaque crisis management. He is a somewhat enigmatic figure with very little digital trail. But court records show that his clients have included Paramount Pictures and the YouTube personality Adin Ross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in a since-deleted LinkedIn profile, Mr. Wallace described himself as \u201ca hired gun\u201d with a \u201cproprietary formula for defining artists and trends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Aug. 6 premiere brought the first wave of press coverage questioning what had happened during the filming. A Hollywood Reporter story<\/a> speculated about a rift between Ms Lively and Mr. Baldoni, after TikTokers noticed that the two stars didn\u2019t pose for photographs together and that Ms. Lively and other cast members didn\u2019t follow Mr. Baldoni on Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Nathan had already been speaking to other journalists, according to text messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Ms. Abel wrote to her Aug. 4 that \u201cI\u2019m having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible Blake is to work with. Just to get ahead of it,\u201d Ms. Nathan replied that she had spoken off the record to an editor at The Daily Mail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe\u2019s ready when we are,\u201d Ms. Nathan wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A flurry of articles followed the Hollywood Reporter piece. Many made it seem as if the only rift was over creative control. Some journalists had gotten wind of complaints about Mr. Baldoni\u2019s behavior, but none of the most serious ones were published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe doesn\u2019t realise how lucky he is right now,\u201d Ms. Nathan texted Ms. Abel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other exchanges, Ms. Nathan claimed that she had kept allegations against him out of stories, writing in one message that major news outlets were \u201cstanding down on HR complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, an online backlash against Ms. Lively was underway. It is impossible to know how much of the negative publicity was seeded by Ms. Nathan, Mr. Wallace and their team, and how much they noticed and amplified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Aug. 10, Kjersti Flaa, a Norwegian entertainment reporter, uploaded to YouTube a 2016 interview in which Ms. Lively snapped back when Ms. Flaa commented on her baby \u201cbump\u201d and remained testy for the rest of the conversation. Ms. Flaa titled it \u201cThe Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job,\u201d and told The Daily Mail that \u201cit\u2019s time that people behaving badly in Hollywood, or anywhere else for that matter, gets called out for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After publication of this article, Ms. Flaa on Sunday contacted The Times and said she had not participated in any orchestrated effort to harm Ms. Lively\u2019s reputation. In an email, she said that she had resurfaced the 2016 interview independently this past August. \u201cIt was neither coordinated nor influenced by anyone associated with the alleged campaign,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t the first time she had posted a video aligned with a client of Ms. Nathan. In 2022, in the midst of Mr. Depp\u2019s legal battle with Ms. Heard, Ms. Flaa posted clips of her interviews with the actor, tagged #JusticeForJohnnyDepp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the film rollout, Ms. Lively was also accused of being insensitive about domestic violence. The official promotion plan instructed the cast to focus more on the uplifting aspects of the movie than on abuse, and to embrace a floral theme (her character has a flower shop). In several appearances, she never made reference to domestic violence at all. And she faced criticism when her Betty Booze beverage company was promoting the film, given the role alcohol can play in abusive relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seeing that blowback, the text messages show, Mr. Baldoni and his P.R. team decided instead to highlight survivors of domestic violence in his interviews and social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More criticism came when Ms. Lively said in an interview that Mr. Reynolds, who had no role in the film, had helped rewrite a scene, prompting snarky comments about the actress leaning on her husband and speculation that he had violated the writers strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is unclear exactly how Mr. Wallace operated. There are references in emails to \u201csocial manipulation\u201d and \u201cproactive fan posting,\u201d and text messages cite efforts to \u201cboost\u201d and \u201camplify\u201d online content that was favorable to Mr. Baldoni or critical of Ms. Lively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are crushing it on Reddit,\u201d Mr. Wallace told Ms. Nathan, according to a text she sent Ms. Abel on Aug. 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day, one of Ms. Nathan\u2019s employees texted, \u201cWe\u2019ve started to see shift on social, due largely to Jed and his team\u2019s efforts to shift the narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms. Nathan wrote to Ms. Abel: \u201cAnd socials are really really ramping up. In his favour, she must be furious. It\u2019s actually sad because it just shows you have people really want to hate on women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a TikTok sleuth started asking questions about Mr. Baldoni, Ms. Abel texted that \u201cthis girl is on a very dangerous crusade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve flagged to Jed and his team for more serious action on the social side,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the text exchanges, Mr. Baldoni encourages the P.R. team, sometimes flagging social media posts for them to use. On Aug. 15, he proposes \u201cflipping the narrative\u201d on a positive story about Ms. Lively and her husband by \u201cusing their own words against them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other times he appears to vacillate, seeking assurances about the tactics being deployed. When he notices a tabloid article critical of Ms. Lively, he sends a worried text: \u201cHow can we say somehow that we are not doing any of this \u2014 it looks like we are trying to take her down.\u201d On another occasion, he wondered whether they were deploying fake \u201cbot\u201d accounts on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI can fully fully confirm we do not have bots,\u201d Ms. Nathan wrote, adding that any digital team would be too intelligent to \u201cutilise something so obvious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Wallace\u2019s operation, she wrote, \u201cis doing something very specific in terms of what they do. I know Jamey & Jed connected on this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Baldoni, Ms. Nathan and others on the team claimed in their text exchanges that Ms. Lively was using her own public relations team to create bad press about Mr. Baldoni but cited no evidence to support those claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By mid-August, the team was reveling in the damage to Ms. Lively\u2019s image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Aug. 16, Ms. Nathan shared the Daily Mail article headlined \u201cIs Blake Lively set to be CANCELLED?\u201d with references to \u2018hard to watch\u2019 videos and a \u2018tone deaf\u2019 promotional Q. and A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWow. You really outdid yourself with this piece,\u201d Ms. Abel responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s why you hired me right?\u201d Ms. Nathan replied. \u201cI\u2019m the best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A brand marketing consultant, Terakeet<\/a>, produced a report in August for Ms. Lively that concluded she had likely been the object of a \u201ctargeted, multichannel online attack\u201d similar to one against Ms. Heard, and that it was damaging her reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report did not identify who was behind the attack. But by analyzing \u201cthe entirety of Google\u2019s search index\u201d for Ms. Lively\u2019s name, it found that 35 percent of the results also included a reference to Mr. Baldoni. This was highly unusual given the length of her career, the company said, and suggested that the media environment was being manipulated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A separate report, by Ms. Lively\u2019s hair-care company, Blake Brown, concluded that the social media onslaught also had a negative effect on that business. Her product line, which had launched in August with record-breaking sales, estimates that it lost as much as 78 percent in sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the recent arrival of \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d on Netflix, Mr. Baldoni has begun another round of promotion and messaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interview on \u201cAccess Hollywood,\u201d he said \u201cthere is never an excuse\u201d to \u201churt a woman, physically or emotionally.\u201d He added, \u201cWe men have to step up and figure out how we can be better allies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Produced by Leo Dominguez and Rumsey Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Megan Twohey<\/a> is an investigative reporter at The Times. Her work has prompted changes to the law, criminal convictions and cultural shifts. More about Megan Twohey<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mike McIntire<\/a>, an investigative reporter, has been with The Times since 2003. More about Mike McIntire<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Private messages detail an alleged campaign to tarnish Blake Lively after she accused Justin Baldoni of misconduct on the set of \u201cIt Ends With Us.\u201d Last summer, as the release of \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d approached, Justin Baldoni, the director and a star of the film, and Jamey Heath, the lead producer, hired a crisis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":43665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4081,104,100,4080,219,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blake-lively","category-bryan-j-freedman","category-entertainment","category-justin-baldoni","category-new-york-times","category-tv_film"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018We Should Have a Plan\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Most Importantly Untraceable\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u2018That\u2019s Why You Hired Me\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u2018We Men Have to Step Up\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n