The leaks that exposed Justin Beldoni’s defamation campaign against Blake Lively: “bury her”

Perhaps we thought that the well-publicized conflict between the actress Blake Lively (37) and the director Justin Beldoni (40) Behind us – but at the end of the week it became clear that the war is just beginning.

Lively and Beldoni collaborated in one of the biggest cinematic hits of the year, “It’s Over with Us”, in which they starred and Beldoni also directed. The release of the film was surrounded by rumors about a big conflict between them, which started during the filming and in which Lively’s husband, the actor Ryan Reynolds.

As the reports of the big fight grew stronger, most surfers took Beldoni’s side and the web was filled with negative stories about Lively and talkbacks and posts that attacked and mocked her. It didn’t hinder and maybe even contributed to the very nice profits the film made at the box office: 351 million dollars against a budget of 25 million dollars. Over time it seemed that the winds had calmed down – but as often happens, now it turns out that it was the calm before the storm.

Yesterday (Saturday) it became known that Lively is suing Beldoni, and in the lawsuit documents she included ten claims that spread over eighty pages and among other things accuses him of sexual harassment, creating a toxic work environment and the slander that he and his team allegedly spread on the networks and in the media in order to tarnish her name.

Lively claims that in the run-up to the film’s release in August, Beldoni was concerned that she would share her negative experiences from filming – a fear she claims was exacerbated when he discovered that her husband had blocked him on social media. That is why he and his men devised a plan whose purpose was to attack her first, to incite public opinion against her and to guarantee that if she did complain, she would not be taken seriously.

“To protect himself from the risk that Ms. Lively would ever reveal the truth about Mr. Beldoni, he and his team created, planted, instigated and fueled discussions designed to damage Ms. Lively’s credibility. In turn, they used similar tactics to increase Mr. Beldoni’s credibility and eliminate any negative content about him”.

As proof, Lively provided footage of correspondence allegedly made between Beldoni and his PR team, in one of which he wrote: “We need a plan, in case she does the same thing when the movie comes out. It will help me feel more at ease.”

In the messages in question, Beldoni corresponds with his chief publicist Jennifer Abel and the crisis management expert Melissa Nathan And in them they plan (again, apparently) a campaign that will lead to the star’s “reputation crash”: “Beldoni wants to know that Lively can be ‘buried’ and even destroyed,” one of the messages reads.

According to Lively, in another message, Abel wrote to Nathan: “I really want to plant news this week about how horrible it is to work with Blake, just to get it started.” Nathan agreed and added that she has a press company that is “ready as soon as we are ready.”

According to one of the attached documents, the three took the Hailey Bieberthe singer’s wife Justin Bieberas an example of how to conduct an effective smear campaign. In the August 4 correspondence, Nathan attached a thread published on the X social network titled: “Hailey Bieber’s history of bullying other women,” and wrote: “We’re going to need something like this.” Abel confirmed her words: “That’s right, I just talked with Melissa about what we’ll need in social and digital. We’ll focus on Reddit, Tiktok and Instagram.”

Other messages included a plan allegedly prepared by Beldoni and his team in which they detail the smear campaign they devised, which included “planting stories about using feminism as a weapon and how Lively’s friends, like Taylor Swiftwere accused of using feminism to get what they wanted with the help of ‘bullying’.”

It also reads: “The approach recommended by us is to provide journalists who contact us for a response, background and information of balanced stories that can direct the rumors to each of the other people she had problems with when she worked (Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick, Ben Affleck etc’)”.

In another message that included Lively, Abel writes to Nathan about Beldoni’s dissatisfaction and scolds her: “I think you need to be tougher and demonstrate your abilities in terms of what you are capable of doing in such cases. He wants to feel that she can be buried.”

Nathan defended himself: “Of course, we can bury anyone. But you understand that we cannot send you the work we are doing or will do, because it could get us into big trouble.” In another message she explained: “We cannot write that we will destroy it, imagine that a document that would include all the things he wants to do would fall into the wrong hands.”

In another message, however, Beldoni seems to have complained about a too successful job: “How can we make it clear that we have nothing to do with it? It looks like we’re really trying to bring her down.”

In addition, in a message from the month of October, the team prides itself on removing a discussion about Beldoni’s alleged inappropriate behavior on the set: “He has no idea how lucky he is right now,” Nathan wrote. In another message, she brags: “This is why you hired me, I’m the best.”

Lively even included in the lawsuit studies done on her behalf, which she claims show that the defamation campaign worked: a marketing consulting company called Terakeet found that in 35 percent of all the results that included her name on Google – Beldoni’s name was also included. A figure too high according to her, in light of her rich and long career. In addition, Lively’s hair care company Blake Brown announced that since last summer its profits have decreased by up to 78 percent.

Beldoni’s team denied the allegations and claimed the lawsuit was a desperate attempt by Lively to save her reputation, which they said had deteriorated after the film’s release. the actor’s lawyer, Brian Friedmancommented on the lawsuit and claimed that it was a “scandalous lie aimed at hurting Baldoni in public”. He also claimed that Lively was the one who caused the problems on the set, and, among other things, “threatened not to show up for filming and not to promote the film, which led to damage during its release.” As mentioned, contrary to his words – the film is actually considered a blockbuster and grossed far beyond expectations.

Regarding the correspondence that Lively provided, Friedman claims that Beldoni “did not initiate or approve anything, but only responded to media interest in order to ensure balanced and factual reports and supervised activity on social networks. What was omitted from the messages that were carefully ascertained is the evidence that proves that no proactive media activity was done, only preparation and planning a strategy for Possible scenarios – standard action of professionals in the field of public relations”.

As mentioned, the long statement of claim reveals the ordeal Lively allegedly went through at the hands of Beldoni, who directed the film and starred in it alongside her. According to her, the situation was so serious that she had to involve the studios who initiated a conversation between the parties, which was also joined by Lively’s husband, the actor Ryan Reynolds.

In the conversation, she demanded that he stop showing her nude pictures and videos of women, mention his “addiction to pornography” and tell her about his courtships and sexual experiences. She also claimed, among other things, that Beldoni made “inappropriate inquiries” about her weight with her fitness coach without her knowledge, made comments about her dead father and also made sexual comments about the players and staff.

According to the reports, Beldoni demanded that Lively appear fully nude in the scene where her character gives birth, claiming that “this is how women give birth” and added scenes in which her character reaches an orgasm in front of the camera and one in which the actress who plays Lively’s character in her youth, Lily Bloom, loses her virginity – a scene not included in the book on which the film is based.

He eventually agreed to take down the scenes in question but asked Lively if she and her husband “orgasm at the same time during intercourse” – a question Lively claims she refused to answer.

The lawsuit claims: “The impact on Mrs. Lively’s mental state was very great and not only on her but also on her family, including her husband and their four children… She suffered sadness, fear, trauma and deep anxiety.”

Lively responded yesterday: “I hope my legal team will be able to uncover the truth about the nefarious tactics aimed at harming people who complain about inappropriate behavior, and help protect people who may become victims.”

The story is far from over, but Lively seems to have won at least one important battle in the meantime: the website Deadline reported that the talent agency WME that represented them both announced that it was terminating the contract with Beldoni. Or in other words: fired him and left Lively.