The entertainment industry is largely based on relationships and status.
That’s why people live in fear of being “canceled.”
And a Hollywood director’s career could be over after one shocking allegation.
Up-and-coming director waging war against superstar Hollywood power couple
The film It Ends with Us earned $351 million at the box office on a production budget of $25 million.
That is a massive haul for a drama with a relatively modest budget.
Despite the financial success story of It Ends with Us, the film has been marred by an ugly spat between lead actress Blake Lively and co-star and director Justin Baldoni.
Lively claimed that she was sexually harassed on set, which led to mega talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME) dropping Baldoni as a client.
Lively and superstar husband Ryan Reynolds are also both repped by WME, so it’s easy to see which side the agency would take in a power struggle.
Baldoni was dropped after a bombshell report from The New York Times that claimed Baldoni hired a crisis PR team to portray Lively in a bad light to preempt her complaints about the director.
However, Baldoni recently filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Times for intentionally leaving out key context of private text messages between Baldoni’s PR team.
Baldoni hired prominent entertainment attorney Bryan Freedman to represent him; Freedman repped Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, and Don Lemon in their public splits from NBC News, Fox News, and CNN, respectively.
Freedman said that The New York Times “cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative.”
Added context
In one of the more explosive parts of The Times article, it accused Baldoni publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel bragging about a hit piece on Lively.
However, Baldoni’s suit claims that the two were gloating, which could be proven with preceding messages.
Variety reported that “The Times’ reporting that Nathan and Abel planted negative stories about Lively with the press was bolstered by one particular text exchange in which the two appear to take a victory lap following a Daily Mail story about Lively that slammed her ‘tone deaf’ promotion of the film about domestic violence and resurfaced embarrassing interviews from her past.”
It Ends with Us chronicles an abusive relationship, which is why Lively was criticized for promoting the film as a light-hearted romance.
Variety continued, “‘You really outdid yourself with this piece,’ Abel wrote, prompting Nathan to reply: ‘That’s why you hired me right? I’m the best.”’ But in its full context, it appears as though Nathan and Abel are jokingly taking credit for a story that emerged organically. The Times story omits a Nathan text that preceded the exchange in which she says she was uninvolved in the story’s publication. ‘Damn this is unfair because it’s also not me,’ she wrote. The Times also clipped Abel’s use of the upside-down smiley face emoji, which is typically used to convey sarcasm.”
Given the added context, it appears as though The Times intentionally misled its readers.
Baldoni’s suit added, “The Times story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives.”
It’s unclear who is telling the truth, but Baldoni’s suit appears to make a strong case that he is being railroaded by a star who was attempting to save her reputation.
Stay tuned to Unmuzzled News for any updates to this ongoing story.
