Amber Heard says she has seen “firsthand” the online abuse and smear tactics that Blake Lively has endured in her ongoing feud with “It Ends With Us” co-star and director Justin Baldoni, who’s been accused of sexual harassment and other unwanted behavior on the Sony romantic drama.
Heard, who now lives in Spain, said in a statement to NBC News on Monday that “social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.’ I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department, accusing him of sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment and mounting a campaign to smear her reputation. Through his lawyer Bryan Freedman, Baldoni refuted the complaint as “categorically false” and said any negative online attention for Lively was entirely organic.
The undated complaint also stated that Baldoni has retained prominent PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan, whom Johnny Depp hired during his infamous defamation trial against his ex-wife. A jury found that Heard defamed Depp, awarding him $15 million in damages while awarding her $2 million in damages in her counterclaim.
Lively’s complaint said Baldoni and the crisis-communications mounted a “retaliatory social manipulation campaign” against her during the film’s promotion, during which the stars notably avoided one another.
Freedman, who represents Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said the team was hired after Lively threatened to no-show for filming and promotion.
“TAG PR must be the most powerful group of publicists the world has ever seen for it to be able to completely change the perception of both Amber Heard and Blake Lively,” Freedman said. The only similarity to Heard’s case was that “every move they have made has been out there for everyone to see, widely filmed and documented for the public to make up their own minds — which they did, organically.”
Documents obtained by the New York Times revealed a group meeting to address Lively’s concerns, attended by her husband Ryan Reynolds. Topics reportedly included “no more showing nude videos or images of women, including producer’s wife to BL and/or her employees, no more mention of Mr. Baldoni or Mr. Heath’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction’ or BL’s lack of pornography consumption to BL or to other crew members” as well as no further discussions “to BL and/or her employees ‘about personal experiences with sex.’” Baldoni was also forbidden from speaking to Lively about her late father and “no more descriptions of their own genitalia to BL.”
Baldoni was let go by WME last week in the wake of the filing.
