MUNDO
Blake Lively’s claims against Justin Baldoni put spotlight on ‘hostile’ Hollywood tactics

PUBLICADO
1 mês atrásem


Actress Blake Lively was arguably the internet’s public enemy number one for a couple of weeks in the summer. She’s now filed an explosive legal case that she claims lifts the lid on “hostile work environments” that are created to harm reputations in Hollywood – and which are making people question who and what to believe.
Blake Lively had always been a pretty inoffensive kind of actress.
She had been in successful TV shows and films, like Gossip Girl and The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. She married fellow superstar Ryan Reynolds. She’s friends with Taylor Swift.
Then in August, while promoting her latest movie It Ends With Us, she suddenly became controversial, to the verge of being cancelled.
She was criticised for comments appearing to downplay domestic violence, the film’s theme; while awkward old interviews were resurfaced and repurposed as evidence of bullying behaviour.
Public opinion – at least among those who knew and cared – seemed to have turned against her.
Then the film came out, the furore died down, and social media moved on.
But Lively has now filed a legal case that claims she suffered sexual harassment by It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni – and that when she complained, he and his studio Wayfarer retaliated by waging a campaign to “destroy” her reputation.


She was the subject of “a sophisticated, co-ordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan” designed “to silence her”, involving a “weaponised a digital army” and fake stories being fed to “unwitting reporters”, her lawyers have alleged – and that’s why she became the focus of negative publicity.
Throughout the complaint, which spans some 80 pages, Lively’s team repeatedly accuses Badoni and Wayfarer of creating a “hostile work environment that nearly derailed production of the film”.
Her lawyers have published text messages sent between Baldoni’s publicist Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, a crisis communications specialist hired by his studio to help manage the harassment complaint. They appear to give a rare glimpse into conversations that are normally kept well out of the spotlight.
Nathan pitched a strategy to “start threads of theories” on social media, to “create, seed, and promote content that appeared to be authentic”, and engage in “social manipulation”, according to the legal papers.
“You know we can bury anyone,” Nathan wrote to Abel in one damning discussion.
Now, the people hired to do crisis PR for Baldoni are doing crisis PR for themselves.
Abel has said Lively’s lawyers “cherry picked” messages to include in their case without crucial context, and that there was “no ‘smear’ implemented”.
“No negative press was ever facilitated, no social combat plan, although we were prepared for it as it’s our job to be ready for any scenario.
“But we didn’t have to implement anything because the internet was doing the work for us.”
The backlash against Lively occurred naturally and didn’t need their help, Abel said.
Lawyer Bryan Freedman, representing Baldoni and his studio as well as Abel and Nathan, echoed that.
He said Baldoni hired a crisis manager due to “multiple demands and threats” allegedly made by Lively, including “threatening to not [show] up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met”.
He said the plan drawn up by Nathan’s firm “proved unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful, and responded organically to that, which the media themselves picked up on”.
Overall, Freedman called Lively’s complaint “shameful” and full of “categorically false accusations”.


In recent days, Lively has received support from a string of former co-stars and others in Hollywood.
The name of one of her supporters stands out.
Amber Heard, former wife of Johnny Depp, told NBC: “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.”
Heard was on the receiving end of social media hostility during two high-profile libel trials involving Depp in the UK and US in 2020 and 2022. Nathan also reportedly worked for Depp.
Freedman responded to Heard by saying the only connection between her and Lively was that “for decades every move they have made has been out there for everyone to see” so the public could “make up their own minds – which they did, organically”.
Tortoise Media head of investigations Alexi Mostrous, who hosted a podcast called Who Trolled Amber? earlier this year examining the abuse she received, said there were parallels.
“In both the Blake Lively case and the Amber Heard case, you see PR companies working with digital media specialists and other ‘contractors’ to promote online stories beneficial to their wealthy clients in ways that are opaque and not well understood,” he told BBC News.
“It’s an unregulated world where all sorts of tactics can take place behind closed doors.”
‘Common tactic’
Variety said Lively’s case “lays bare a show business process that’s meant to operate in the shadows – the hiring of expensive crisis communications experts to sway opinion and uplift clients”.
Her allegations suggest a “sinister shadow campaign” that went “beyond what most publicity firms in Hollywood see as acceptable”, The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman wrote.
According to Rory Lynch, partner and head of reputation management law at Gateley Legal, it is “quite a common tactic” in Hollywood and business disputes to “have PRs on both sides planting negative stories, sometimes false stories, about the opposition”.
“Even back in the golden era of Hollywood, there were rumours that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were using PR professionals to negatively brief against each other.”
However, the PR people who worked for Baldoni and his studio “dropped the ball a little bit” by discussing tactics in texts, he told BBC News.
“It doesn’t surprise me, especially in the US and Hollywood, that you’ve got quite aggressive crisis PR people.
“But the fact that they put that in writing, I think, was possibly not the wisest thing. Normally they might do something like that over the phone.”
Lively herself is “a sophisticated operator” who will “have her own PR people working away in the background as well”, Lynch added.
‘Our eyes are open’
The New York Times, which broke the story of Lively’s complaint at the weekend, said she “denied that she or any of her representatives planted or spread negative information about Mr Baldoni or Wayfarer”.
The paper also pointed out that “it is impossible to know how much of the negative publicity” towards Lively was originally seeded by those working on behalf of Baldoni, “and how much they noticed and amplified”.
Many fans who turned against Lively now see the situation in a different light.
“We are so able to be manipulated into hating a woman that all it takes is a co-ordinated PR effort for us to switch sides against a domestic abuse victim, or a long-beloved American sweetheart,” wrote Maddy Mussen in the Standard.
“Now our eyes are open, will we be harder to fool? Or will we still want any excuse to turn on a famous woman who is suddenly, in our eyes and the eyes of the ones manipulating us, no longer worthy?”
The Guardian’s Laura Snapes wrote that she and her friends had now “looked back, horrified, on what we had said about her in recent months”.
She added: “Lively’s complaint has left my head spinning. What can you really trust?”
Relacionado
VOCÊ PODE GOSTAR
MUNDO
Alarme como rio corre o sangue-vermelho-DW-02/07/2025

PUBLICADO
41 segundos atrásem
7 de fevereiro de 2025
Águas vermelhas de sangue que enchiam uma hidrovia sinuosa perto do argentino Capital, Buenos Aires, levantou um fedor quando as imagens circulavam nas mídias sociais na sexta -feira.
A área abriga os curtumes e outras indústrias que processam se esconde em couro usando produtos químicos, mas ao longo de suas margens são numerosas casas e uma reserva ecológica.
Fotos e filmagens levantaram temores de que os produtos químicos industriais tenham sido despejados no riacho de Sarandi, que flui para o rio Plate nos arredores do sul da cidade.
Autoridades do município de Avellaneda, cerca de 15 quilômetros ao sul da capital argentina, disseram suspeitar da presença de anilina, uma substância tóxica usada em medicamentos e corantes.
‘O cheiro nos acordou’
O rio parece “um rio de sangue”, disse a moradora Maraa Ducomls à agência de notícias da AFP. “O cheiro nos acordou. Durante o dia, quando olhamos para este lado do rio, estava completamente vermelho, tudo manchado.”
O Ministério do Meio Ambiente para a Província de Buenos Aires disse que coletou amostras do rio para determinar qual substância causou a água. O ministério disse que a coloração poderia ter sido causada por substâncias “orgânicas”.
No entanto, Ducomls, residente local, disse que o rio já parecia “azulado, esverdeado, rosa, arroxeado, com graxa no topo que parece óleo” no passado.
“É terrível, você não precisa ser um inspetor para ver quanta poluição o pobre rio Sarandi sofre”, disse ele.
Editado por: Darko Lamel
Relacionado
MUNDO
Vila Nova Star terá setor pediátrico com suítes privativas – 07/02/2025 – Mônica Bergamo

PUBLICADO
17 minutos atrásem
7 de fevereiro de 2025
O Hospital Vila Nova Star, da Rede D’Or, vai inaugurar na próxima segunda-feira (10) sua primeira ala pediátrica.
O novo setor terá 1.833 m² distribuídos em três andares e contará com suítes privativas, inclusive no pronto-socorro. A rede afirma que exames e medicações serão realizados no mesmo ambiente.
A unidade atenderá crianças de 30 dias a 14 anos de idade. Além de um setor de emergência, terá centro cirúrgico, leitos de internação e UTI. Pinturas da artista plástica Juliana Brandão vão compor o ambiente da nova ala.
O serviço funcionará na primeira torre do hospital, na Vila Nova Conceição, zona sul de São Paulo. O espaço faz parte do plano de expansão do complexo hospitalar da Rede D’Or na região do Itaim Bibi e Vila Olímpia, com investimento total de R$ 1,5 bilhão.
ARTE E CULTURA
A atriz e diretora Bárbara Paz marcou presença, na noite de quarta (5), em um jantar oferecido por Myra Arnaud Babenco em homenagem aos artistas Ding Musa e Felipe Pantone. O evento celebrou a abertura das exposições que eles apresentam na galeria de Raquel Arnaud, em São Paulo. Os curadores das mostras, Yuri Quevedo e Ana Carolina Ralston, compareceram. O arquiteto Rodrigo Ohtake e a atriz Bia Morelli também passaram por lá.
com KARINA MATIAS, LAURA INTRIERI e MANOELLA SMITH
LINK PRESENTE: Gostou deste texto? Assinante pode liberar sete acessos gratuitos de qualquer link por dia. Basta clicar no F azul abaixo.
Relacionado
MUNDO
A ONU está alarmada com o rápido aumento no número de mortes

PUBLICADO
21 minutos atrásem
7 de fevereiro de 2025

As Nações Unidas ficaram alarmadas na sexta -feira, 7 de fevereiro, do rápido aumento no número de mortes civis no Sudão, culpando os partidos beligerantes por sua incapacidade de proteger os habitantes. “Indicou ataques, bem como ameaças e ataques contra civis, devem parar imediatamente”disse o porta -voz da Alta Comissão das Nações Unidas para os Direitos Humanos, Seif Magango.
O Exército Sudanês, em guerra com os paramilitares das forças de apoio rápido desde abril de 2023, lidera uma ofensiva nas últimas semanas em vários eixos para recuperar o controle total da capital, Cartum.
O Escritório de Direitos Humanos da ONU disse que foi capaz de documentar pelo menos 275 mortos civis entre 31 de janeiro e 5 de fevereiro, após artilharia, ataques aéreos e ataques de drones em Cartum, bem como no Darfur du Nord, no sul de Darfur, North Kordofan e Kordofan do Sul.
Esses números são mais de três vezes maiores que “Número já alto” Das 89 mortes registradas na semana anterior, disse ele. A organização enfatiza que os balanços da morte reais são provavelmente muito mais altos do que os números que consegue verificar.
“O rápido aumento no número de mortes entre os civis destaca os sérios riscos que os civis enfrentam devido à incapacidade contínua dos partidos em conflito e seus aliados para proteger os civis”disse Seif Magango.
“As forças armadas sudanesas e as rápidas forças de apoio – e seus movimentos e milícias aliados – devem respeitar suas obrigações no direito internacional e tomar medidas concretas para proteger civis contra danos, incluindo trabalhadores humanitários e defensores dos direitos humanos”ele acrescentou. A guerra no Sudão matou dezenas de milhares de pessoas, arrancou 12 milhões de pessoas e empurrou o país à beira da fome.
O mundo com AFP
Relacionado
PESQUISE AQUI
MAIS LIDAS
- MUNDO4 dias ago
Tarcísio faz ofensiva na Alesp e negocia até com PT – 03/02/2025 – Poder
- MUNDO6 dias ago
Homem é estuprado em briga de torcidas em Recife (PE) – 01/02/2025 – Cotidiano
- MUNDO6 dias ago
E a Fernanda Torres, hein? – 01/02/2025 – Antonio Prata
- MUNDO5 dias ago
Quatro permanecem internados após briga no Recife – 02/02/2025 – Esporte
Warning: Undefined variable $user_ID in /home/u824415267/domains/acre.com.br/public_html/wp-content/themes/zox-news/comments.php on line 48
You must be logged in to post a comment Login