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Justin Baldoni’s team thinks that they’ve released slam dunk evidence amid his many lawsuits involving Blake Lively, so let’s talk about it.
Yesterday, TMZ published a video that includes the raw audio as the two filmed a slow-dancing scene that was intended for a flashback (we don’t have the rights to the video, but you can find it here).
The video shows the pair joking out of character (i.e. as Blake and Justin) as they are aware that the audio will not be used. At one point, Justin begins to kiss Blake’s neck.
“Am I getting beard on you today?” Justin asks as he goes to kiss her neck again. Blake replies, “I’m probably getting spray tan on you.”
“It smells good,” Justin replies, to which Blake says, “Well, it’s not that; it’s my body makeup.” I would argue that at this point, Blake looks uncomfortable.
It’s unclear whether the footage appears in the final cut of the movie, but the clip of them dancing does appear in the trailer:
So, how was this clip covered? TMZ wrote, “You don’t see Justin making any offensive comments or actions toward Blake. We’re told his team believes this completely refutes Blake’s sexual harassment claim.”
Deuxmoi, the celebrity gossip account with over 2 million followers, shared footage from the shoot along with a statement that appears to be from Justin’s legal team: “The following videos…clearly refute Ms. Lively’s characterization of his behavior. The scene in question was designed to show the two actors falling in love and longing to be close to one another. Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism.” The top comments on the post largely favor Justin.
The account also shared an excerpt from the script which said, “LILY and Ryle slow dance in the bar. Patrons around them drinking and watching sports. Completely in their own world.”
So, let’s bring it back to what Blake’s lawsuit actually said of this moment. It says that Justin was speaking to Blake as himself, which the video shows. It then says, “He leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘It smells so good.'”
In my opinion, the core of the issue is in the next sentence: “None of this was remotely in character, or based on any dialogue in the script…Mr. Baldoni was caressing [Ms.] Lively with his mouth in a way that had nothing to do with their roles.” The excerpt from the script that Justin’s team shared appears to corroborate this: There is no mention of physical touch beyond them dancing.
Blake’s legal team told Deadline in a statement following the release of the footage, “Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning.”
“Every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what Ms. Lively described in Paragraph 48 of her Complaint. The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character. Every moment of this was improvised by Mr. Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance, and no intimacy coordinator present. Mr. Baldoni was not only Ms. Lively’s co-star, but the director, the head of studio and Ms. Lively’s boss,” they continued.
The statement further said of the excerpt, “Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort. They will recognize her attempts at levity to try to deflect the unwanted touching.”
“This matter is in active litigation in federal court. Releasing this video to the media, rather than presenting it as evidence in court, is another example of an unethical attempt to manipulate the public. It is also a continuation of their harassment and retaliatory campaign. While they are focused on misleading media narratives, we are focused on the legal process. We are continuing our efforts to require Mr. Baldoni and his associates to answer in court, under oath, rather than through manufactured media stunts,” the statement concluded.
In short, maybe don’t immediately trust sources that are immediately in a tizzy over this.
