Justin Baldoni has been dropped by WME.
The choice to half methods with the “It Ends with Us” director and star got here from the company Saturday after Blake Full of life filed a sexual harassment and retaliation grievance in opposition to him Friday night time, sources have confirmed.
Baldoni was knowledgeable of the choice Saturday, sources stated. WME additionally reps Full of life, and based mostly on the seriousness of the allegations in Full of life’s grievance, the company felt motion wanted to be taken swiftly.
WME had no remark.
In a copy of the grievance acquired by Selection, Full of life cited “extreme emotional hurt” inflicted upon her and her household by Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and of launching a smear marketing campaign in opposition to her following the discharge of “It Ends With Us.” Shortly after the information broke, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman slammed the accusations as “shameful” and “categorically false.”
In keeping with the grievance lodged with the California Civil Rights Division, a gathering was held in January 2024 between Full of life and Baldoni to handle her return to the “It Ends with Us” set after the twin WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes had ended. Ryan Reynolds, Full of life’s husband, was reportedly current.
At stated assembly, Full of life claimed that Baldoni complained about her weight to her coach, inappropriately mentioned his intercourse life and pressured her to reveal her non secular beliefs. She additionally claimed that Jamey Heath, a “It Ends with Us” producer and the CEO of Wayfarer Studios, confirmed her a video of his spouse giving delivery.
Full of life additionally alleged that, after she demanded Baldoni not add any extra intercourse scenes than what was already within the script, which was authorized by Sony Photos in keeping with the grievance, Baldoni launched a marketing campaign of “social manipulation” to “destroy” Full of life’s fame. Selection has reached out to Sony Photos for remark.
Different claims within the submitting embrace Heath and Baldoni describing their “earlier pornography dependancy” and barging into her make-up trailer unannounced whereas she was breastfeeding her new child child. The grievance additionally included emails and texts between Full of life, Baldoni and his publicity staff explaining plans to push again on the actress’s complaints in the event that they ever turned public.
“It’s shameful that Ms. Full of life and her representatives would make such critical and categorically false accusations in opposition to Mr. Baldoni,” reads Freedman’s assertion to Selection concerning the grievance. “Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet one more determined try to ‘repair’ her unfavourable fame which was garnered from her personal remarks and actions throughout the marketing campaign for the movie; interviews and press actions that have been noticed publicly, in actual time and unedited, which allowed for the web to generate their very own views and opinions.”
“These claims are utterly false, outrageous and deliberately salacious with an intent to publicly harm and rehash a story within the media,” Freedman continued. “Wayfarer Studios made the choice to proactively rent a disaster supervisor previous to the advertising and marketing marketing campaign of the movie, to work alongside their very own consultant with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, because of the a number of calls for and threats made by Ms. Full of life throughout manufacturing which included her threatening to not displaying as much as set, threatening to not promote the movie, finally resulting in its demise throughout launch, if her calls for weren’t met. It was additionally found that Ms. Full of life enlisted her personal consultant, Leslie Sloan with Imaginative and prescient PR, who additionally represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant unfavourable and utterly fabricated and false tales with media, even previous to any advertising and marketing had commenced for the movie, which was one more reason why Wayfarer Studios made the choice to rent a disaster skilled to start inner situation planning within the case they wanted to handle.”
The assertion concluded that “the representatives of Wayfarer Studios nonetheless did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and solely responded to incoming media inquiries to make sure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social exercise. What’s pointedly lacking from the cherry-picked correspondence is the proof that there have been no proactive measures taken with media or in any other case; simply inner situation planning and personal correspondence to strategize which is normal working process with public relations professionals.”
A spokesperson for Full of life referred Selection to an announcement she gave to The New York Occasions, which learn: “I hope that my authorized motion helps pull again the curtain on these sinister retaliatory techniques to hurt individuals who communicate up about misconduct and helps defend others who could also be focused.”
