‘We Should Have a Plan’
In May, several months after the filming wrapped, Mr. Baldoni realized that Mr. Reynolds had blocked him on Instagram.
“We should have a plan for IF she does the same when movie comes out,” Mr. Baldoni wrote of Ms. Lively in a text exchange that included Ms. Abel, a publicist who has long worked with him and Wayfarer. “Plans make me feel more at ease.”
Mr. Baldoni, 40, and Mr. Heath, 55, had a lot riding on the film, which is based on a best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover.
Mr. Baldoni was best known for the CW satirical romantic dramedy “Jane the Virgin.” Wayfarer provided the resources for bigger ambitions. It was bankrolled by the billionaire Steve Sarowitz, who is co-chair of the studio with Mr. Baldoni. They and Mr. Heath, the chief executive, are all deeply involved with the Baha’i religious organization, which promotes unity, peace and gender equality. Mr. Baldoni has presented himself as an ally to women, writing books, co-hosting a podcast with Mr. Heath and giving talks on toxic masculinity.
Ms. Lively, 37, was by far the bigger star. The TV show “Gossip Girl” catapulted her to early fame, and she appeared in films ranging from “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” to “The Town.” She built businesses outside the entertainment industry, appeared on the covers of glossy magazines and amassed more than 45 million Instagram followers.
Ms. Lively had expressed concerns about Mr. Baldoni from the beginning, according to her legal complaint. Before shooting began, for example, she objected to sex scenes he wanted to add that she considered gratuitous.
In November 2023, as the cast of “It Ends With Us” was preparing to resume shooting after a monthslong writers’ strike, Ms. Lively went to Wayfarer with the side letter seeking safeguards.
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Mr. Baldoni, co-chair of the film studio, and Jamey Heath, the chief executive, are alleged to have engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct.Credit...James Devaney/GC Images, via Getty Images
“Our client is willing to forego a more formal HR process in favor of everyone returning to work and finishing the Film as long as the set is safe moving forward,” her legal team wrote to the studio.
She detailed her complaints during a meeting with Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath and other producers in January, according to the legal filing. She claimed Mr. Baldoni had improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life, including encounters in which he said he may not have received consent. Mr. Heath had shown her a video of his wife naked, she said, and he had watched Ms. Lively in her trailer when she was topless and having body makeup removed, despite her asking him to look away. She said that both men repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.
In agreeing to the terms that Ms. Lively sought, Wayfarer acknowledged that “Although our perspective differs in many aspects, ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount,” according to her legal complaint.
By the spring, Ms. Lively told people she worked with that the men’s behavior had improved with the new protections.
But she was now in a creative battle with them. With the support of Sony, the film’s distributor, she made her own cut of the movie, bringing in editors and a composer and adding one of Ms. Swift’s songs.
In the end, Sony and Wayfarer went with Ms. Lively’s cut, and she got a producer credit.
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The author Colleen Hoover and cast members Brandon Sklenar, Isabela Ferrer and Ms. Lively, promoting the film “It Ends With Us” without Mr. Baldoni.Credit...Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Sony Pictures
As the film release neared, Ms. Lively and other cast members informed Sony and Wayfarer that they would not do any appearances alongside Mr. Baldoni. So did Ms. Hoover, the author, who had her own dissatisfactions with him and had become more upset after he told her about Ms. Lively’s allegations, according to text messages from Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath.
‘Most Importantly Untraceable’
By the first week of August, Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni had retained Ms. Nathan, who had worked with high-profile clients including Mr. Depp, whose ex-wife, Amber Heard, accused him of physical abuse.
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Mr. Depp successfully sued Ms. Heard for defamation, and the trial became a spectacle
amid suspicions of an online campaign to damage her credibility.
This year, after a decade at the New York consultancy Hiltzik Strategies, Ms. Nathan started her own firm, TAG PR. Its majority stakeholder is a company run by the entertainment industry executive Scooter Braun.
In an initial planning document sent to Wayfarer and Mr. Baldoni on Aug. 2, Ms. Nathan suggested media talking points, including that Ms. Lively used an imbalance of power to take creative control of the film.
But Mr. Baldoni wanted more.
“Not in love with the document they sent,” he responded in a text exchange that included Ms. Abel and Mr. Heath. “Not sure I’m feeling the protection I felt on the call.”
Ms. Abel relayed his frustration to Ms. Nathan: “I think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios. He wants to feel like she can be buried.”
“Of course- but you know when we send over documents we can’t send over the work we will or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble,” Ms. Nathan responded, adding, “We can’t write we will destroy her.”
Moments later, she said, “Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands.”
“You know we can bury anyone,” she wrote.
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