Reply to Lively/Baldoni Lawsuit Part 2

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Reply to "Lively/Baldoni Lawsuit Part 2"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]But anyway, clearly there were some inappropriate activities, but it seemed to have all been rectified. They came to an agreement and there were texts from Blake herself saying the set was totally different in the second half and that things were running much more smoothly. So it really did seem like she was looking for someone to blame for the backlash and not holding any one accountable for bad behavior. [/quote]

I don't think Blake would have sued if she had not become aware of the texts on Jen Abel's phone showing that Baldoni and Wayfarer had intentionally gone after her in the media. Especially the stuff about Jed and talking about an "untraceable" campaign against her. I think that yes, there was inappropriate behavior on set and she complained and it got better after the hiatus, and Blake felt the situation had been resolved and wanted to move on.

But then two things happened: she got raked over the coals during promotion of the movie AND she learned about the Abel texts via Taylor's publicist friend.

The issues on set only became part of her allegations because when you allege retaliation, you have to establish that you engaged in a protected activity, like complaining about SH. Which she did -- she believed she had been SHed and she complained about it. That the court later determined she was an independent contractor who can't sue under SH laws doesn't suddenly make that a lie. She absolutely believed she (and other women) had been mistreated on set, and she believed her complaints to Wayfarer and Sony were necessary to address that behavior. You can quibble about whether you, personally, would have found what she experienced upsetting. You can argue she was too sensitive or that she was subconsciously predisposed to look for offense because she didn't like Baldoni from the start. Fine. Maybe. But she believed she'd been SHed, she complained, and everyone agreed that the second half of shooting was fine so her complaints clearly benefitted the production.

The Jen Abel text message clearly indicate that Baldoni was scared Lively would go public with her complaints, and it appears they hired crisis PR and Jed Wallace to discredit her publicly so that if she did go public, she would not be believed. Like that's just how I read those texts. It's obviously how Blake reads them, and her lawyers clearly found them compelling enough to launch the law suit. You might disagree. That's what the trial would have been about, and I actually think it's unfortunate there won't be one.

But she has not changed her story. The case was always about the retaliation and she never would have sued if she hadn't seen those texts on Jen Abel's phone that really do seem to show Baldoni and Wayfarer plotting to destroy her rep in order to keep her silent. That's my take on the case and it's fine if you disagree, but I'm a real person, I've followed the case from the beginning, and while there is a lot of nuance in all this, this remains my position.[/quote]

Yeah, I agree with a lot of this. I think the problem though is that your point she had to dredge up the sexual harassment and I just feel it was just not enough for the public. I think we all agree people should be respected and treated appropriately at work, but the kind of things that she was alleging needed to be either taken without context or beefed up a little and I think people really resent that she did that.

There is a legal definition of sexual harassment. And what people typically experience is they feel really helpless when it happens at their job and they can’t do anything. But Blake was able to get major concessions. When she had a problem, she was able to have leadership come to her penthouse to discuss it and have her husband there to help her through it. No other woman in America has that kind of power.

I just don’t think the sexual harassment claims were strong enough given her power and that’s what people focused on. Perhaps if she had been able to only focus on defamation or retaliation without that people might have been more sensitive.

I also think if she had taken it to court, and not to the New York Times, this might’ve been handled differently as well.

And then when she did all this, everything gets opened up and we see some of the things she and Ryan did behind the scenes. Using their power and influence to get Matt Damon to intervene, getting him fired from the agency in august But working with the agency to have them announce it when the article came out for maximum pain. That’s the kind of thing people really don’t like. It’s an abuse of power.

They should’ve either worked totally behind the scenes to do that or they should’ve brought a court case. I think the problem is they tried to do both.[/quote]

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