He's accused of harassing, ogling and even sniffing his leading lady – but new clues in the It Ends With Us legal battle hint that sup...
He's accused of harassing, ogling and even sniffing his leading lady – but new clues in the It Ends With Us legal battle hint that super-woke Justin Baldoni was the more uncomfortable of the two.
Gossip Girl alum Blake Lively, 37, says her married co-star left her feeling 'flustered' after he leered at her in a low-cut dress.
On another occasion, she claims Baldoni, 41, 'pressured' her in a crowded bar to whip off her coat and reveal her lace bra and 'onesie'.
When Lively told him this wasn't the look she was aiming for, Baldoni is said to have scoffed: 'I'm sorry I missed the HR meeting.'
But texts and documents uploaded to the web by his legal team paint a radically different picture of his almost comically prudish response to their on-set interactions, DailyMail.com reveal.



She even nursed her youngest child, son Olin in front of him, Baldoni claims.
'Lively was so close and comfortable with Baldoni that she freely breastfed in front of him during meetings, including when her husband was present,' his lawyers said in a recently updated version of his countersuit.
'Oftentimes, Lively's baby nurse would come in mid-meeting with Lively's hungry baby, and Lively would breastfeed openly and without hesitation.
'On every occasion, Baldoni averted his eyes from Lively's chest, either maintaining eye contact or looking away.'
Baldoni's team has raised similar protests over the actress's claims that she fought to have an intimacy coordinator on set at all times.
Dad-of-two Baldoni – an avowed feminist who once gave a Ted Talk apologizing for 'masculine privilege' – had already hired one.





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'Although the presence of an intimacy coordinator is not a Screen Actors Guild rule but rather a recommendation, Baldoni was eager to engage one from the start to ensure talent, himself included, felt safe during intimate scenes,' his lawyers reveal.
'It was also important to him that the intimacy coordinator be a woman, to help craft sex scenes that would speak to the mostly-female audience of the book, i.e. be written from the "female gaze".'
Lively claims that in one such encounter, Baldoni 'discreetly bit and sucked' on her lower lip and 'improvised numerous kisses'. He's alleged to have whispered to her "You smell good".
'Mr. Baldoni insisted on shooting the full scene over and over again, well beyond what would have been required on an ordinary set, and without advance notice or consent,' Lively's suit claims.
Baldoni's lawyers once more tried to flip the narrative in documents uploaded to the actor's TheLawSuitInfo website, suggesting he was the one attempting to police the on-screen passion.




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'These meetings often took place, at Lively's insistence, in the couple's home, and often while Lively's husband was present. Lively's method of work was unconventional and uncomfortable for Baldoni.'
Baldoni was best known for playing Rafael Solano in CW telenovela Jane the Virgin prior to his explosive legal spat with Lively and her Hollywood megastar husband Ryan Reynolds.
In December, he was awarded the Voices of Solidarity Award from Vital Voices, which celebrates 'remarkable men who have shown courage and compassion in advocating on behalf of women and girls'.
He was stripped of the gong weeks later when Lively filed a California civil rights complaint and a subsequent federal lawsuit, claiming he had entered her trailer while she was topless, showed her graphic video of his wife giving birth and bit and sucked on her lips during an improvised kissing scene.
She further accused her co-star of smearing her reputation when she objected to the abuse, citing a text message from Baldoni's publicist Melissa Nathan which read: 'We can bury anyone.'
Lively's bombshell claims made global headlines thanks to the near-simultaneous publication of a 4,000-word New York Times expose that quoted heavily from the civil rights complaint.


Baldoni countersued Lively and Reynolds, turning the spat on its head by claiming their team did the smearing and asking for $400million in damages.
He accused her of twisting the meaning of his texts and emails and working in tandem with Leslie Sloane, a powerful Hollywood publicist, to plant damaging stories about him in the media.
It was all a ploy, Baldoni argued, to rebuild Lively's reputation after she was criticized for being prickly and difficult in interviews and promotional events.
Any negative publicity surrounding his blonde leading lady had arisen 'organically', his suit contends.
Baldoni also sued The Times for $250million, claiming it 'relied almost entirely on Lively's unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims.'
The newspaper says it plans to 'vigorously defend' itself.
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