Amber Heard has spoken out about Blake Lively‘s allegations her co-star Justin Baldoni launched a smear campaign against her, saying it is something she saw ‘firsthand’.
Heard, 38, addressed the situation with the It Ends With Us leads after it emerged that Baldoni, 40, hired the same crisis management team as Heard’s ex-husband Johnny Depp during their defamation trial.
Lively, 37, has filed a legal complaint against Baldoni over allegations of sexual harassment, fostering a hostile work environment and trying to tarnish her reputation.
The filings state that Baldoni retained powerhouse PR manager Melissa Nathan, who also represented Depp during the defamation trial in which he was awarded $15 million after a jury found that Heard had defamed him.
Heard countersued and was awarded $2 million in compensation as part of the high profile proceedings which saw her tumultuous relationship with Depp, 61, publicly dissected.
‘Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying “A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on”, Heard told NBC news.
Amber Heard has spoken out about Blake Lively ‘s allegations her co-star Justin Baldoni launched a smear campaign against her
‘I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.’
Heard was sued by Depp over allegations she fabricated claims of domestic abuse to further her career after she published an op-ed in the Washington Post outlining her accusations.
A representative for Baldoni, who previously denied the claims in the lawsuit, lashed out at Heard’s comments.
‘TAG PR must be the most powerful group of publicists the world has ever seen for it to be able to completely change the perception of both Amber Heard and Blake Lively,’ Andy Freedman told DailyMail.com.
‘The only correlation between both individuals was that for decades every move they have made has been out there for everyone to see, widely filmed and documented for the public to make up their own minds – which they did, organically.
‘All you have to do is watch the interviews that still remain if they have not already been scrubbed by their crisis PR teams (which is apparently their crisis teams next move since that’s what crisis teams do, they protect their clients).’
Lively presented her former co-star and director with a legal documents over the weekend.
The filings contain dozens of messages between Nathan and Baldoni’s publicist Jennifer Abel in which they appear to discuss a strategy to boost their client’s profile, while relishing in bad press Lively received.
Lively, 37, has filed a legal complaint against Baldoni over allegations of sexual harassment, fostering a hostile work environment and trying to tarnish her reputation while they worked together on the movie It Ends With Us
In her lawsuit, Lively claims Baldoni showed her nude images and videos of women, talked about an alleged previous porn addiction and made sexual comments about the cast and crew
This included articles accusing Lively of a ‘tone deaf’ approach to the movie’s themes of domestic abuse after she failed to mention the issue during several interviews.
The actress reportedly want to market the film as a more uplifting and inspiring tale, compared to Baldoni who felt domestic abuse should be at the forefront of the promotional run.
Around the time of these articles, Lively’s old interviews also began to resurface which saw her branded rude and a ‘mean girl’ over the apparently dismissive way she responded to questions.
Among them was an awkward encounter with journalist Kjersti Flaa during which a visibly pregnant Lively appeared to take offense at Flaa referencing her baby bump.
Another saw Lively accused of ‘mean girl’ behavior during an interview with Café Society costar Parker Posey during promotion for the movie.
In her complaint, Lively states Baldoni fostered a toxic workplace environment on the set of their movie, which included the director showing her nude videos and images of other women and discussing his previous alleged porn addiction.
She claimed Baldoni made inappropriate inquiries about her weight, comments about her dead father as well as sexual remarks about the cast and crew.
The situation became so unworkable that she and her husband demanded crisis talks during filming to put a stop to the behavior, according to the lawsuit.
Heard said she has experienced a smear campaign ‘firsthand’ during a defamation trial where she was sued for defamation by her ex-husband Johnny Depp
She spoke out after it emerged that Baldoni hired the same crisis management PR team as Depp
She also requested ‘no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL [Blake Lively] outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project,’ per the filing.
The demands were allegedly accepted by the studio, but the movie’s release was still hampered by their feud.
Another saw Lively accused of ‘mean girl’ behavior during an interview with Café Society costar Parker Posey during promotion for the movie.
Baldoni has now hit back and claims that Lively has only filed the lawsuit to try to repair her reputation in the wake of negative press she received following the film’s release.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman branded the legal action ‘false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt’.
He insisted Lively is attempting to ‘fix her negative reputation’ after rumors emerged of diva-like behavior during filming.
This included ‘threatening to not show up to set [and] threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release,’ according to Freedman.
