In the drama It Ends With Us, Ms Lively plays a woman who finds herself in a relationship with a charming but abusive boyfriend, played by Mr Baldoni.
In a post to her Instagram stories, Colleen Hoover, the author of the novel on which the film was based, also voiced her support: “@BlakeLively you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met.
“Thank you for being exactly the human that you are.
“Never change. Never wilt.”
She then linked to a New York Times article titled We Can Bury Anyone: Inside A Hollywood Smear Machine.
Hoover also re-posted the statement, external from Ferrara, Biedel and Tamblyn, adding: “This statement from these women and Blake’s ability to refuse to sit down and ‘be buried’ has been nothing short of inspiring.”
The meeting between Ms Lively and Mr Baldoni, together with others involved in the movie’s production plus Ms Lively’s actor husband Ryan Reynolds, took place on 4 January 2024, and it aimed to address “the hostile work environment” on set, according to Ms Lively’s legal filing.
Mr Baldoni attended the meeting in his capacity as co-chairman and co-founder of the company that produced the film, Wayfarer Studios. He was also the film’s director.
In the legal complaint, Ms Lively’s lawyers allege that both Mr Baldoni and the Wayfarer chief executive officer, Jamey Heath, engaged in “inappropriate and unwelcome behaviour towards Ms Lively and others on the set of It Ends With Us”.
In the filing to the California Civil Rights Department, a list of 30 demands relating to the pair’s alleged misconduct was made at the meeting to ensure they could continue to produce the film.
Among them, Ms Lively requested that there be no more mention of Mr Baldoni and Mr Heath’s previous “pornography addiction” to Ms Lively or to other crew members, no more descriptions of their own genitalia to Ms Lively, and “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”, says the complaint.
Ms Lively also demanded that Mr Baldoni stop saying he could speak to her dead father.