Blake Lively SLAMS Justin Baldoni's _Desperate_ Lawsuit Against Her _ E! News

Transcript

00:00Blake Lively speaks out after Justin Baldoni sues her, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and publicist

00:05Leslie Sloan for $400 million. After Baldoni filed suit against Lively on January 16th,

00:12almost one month after she sued him, alleging he sexually harassed her on the set of their film

00:16It Ends With Us, as well as his production company Wayfarer, Lively slams his suit in a scathing

00:22statement. Lively's lawyers tell E! News, this is an age-old story. A woman speaks up with concrete

00:28evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation, and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on

00:33the victim. This is what experts call DARVO, Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim, Offender. Calling his

00:39lawsuit another chapter in the abuser playbook, her attorneys say his legal filing is retaliation

00:44against sexual harassment allegations. The statement continues, they are trying to shift

00:49the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated

00:54the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own

00:59negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer. The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms.

01:04Lively to oversee Sony's cut of the film, which was then selected for distribution and was a

01:09resounding success. Their response to sexual harassment allegations, she wanted it, it's her

01:14fault. Their justification for why this happened to her, look what she was wearing. In short, while

01:19the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking

01:25the woman is desperate. It does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively's complaint, and it will

01:29fail. In Baldoni's filing obtained by E! News, he alleges Lively was determined to make Baldoni

01:35the real-life villain of her story and falsified stories of his sexual harassment. Baldoni's suit

01:40reads, though Lively claimed Baldoni was the one smearing her, the reality is that it was Lively

01:45and her team who carefully planned and implemented a vile smear campaign against Baldoni and Wayfarer

01:51to deflect attention and blame for Lively's disastrous misjudgments. E! News has reached

01:56out to Sony Pictures and Baldoni's rep for comment on Blake's statement, but has not

02:00yet heard back. For more updates on this story, visit E! Online.com.

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