Blake Lively was reportedly offended by a cover image the Hollywood Reporter recently published that depicted her launching a slingshot at Justin Baldoni amid the actors’ ongoing legal feud.
“The Hollywood Reporter should be ashamed of itself,” a spokesperson for the “It Ends With Us” star, 37, told the Daily Mail on Friday.
“The framing in this picture is outrageously insulting as it plays into every sexist trope about women who dare file a workplace complaint, turning them into the aggressor, and suggesting they deserve the retaliation that comes their way.”
The magazine featured the controversial image of Lively alongside a story in which the outlet investigated how Baldoni’s Baha’i faith may have “inadvertently contributed” to his situation with Lively.
For instance, the Hollywood Reporter pointed out how a claim the “Age of Adeline” star made in her California Civil Rights Department complaint and subsequent lawsuit that the director once said he could speak to her “dead father” tracks with past lectures he had given about his faith.
“He has also referenced his interest in the afterlife in interviews,” the outlet’s story said.
The article also posed the question whether Lively and Baldoni’s legal battle “has less to do with gender equality than it does a simple cultural misunderstanding.
“What if much of it — the alleged inappropriate hugging and pre-filming praying — could be explained as a clash between a very specific faith-driven community with its unique mores, and a much more modern, post-#MeToo one with its own set of beliefs and commandments?”
Lively’s rep added to the Daily Mail in response, “The story is extremely offensive as it incredibly seems to explain away documented examples of sexual harassment and retaliation by calling them ‘cultural misunderstandings.’”
Page Six has reached out to the Hollywood Reporter for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Lively has maintained that she is being truthful about her sexual harassment allegations against Baldoni.
She reiterated in an amended complaint filed this week that the “Jane the Virgin” alum exhibited “creepy” behavior on set, including asking about her and her husband Ryan Reynolds’ sex life. She also claimed he made several other women working on the film feel “uncomfortable.”
Jenny Slate was not named in Lively’s suit but the Hollywood Reporter revealed Friday that she was allegedly someone who filed a human resources complaint against Baldoni. The “Big Mouth” actress, 42, has not yet publicly commented on the matter.
Baldoni has denied all of Lively’s allegations, including that he launched a “smear campaign” against his former co-star in order to “destroy” her reputation as retaliation for speaking out.
He has also filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds, 48, and their publicist, Leslie Sloane, for extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud and other claims.
Lively has said via her lawyers that Baldoni’s suit is “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
Their cases have been consolidated with a potential trial start date of March 9, 2026. All parties involved have declined the court’s mediation efforts and said that settlement talks would be “premature.”
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