Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s alleged on-set dispute during the filming of “It Ends With Us” − once a matter of speculation − has broken into the public square with a bang.
Lively, whose popularity plummeted during the movie’s press tour, accused co-star and director Baldoni of sexually harassing her during filming and carrying out a subsequent smear campaign to keep her silent. The accusations, detailed in a lawsuit filed Dec. 31, became public in part thanks to an investigative story published by The New York Times.
Readers more fascinated by the blockbuster allegations Lively levied against Baldoni – and the accusation that she banned him from the premiere that he has lobbed in her direction since – may have missed a third, more tangential character, who is now speaking out to allege her role in the debacle was taken out of context.
Kjersti Flaa, a Norwegian entertainment journalist whose video “The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job” became a lightning rod for hate against the actress, told USA TODAY in a statement emailed Monday that she had no formal connection with Baldoni’s team.
“Considering that Lively’s lawyers had access to thousands of pages of text messages and emails, it is hard to believe they were unaware that I had no involvement in the alleged smear campaign. This makes it all the more troubling that The New York Times chose to insinuate my involvement based solely on a hashtag from a Johnny Depp video on my YouTube channel from 2022,” Flaa wrote in the statement.