In reaction to Blake Lively’s complaint against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, Amber Heard told NBC News on Monday that she “saw this firsthand” and that social media is where lies turn into the truth.
In an undated complaint to the California Civil Rights Department, Lively accused the film’s director, Baldoni, of sexual harassment, fostering a hostile work environment, and attempting to damage her reputation through a targeted social media campaign.
According to the complaint, Baldoni recruited Melissa Nathan, a well-known public relations crisis manager, who was employed by Johnny Depp during his high-profile defamation trial against his ex-wife Heard.
Heard, who resides in Spain, stated in an exclusive statement to NBC News that social media is the perfect example of the adage. Before the truth can put on its shoes, a lie has already traveled half the world. I witnessed this directly and up close. It is both destructive and scary.
Heard was given $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive penalties after a jury unanimously determined that he had defamed Depp. In her complaint, Heard also received $2 million in compensatory damages, but no punitive damages were granted.
Heard claimed the ruling goes back to a time when a woman who spoke out might be publicly humiliated and shamed, while Depp claimed at the time that the jury had given him back his life.
Lively’s complaint alleges that throughout the film’s promotion, Baldoni employed a crisis communications team to conduct a retaliatory social manipulation campaign against her with the goal of damaging her reputation.
According to the complaint, Nathan gave Baldoni a plan that included social media mitigation, “including proactive fan posting,” and social manipulations to help shift the narrative during the movie’s promotion.
As reports circulated on social media that the two stars did not get along on the set, the movie’s promotion at the time made headlines since the actors seemed to shun one other.
Additionally, fans saw that Baldoni was working on media projects independently of his co-stars and that Lively and Jenny Slate, among others, did not follow him on Instagram.
The claims in Lively’s case, according to Bryan Freedman, who is defending Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and all of its agents, are blatantly untrue.
He claimed that Lively’s threats to not appear on the set during production and to not promote the movie led Wayfarer to employ a crisis communications firm.
Freedman said Monday in response to 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.
He said the only correlation between both cases is that “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.”
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!