Recently, an alleged voice message from Baldoni surfaced, suggesting he was relegated to the basement during the film’s premiere.
On The Megyn Kelly Show, a voice purported to be Baldoni’s is heard saying: “On what could have been one of the most beautiful nights of my life career wise, I literally was sent to the basement with all my friends and family for over an hour because I wasn’t allowed to be seen, she didn’t want me anywhere near her or the rest of the cast.”
The voice in the recording does not identify who “she” is, continuing with: “We start laughing because of the ridiculousness of this whole thing.
“I was in the basement with the people that love me the most and we were all joyful and laughing cos none of that s**t matters, none of it.”
Following the public release of the recording, Lively’s legal team responded with a statement.
In a statement shared with People, Lively’s lawyers accuse Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer Studios, and others of participating in ‘unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing’ against Lively ‘for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set,’ claiming ‘their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Lively since her filing’.
The statement reinforces Lively’s ‘serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation’ as ‘supported by concrete facts’ and asserts that ‘this is not a “feud” arising from “creative differences” or a “he said/she said” situation’, assuring that Lively’s team will ‘prove [this] in litigation’.
“Sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry,” the statement continues. “A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied.”
Lively’s team remarks that ‘another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender and suggest that the offender is actually the victim’.
They caution: “These concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct.”
The statement concludes: “Most importantly, media statements are not a defense to Ms. Lively’s legal claims. We will continue to prosecute her claims in federal court, where the rule of law determines who prevails, not hyperbole and threats.”