An alleged text sent by Blake Lively is reopening questions about Justin Baldoni’s comments to her trainer, Us Weekly can exclusively report.
An alleged text sent by Blake Lively is reopening questions about Justin Baldoni‘s comments to her trainer, Us Weekly can exclusively report.
On Tuesday, January 20, a text message that Lively sent to a third party was submitted into evidence as part of the actress’ legal battle with Baldoni over alleged sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us.
Lively’s alleged text, dated April 24, 2023, read, “Thank you so much for the sweet message. That photo was from a year ago. Wish it’s what I looked like.”
She continued, “I actually had my director/costar call my trainer today to ask what I’ll weigh in two weeks when we shoot. Because he’s worried about his back and bone density and wants to be sure he’s ok to lift me up for our sex scenes.”
Lively ended, “I’ve committed to only eating bagels from now on also. He’s an actual donkey.”
The Gossip Girl alum ended, “I’m ranting about strangers.”
In her lawsuit, Lively alleged Baldoni “routinely degraded” her by “finding back-channel ways of criticizing her body and weight.”
She alleged that “a few weeks before filming began and less than four months after [she] had given birth to her fourth child, [she] was humiliated to learn that Mr. Baldoni secretly called her fitness trainer without her knowledge or permission, and implied that he wanted her to lose weight in two weeks.”
Lively said Baldoni told the trainer that he had asked because he was concerned about having to pick up Lively in a scene for the movie. Her suit alleged, “but there was no such scene.” The alleged text from Lively showed her telling a friend Baldoni needed to know about her weight for a physical scene.
In her complaint, Lively’s lawyers wrote, “[Lively] was not alone in her view that [Baldoni’s] discussion with her trainer was uncomfortable and inappropriate.”
In response, Baldoni denied Lively’s claims of “fat-shaming.” He argued that he had chronic back problems and anticipated a scene in which he would have to lift the actress up.
He said he had privately asked a physical trainer he had consulted with, who also trained Lively, about her weight.
His lawyer noted, “He did so discreetly, outside the workplace and outside Lively’s hearing. But even if this inquiry was, as Lively now portrays it, a sly criticism, any petty slight that might have arisen when the trainer, on his own initiative, repeated the comment to Lively, is simply too trivial to constitute sexual harassment.”
The attorney continued, “Lively’s own evidence further undermines her claims. It confirms Baldoni’s stated motivation in privately inquiring about her weight was not to demean her as a woman, but to anticipate his own physical obligations ‘in connection with a scripted lift scene.’”
The trainer in question filed a declaration in the case. Don Saladino wrote, “On or around January 22, 2023, with my agreement, Ms. Lively shared my contact information with her co-star Justin Baldoni. That same day, Mr. Baldoni reached out to me.”
Saladino added, “I communicated with Mr. Baldoni, both over text and by phone, on a handful of occasions, primarily in February 2023.”
“At some point during his training for the film, Mr. Baldoni called me on the phone. I recall that Mr. Baldoni asked me how much Ms. Lively would weigh by the start of filming,” Saladino explained. “He said that he was asking about her weight in connection with a scripted lift scene, suggesting that he needed to know Ms. Lively’s weight to determine whether he could perform the lift.
Saladino said Baldoni’s phone call made him feel “very uncomfortable.”
“I have never experienced someone reaching out to me about a client’s weight,” the trainer said. “I felt that Mr. Baldoni’s explanation for his question was dishonest, given that, based on my understanding of Mr. Baldoni’s workout regimen, he would easily be able to perform a lift in a range that would include Ms. Lively.”
He continued, “I refused to answer [Baldoni’s] question about [Lively’s] weight and told [Lively] about [Baldoni’s] inappropriate question. [Lively] seemed embarrassed and hurt that [Baldoni] had asked about her weight without her permission.”
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