Justin Baldoni has alleged in a new claim that Blake Lively sent a strange Game of Thrones text during the making of their film, It Ends with Us.
As widely reported, the 37-year-old actress filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her after the actors starred in the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel.
Lively has claimed that there was inappropriate behavior from the 40-year-old star while they were on the film set, alleging that he made harsh comments about her body, after she gave birth to her youngest child, and also asked about her sex life with her husband Ryan Reynolds.
The Gossip Girl alum is also suing Baldoni's crisis manager, Melissa Nathan, his publicist Jennifer Abel, and Wayfarer Studios, which produced the movie.
In response, the Jane The Virgin star's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has labeled Lively’s allegations as “completely false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media".
Baldoni and his publicists are accusing Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds of hijacking the production of It Ends With Us in a lawsuit filed in the southern district of New York on January 16.
The couple is being accused of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage, to the tune of $400m in damages, The Independent reported.
In the 179-page filing, the Five Feet Apart actor alleged that Lively tried to take control of the film before, during, and after production.
He cited one incident where he felt pressured to accept the actress's changes to certain scenes in the script and was "summoned" to a meeting with Reynolds, accompanied by Taylor Swift, where they "praised" Lively's version.
According to PEOPLE, Baldoni also wrote in the complaint that he sent Lively a text, stating that her rewrites were "fun and interesting," and "would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor," adding an emoji.
The mom-of-three allegedly responded by comparing herself to Game of Thrones character Khaleesi, known as Daenerys Targaryen and Mother of Dragons.
The alleged message read: "I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually for better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. [Smiley-face emoji] you will too, I can promise you."
In a previous report, a leaked voicemail recorded by Baldoni circulated online, reportedly detailing his account of events at the It Ends With Us premiere.
The filmmaker can be heard telling his team in the alleged voice message: “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."
“So they ushered me off the carpet and sent us down to the basement, we were down there together, my friends and family, the people that love me the most," he added.
Lively's legal team responded to the leaked voicemail in a statement to PEOPLE, accusing Baldoni, his production studio Wayfarer Studios, and associates of engaging in "unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing' against Lively 'for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set".
“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," the team said
"Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender and suggest that the offender is actually the victim. These concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct," the statement added.