RSS
‘We’ve Received Vile Antisemitic Slurs’: Justin Baldoni’s Publicists File Counter-Lawsuit Against Blake Lively
Justin Baldoni attends the ‘It Ends With Us’ premiere in New York City, US, Aug. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
Actor-director Justin Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer Studios, and his publicists, Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, filed on Thursday a joint $400 million countersuit against actress Blake Lively, in part claiming they received “abhorrent abuse and vile antisemitic slurs” after Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment.
The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York in response to Lively’s own lawsuit against Baldoni, his public relations team, and Wayfarer Studios that was filed last month. In her filing, Lively, 37, accused Baldoni, 40, of sexual harassment and “sexually inappropriate behavior” on the set of their recent film “It Ends With Us,” and his team of initiating “a coordinated effort to destroy her reputation.”
Baldoni directed “It Ends With Us” and also starred in the film alongside Lively. In the film, Lively plays a florist named Lily Bloom who faces domestic violence when she becomes romantically involved with Baldoni’s character, a Boston neurosurgeon named Ryle. Baldoni’s mother is from an Ashkenazi Jewish family with roots in Eastern Europe but he follows the Baháʼí faith.
In a joint statement given to The Algemeiner, Abel and Nathan explained their decision to join a counter-lawsuit against Lively after her own lawsuit in December. Their suit on Thursday also names Lively’s husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, and Lively’s publicist as defendants.
“Over the last month we have received death threats, abhorrent abuse, and vile antisemitic slurs hurled at us due to her decision to use us as scapegoats for her own choices promoting her film in which she made millions of dollars,” Abel and Nathan said. “With this filing, we lift our own curtain of what happens when the entitled weaponize power, fear, and money to destroy, intimidate, and bully those who get in their way.”
Nathan is a crisis management expert and CEO and founder of The Agency Group (TAG) public relations firm, which has offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC. Abel is the founder and CEO of RWA Communications, a public relations and media company based in Beverly Hills. She is Baldoni’s personal publicist.
In their joint statement, the two publicists also expressed frustration that they are “forced to answer this viciously selfish ongoing litigation littered with documented and provable lies in the midst of the tragedy impacting California where we reside.”
“Five months ago, Ms. Lively chose to promote a film about domestic violence in a way that caused instant negative and organic backlash due to her own highly publicized actions. Instead of accepting responsibility, she decided to cruelly blame us,” they added. “This malicious attack on private individuals by Ms. Lively and her team in which they chose to spoon feed The New York Times with doctored, out of context, and edited text messages in an effort to paint herself as a victim set off a chain of events that has been harmful beyond measure. To be clear, Ms. Lively and her team initiated this smear campaign in the media for the sole intention of gaining undeserved public sympathy for her own missteps.”
In their lengthy lawsuit on Thursday obtained by The Algemeiner, the plaintiffs claimed that Lively directed a “smear campaign” against them that was carried out by her team, and that she “concocted a fantastical narrative that laid the blame for her travails exactly where she believed it belonged — with others.”
“The ramifications of this scheme have been grave for Wayfarer, Baldoni, Abel, and Nathan, who became objects of public scorn and derision overnight,” the lawsuit stated. “Abel and Nathan, two private individuals (and female small business owners), have had their lives turned upside down: Their careers and reputations have been destroyed, their private information leaked, and their email inboxes and social media pages filled with a daily stream of death threats, abuse, and vile antisemitic remarks. The backlash against Wayfarer and Baldoni has been equally devastating, with Baldoni wrongfully labeled as a sex pest, his accolades rescinded, and his future projects thrown into doubt.”
The lawsuit on Thursday also addressed the accusations that Lively made in her own filing, including claims that Baldoni improvised unapproved and intimate scenes during filming “It Ends With Us,” used sexually inappropriate language on the film’s set, and talked with Lively about his experience with pornography. Lively also claimed in her lawsuit that Baldoni walked into her trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding her baby, the youngest of her four children.
The plaintiffs in Thursday’s lawsuit sought to discredit all of Lively’s allegations. Discussing Lively’s claim that Baldoni walked into her trailer uninvited and while she was undressed, they said in their lawsuit, “the suggestion that this ever happened is illogical and categorically false.”
“No one would or did enter Lively’s trailer without knocking first and asking permission,” the lawsuit stated. “More than once, Lively invited Baldoni, [producer Jamey] Heath, and other producers into her trailer so that she could multi-task, understandably balancing motherhood with her work obligations. Regrettably, while accommodating Lively, Baldoni and Heath were led into situations that would later be characterized as harassment. Lively herself invited Baldoni to her trailer to “work on lines” while she pumped breast milk. Lively regularly breast-fed in front of Baldoni while they had meetings … Lively was not topless, as she claims elsewhere, but was fully covered while either nursing or pumping breast milk.”
Baldoni’s publicists also claimed that Lively’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, “devised and executed a smear campaign of her own against Baldoni,” and disseminated “false and defamatory stories” about Baldoni and Wayfarer.
Baldoni has been dropped by his talent agency WME because of Lively’s accusations.
The post ‘We’ve Received Vile Antisemitic Slurs’: Justin Baldoni’s Publicists File Counter-Lawsuit Against Blake Lively first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really?
JNS.org – If I asked you to name the most famous line in the Bible, what would you answer? While Shema Yisrael (“Hear O’Israel”) might get many votes, I imagine that the winning line would be “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). Some religions refer to it as the Golden Rule, but all would agree that it is fundamental to any moral lifestyle. And it appears this week in our Torah reading, Kedoshim.
This is quite a tall order. Can we be expected to love other people as much as we love ourselves? Surely, this is an idealistic expectation. And yet, the Creator knows us better than we know ourselves. How can His Torah be so unrealistic?
The biblical commentaries offer a variety of explanations. Some, like Rambam (Maimonides), say that the focus should be on our behavior, rather than our feelings. We are expected to try our best or to treat others “as if” we genuinely love them.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, in his classic text called the Tanya, argues that the actual feelings of love are, in fact, achievable provided that we focus on a person’s spirituality rather than how they present themselves physically. If we can put the soul over the body, we can do it.
Allow me to share the interpretation of the Ramban (Nachmanides), a 13th-century Torah scholar from Spain. His interpretation of the verses preceding love thy neighbor is classic and powerful, yet simple and straightforward.
“Do not hate your brother in your heart. You shall rebuke him, but do not bear a sin because of him” by embarrassing him in public. “Do not take revenge, and do not bear a grudge against your people. You shall love your fellow as yourself, I am God” (Leviticus 19:17-18).
What is the connection between these verses? Why is revenge and grudge-bearing in the same paragraph as love your fellow as yourself?
A careful reading shows that within these two verses are no less than six biblical commandments. But what is their sequence all about, and what is the connection between them?
The Ramban explains it beautifully, showing how the sequence of verses is deliberate and highlighting the Torah’s profound yet practical advice on how to maintain healthy relationships.
Someone wronged you? Don’t hate him in your heart. Speak to him. Don’t let it fester until it bursts, and makes you bitter and sick.
Instead, talk it out. Confront the person. Of course, do it respectfully. Don’t embarrass anyone in public, so that you don’t bear a sin because of them. But don’t let your hurt eat you up. Communicate!
If you approach the person who wronged you—not with hate in your heart but with respectful reproof—one of two things will happen. Either he or she will apologize and explain their perspective on the matter. Or that it was a misunderstanding and will get sorted out between you. Either way, you will feel happier and healthier.
Then you will not feel the need to take revenge or even to bear a grudge.
Here, says the Ramban, is the connection between these two verses. And if you follow this advice, only then will you be able to observe the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor. If you never tell him why you are upset, another may be completely unaware of his or her wrongdoing, and it will remain as a wound inside you and may never go away.
To sum up: Honest communication is the key to loving people.
Now, tell me the truth. Did you know that not taking revenge is a biblical commandment? In some cultures in Africa, revenge is a mitzvah! I’ve heard radio talk-show hosts invite listeners to share how they took “sweet revenge” on someone, as if it’s some kind of accomplishment.
Furthermore, did you know that bearing a grudge is forbidden by biblical law?
Here in South Africa, people refer to a grudge by its Yiddish name, a faribel. In other countries, people call it a broiges. Whatever the terminology, the Torah states explicitly: “Thou shalt not bear a grudge!” Do not keep a faribel, a broiges or resentment of any kind toward someone you believe wronged you. Talk to that person. Share your feelings honestly. If you do it respectfully and do not demean the other’s dignity, then it can be resolved. Only then will you be able to love your fellow as yourself.
May all our grudges and feelings of resentment toward others be dealt with honestly and respectfully. May all our grudges be resolved as soon as possible. Then we will all be in a much better position to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The post Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday dismissed as nonsensical the report that President Donald Trump would endorse Palestinian statehood during his tour to the Persian Gulf this week.
“This report is nonsense,” Huckabee harrumphed on his X account, blasting the Jerusalem Post as needing better sourced reporting. “Israel doesn’t have a better friend than the president of the United States.”
Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The leader’s first trip overseas since he took office comes as Trump seeks the Gulf countries’ support in regional conflicts, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and curbing Iran’s advancing nuclear program.
However, reports citing administration insiders claimed that Trump has also set his sights on the ambitious goal of expanding the Abraham Accords. These agreements, initially signed in 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The accords are widely held to be among the most important achievements of the first Trump administration.
The post ‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Unless significant progress is registered in Sunday’s round of nuclear talks with Iran, the US will consider putting the military option back on the table, sources close to US envoy Steve Witkoff told i24NEWS.
American and Iranian representatives voiced optimism after the previous talks that took place in Oman and Rome, saying there was a friendly atmosphere despite the two countries’ decades of enmity.
However the two sides are not believed to have thrashed out the all-important technical details, and basic questions remain.
The source has also underscored the significance of the administration’s choice of Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director, as the lead representative in the nuclear talks’ technical phases.
Anton is “an Iran expert and someone who knows how to cut a deal with Iran,” the source said, saying that the choice reflected Trump’s desire to secure the deal.
The post US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.