Blake Lively Says Justin Baldoni's $400 Million Lawsuit Is DARVO

Blake Lively points out the obvious about Justin Baldoni filing a $400 million lawsuit against her.

In fact, you could say he's already made his point.

According to Lively, Baldoni's first smear campaign was retaliation for her speaking out about his misconduct on set.

Today, his massive trial appears to be more of the same. Is he defending himself or silencing an accuser?

Blake Lively points out that Justin Baldoni fits a role model

Like Joe Jonas before him, Justin Baldoni seems to have understood that smear campaigns can turn against him.

Her $400 million lawsuit against her, Ryan Reynolds and Leslie Sloane (Blake's publicist) doesn't seem to be doing her any favors either.

“It’s an age-old story,” characterized Blake Lively in a statement Thursday, January 16.

“A woman is speaking out with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation,” Lively’s statement continued.

“And,” she described, “the abuser tries to turn the tables on the victim.”

Lively concluded: “This is what the experts call DARVO. Refuse. Attack. Reverse delinquent victim.

Additionally, Blake Lively's legal team is calling out Justin Baldoni.

TMZ reports that Lively's team claims that Baldoni and his production company are clearly desperate to “exceed the public's ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation for sexual harassment allegations.”

The statement continues: “They are attempting to shift the narrative toward Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she took creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni.”

Remember, Baldoni alleged that Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, “ambushed” him with rewrites. And it's Lively's shenanigans, rather than Baldoni's behavior, that explain why the other members of the It ends with us the actors seemed to distance themselves from the director.

“The evidence will show that the actors and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer,” Blake Lively's legal team asserted.

“The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to supervise Sony's editing of the film,” the statement said, “which they then selected for distribution and which became a resounding success.”

Presumably there are records of things like Sony handing Blake Lively this task. Just as there are presumably recordings or other evidence of a meeting in which Baldoni agreed to end his sexual misconduct on set.

What is the trial already about?

Justin Baldoni is suing Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Leslie Sloane for defamation, alongside a series of other allegations.

He's basically saying that Lively's allegations are hugely damaging to his reputation. Which, to be honest, is probably true.

But the crux of the matter is whether his allegations are true. And, as Lively points out, filing a massive defamation lawsuit to silence an accuser is a familiar tactic. Hopefully the evidence will allow the courts and public opinion to side with the truth. But historically, that hasn’t always been how things have played out.