Justin Baldoni Allegedly Modeled Blake Lively ‘Retaliation Campaign’ After Hailey Bieber Drama

Blake Lively is suing her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment, and now, it has come to light that he allegedly orchestrated a "retaliation campaign" against her that was in part inspired by Hailey Bieber.

According to E! News, who obtained the documents on Dec. 21, Lively claimed that after she raised concerns to the film's production team, Baldoni worked with his publicists to retaliate against her.

The documents alleged that Baldoni and his team "created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms. Lively's credibility."

The lawsuit also contains alleged text message screenshots between Baldoni and his PR team that appear to show them discussing how to ruin Lively's reputation while building up Baldoni's.

In one unverified message, Baldoni shared a screenshot of a social media post blasting Hailey Bieber and said, "This is what we would need."

READ MORE: Hailey Bieber 'Scared' to Have Kids Because of Online Hate

Notably, in Feb. 2023, Bieber was the victim of an online storm of hate during an alleged "feud" between her friends and Selena Gomez.

The drama erupted after some allegedly shady videos were posted on TikTok from both sides and escalated into death threats and more from internet commenters.

The hate got so bad that Gomez stepped in to defend Bieber at one point.

The revelation in the case against Baldoni led many fans to reconsider how the hate for Bieber spiraled.

Many wondered if the Hailey Bieber hate train was also an orchestrated attempt to ruin her reputation since it became so widespread that even restaurants and companies were getting involved in choosing "Team Hailey" or "Team Selena."

"God Hailey Bieber just deserves the biggest apology and so much peace in her life," one person tweeted.

"Hailey Bieber deserves the fattest apology from the internet like RIGHT NOW," another fan tweeted.

Meanwhile, in a statement to The New York Times Lively said, "I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted."

Baldoni's lawyer called the text messages "cherry-picked correspondence" and said that what was discussed with Baldoni's PR team was "standard operating procedure."