Lively and Amber Heard Expose Hollywood’s Defamation Campaign

Blake Lively, 37, has been in the news in the U.S. after she filed a lawsuit against director and co-star Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and harassment during the filming of the movie “It Ends With Us,” in which she starred. It is reported that Baldoni’s publicist, who was named in the lawsuit, filed a lawsuit against her on February 4 (local time), seeking $7 million (about 1 billion yen) for defamation, and the situation has become a quagmire.

In the lawsuit, Lively accused Baldoni of hiring a public relations team to conduct an orchestrated smear campaign to discredit her reputation.

Attempted to add a sex scene not in the script

Lively told TMZ

“I hope that my legal action helps put an end to these unsettling retaliatory tactics and helps protect others who may become targets, especially those who are speaking out about scandals.”

he commented.

The film is based on the romance novel by Colleen Hoover. Lively’s character, Lily, was traumatized as a child by watching her father abuse her mother. She begins dating Lyle, a neurosurgeon, but begins to see Lyle’s violent side.

In the midst of all this, she reunites with her first love, Atlas, and is torn between the two. The film was released in the U.S. on August 9, 2024, and became a blockbuster hit, grossing $350 million (¥54.95 billion) at the worldwide box office. In Japan, the film was released on November 22.

In the lawsuit, Lively claims that Baldoni tried to add unscripted sex scenes during filming, talked about his personal sexual experiences, and saw himself as a sexual object.

“He viewed himself as a sex object.”

and other claims.

Baldoni then hired a public relations team to conduct a smear campaign against Lively,

“Damaged Lively’s image, caused harm to her business, and inflicted serious emotional damage to her and her family.”

The report alleges.

Baldoni’s attorney, Brian Friedman, on the other hand, called Lively’s claims

“Completely false, outrageous, publicly damaging, and obscene.”

He argues.

In the meantime, actress Amber Heard, 38, who once fought and lost a defamation lawsuit against her ex-husband Johnny Depp, 61, issued a statement supporting Lively on NBC News. Heard is,

“Social media is the perfect embodiment of the classic proverb, ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its shoes on.’ I have seen this firsthand, up close. It is terrifyingly destructive.”

She pointed out. She suggested that her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, used the same public relations team that Baldoni hired for his defamation lawsuit against Amber in 2022 to create a smear campaign.

The first was an article in the British newspaper, The Sun, which reported Depp as a wife beater (abusive husband) based on Heard’s domestic violence testimony, and Depp sued for defamation, but the London court ruled that the article was mostly true and Depp lost. The London court ruled that the article was mostly true and Depp lost the lawsuit.

Due to the efforts of the public relations team, she was unfairly treated in public

Second, in the U.S., Depp sued the Washington Post for libel over a hard-hitting article about Depp’s domestic violence issues, and the U.S. court ruled in the opposite direction, with Depp winning,

“Depp won in the court of public opinion as well.”

It was said.

Amber’s implication seems to be that Depp’s publicist’s efforts to publicly mislead the public and influence the trial.

In Japan, too, there is no shortage of attacks on politicians, celebrities, and athletes via social networking services, including slander and disinformation,

“He is trying to grant voting rights to foreigners if elected.”

The official X (former Japanese government) website run by his supporters’ group, “Kaiyodo Kaiyodo” (former Japanese government), has been spreading false information on the Internet. The official X (formerly Twitter) operated by the supporters’ association was frozen twice during the election period,

“The cause was that an unspecified number of people made false reports to the X platform’s administration.”

The Hyogo Prefectural Police accepted the complaint on December 20 last year.

“Who and for what?” It remains to be seen whether it was an organization or an individual who initiated the investigation.

The existence of an organization called the Crisis Public Relations Team, which Lively and Heard accuse of being willing to spread false information in order to discredit certain individuals, is a hint of the dark side of America.

It goes without saying that spreading false rumors and information through articles and SNS is an illegal act, including defamation. In order to eradicate fake information and slander on SNS in Japan, not only criminal and civil actions should be taken by the victims, but also legal measures such as some kind of regulation by the platform side may be necessary.