Actor Amber Heard has said social media is where lie becomes truth after Blake Lively accused co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment.
In a legal complaint, Lively, 37, also claims 40-year-old Baldoni, the film’s director, and the studio behind the movie It Ends With Us embarked on a subsequent “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation.
The complaint stated Baldoni retained PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan, the same woman Johnny Depp hired during his high-profile defamation trial against ex-wife Heard.
In a statement given to Sky News’s US partner NBC News, Heard said: “Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘a lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on’.
“I saw this first-hand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
Heard, who was found to have defamed Depp by a jury, said at the time the decision “sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated”.
Lively claims the attempt to damage her reputation came after she and her husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behaviour” by Baldoni and a producer.
According to the complaint, the plan included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign and place news stories critical of Lively.
It also claims Baldoni “abruptly pivoted away from” the film’s marketing plan and “used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image”.
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What messages from Lively’s complaint show
Bryan Freedman, a lawyer who represents Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its representatives, said the studio “proactively” hired a crisis manager “due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms Lively during production”.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” he added.
Representatives for Baldoni did not immediately respond Monday to Heard’s comments, according to NBC News.