It Ends with Us was always going to have a controversial element to it, just by the nature of its premise. However, nobody likely expected what has transpired between its stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who also directed. Now, four months since the movie (which can be streamed with a Netflix subscription) hit the 2024 movie calendar, Lively has filed a bombshell sexual harassment lawsuit accusing the director of behavior including showing nude photos of women, discussing sexual activities and discussing her weight.

Lively also alleged that Baldoni launched a smear campaign against her, but the publicist at the center of the lawsuit has spoken out about the "astroturfing" claims.

In the legal complaint, Blake Lively accuses Justin Baldoni of trying to "destroy" her reputation through what is called "astroturfing," but what does that mean exactly? In the same way that astroturf is like fake grass, "astroturfing" refers to an inorganic grassroots effort, or orchestrating a PR campaign against someone of something under the guise of unsolicited members of the public.

Coincidentally, "astroturfing" was the correct response to a clue on Jeopardy! just last week, where it was defined as "an organized effort to fake a grassroots movement." In Blake Lively's case it refers to Justin Baldoni's alleged attempts to smear the actress through negative press. Her lawsuit included text messages between Baldoni and publicist Jennifer Abel, including one that allegedly read that Baldoni "wants to feel like [Ms. Lively] can be buried."

Jennifer Abel appears to have taken to a PR and marketing Facebook group (DeuxMoi reports) to defend herself after she became involved in Blake Lively's lawsuit. While Abel wrote that she's no longer with the firm that she worked with when Justin Baldoni was a client, she denies that a smear campaign was ever enacted against the Gossip Girl alum. The social media post says:

She goes on to admit that, as the text messages show, she and her colleagues joked and "sophomorically reveled" in the backlash Blake Lively was getting on the Internet, but she says her firm was not the impetus for the negativity.

For his part, Justin Baldoni also denied the accusations through his lawyer Bryan Freedman, who said the claims were "false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt." The attorney said Blake Lively's efforts are in order to "fix her negative reputation."