A newly resurfaced 2017 clip shows Armie Hammer seemingly implying that Blake Lively was a ‘diva’ on the Gossip Girl set just as Lively’s harassment lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni heats up, DailyMail reports.
According to the report by DailyMail, in the Watch What Happens Live appearance alongside comedian Chelsea Handler, Hammer was asked by a fan to name the ‘biggest diva’ on the set of the iconic CW series, where he appeared in a memorable four-episode stint in 2009.
After an awkward pause, Armie hesitated before admitting, ‘Let me just say that was a tough show to film and I didn’t end up actually filming all of the episodes I was supposed to because it was such a tough filming.’
Hammer’s cryptic words hinted at his firing from the series, as he added, ‘It was also like, “Get him out of here.”‘
When host Andy Cohen probed further and asked who his love interest was on the show, Armie sheepishly replied, ‘Blake.’
Chelsea quickly joked, ‘Sounds like she was the problem,’ to which Cohen agreed, adding, ‘It sure does, Chelsea. That’s exactly what I was thinking.’
Armie laughed it off, but his awkward smile and raised eyebrows after saying, ‘No, no, that’s not what I’m saying,’ hinted he wasn’t fully denying it.
As Blake Lively faces accusations from Baldoni’s lawyer of a pattern of bullying’ during the filming of It Ends With Us, Hammer’s comments appear to lend unintended fuel to the fire.
Blake Lively, 37, starred in It Ends With Us opposite Baldoni, 40, who also directed the film, which was released in theaters this past August and is currently streaming on Netflix.
After months of rumors, Blake Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, alleging Baldoni had improvised unwanted kissing scenes and created a hostile work environment through sexual harassment and more.
Just a day later, The New York Times published an article revealing Baldoni hired a crisis PR team to ‘bury’ Lively and destroy her credibility, with Lively then suing Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios company later that day.
Baldoni responded by filing a $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times for their report that he claimed pushed an, ‘unverified and self-serving narrative.’
Now attorney Bryan Freedman says he has ‘receipts’ showing Lively’s alleged ‘threats to take over the movie’ in a new statement issued to People on Tuesday, January 7.
He said: ‘It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending The New York Times grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint.
‘We are releasing all of the evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie.
‘None of this will come as a surprise because consistent with her past behavior Blake Lively used other people to communicate those threats and bully her way to get whatever she wanted. We have all the receipts and more.’
This comes after lawyers for Blake Lively condemned Baldoni for launching even ‘more attacks’ against his client.
Lively’s legal team insists that Lively’s ‘serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation’ are in fact, ‘backed by concrete facts.’
‘This is not a ‘feud’ arising from “creative differences” or a “he said/she said” situation,’ Lively’s lawyers’ statement began.
‘As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set,’ the attorneys added.