Blake Lively Issues New Subpoenas in Legal Dispute with Justin Baldoni
Blake Lively is currently wrapped up in a nasty court battle with her It Ends With Us costar and director Justin Baldoni. New legal documents…
Lawyers for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni will lock horns in federal court today as sources close to Team Baldoni tell DailyMail.com they did nothing wrong by posting a vast trove of previously unseen legal material online.
The It Ends with Us co-stars are not obliged to attend the 11am pretrial conference in New York which marks the first step in their dueling $400 million defamation suits.
Adding to the intrigue will be the unexpected involvement of another high-powered attorney, Sigrid McCawley, who is best known for representing Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.
A filing late Sunday revealed the veteran litigator will appear on behalf of Lively’s publicist and co-defendant, Leslie Sloane, who is accused of plotting to trash Baldoni’s reputation.
The pricey legal teams will spar over a host of issues including Lively’s demand for a gag order and her alleged refusal to sit down for a deposition with Baldoni’s lead counsel, Bryan Freedman.
The 37-year-old actress has complained bitterly about Freedman making ‘harassing and retaliatory’ comments about her to the media and wants Judge Lewis Liman to silence the outspoken super lawyer.
Lawyers for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni will lock horns in federal court today as sources close to Team Baldoni tell DailyMail.com they did nothing wrong by posting a vast trove of previously unseen legal material online
A filing late Sunday revealed the veteran litigator will appear on behalf of Lively’s publicist and co-defendant, Leslie Sloane, who is accused of plotting to trash Baldoni’s reputation
Her mood will likely not have improved after Team Baldoni followed through Saturday with a pledge to upload new details of their headline-spewing legal fight to a specially created website.
Thelawsuitinfo.com went live with links to an amended version of Baldoni’s complaint and a ‘timeline of relevant events’ charting how the explosive feud developed during filming for their 2024 adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s acclaimed novel.
The cache includes surprising evidence that Lively’s Hollywood actor husband Ryan Reynolds seemed to like Baldoni before their relationship soured, texting him to say: ‘I’m excited for Blake to crack open her creative piggy bank with someone as dynamic as you … I happen to adore you, Justin.’
Another eye-popping message from Lively to 41-year-old Baldoni, discussing the script for the movie’s pivotal rooftop scene, reads: ‘If you knew me (in person) longer you’d have a sense of how flirty and yummy the ball busting will be.
‘It’s my love language. Spicy and playfully bold, never with teeth.’
What Judge Liman, a Trump appointee, makes of Team Baldoni’s latest PR power move remains to be seen.
The film at the heart of the feud, based on the 2016 bestseller by Colleen Hoover, was released in August and was a box office hit. It follows Lily Bloom, a florist played by Lively, who falls in love with a charming but abusive neurosurgeon played by Baldoni
Justin Baldoni launched his own website dedicated to defending himself against Blake Lively ‘s sexual harassment allegations; seen on December 04, 2024
The cache of documents included surprising evidence that Lively’s Hollywood actor husband Ryan Reynolds seemed to like Baldoni before their relationship soured
But Freedman and his co-counsel will argue that the two uploaded documents were merely published court filings already available to the public via the federal government’s Pacer website.
‘It’s important to point out that nobody is monetizing off this. It’s simply a landing page to have access to legal documents that are already public,’ a source told DailyMail.com.
‘This is far from a provocation. In fact, it’s yet more evidence that Justin and his team intend to be continually transparent.’
Judge Liman will also be asked to decide whether Freedman – a bulldog showbiz lawyer whose previous clients include Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and Julia Roberts – should be allowed to grill Lively under oath on behalf of Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios.
‘Counsel for Ms. Lively and Ryan Reynolds stated their objection to the Wayfarer Parties’ lead counsel conducting the deposition of Blake Lively,’ Baldoni attorney Kevin Fritz wrote to the court Friday.
‘Specifically, the Lively Parties’ counsel indicated that they object to Bryan J. Freedman personally, taking Ms Lively’s deposition, based upon unspecified statements made by Mr. Freedman.’
Judge Liman will also be asked to decide whether Freedman, Baldoni’s lawyer, should be allowed to grill Lively under oath on behalf of Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios
Fritz said the move was unwarranted, adding: ‘Parties to litigation simply do not have the right to dictate which of their opponents’ attorneys may or may not take their deposition.
‘Other issues likely to come up today at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York include typical procedural items like discovery and deadlines for either party to file a motion to dismiss.
Lively and actor-director Baldoni gelled beautifully onscreen for It Ends with Us, helping it to become a surprise hit at the box office, grossing $351 million on a modest budget of $25 million.
But dueling lawsuits have since revealed how relations crumbled as the Gossip Girl alum allegedly fought for greater artistic control and started to feel uncomfortable during intimate scenes.
Lively kicked off hostilities by alleging in a December 20 California civil rights complaint and a subsequent federal lawsuit that Baldoni entered her trailer while she was topless, showed her graphic video of his wife giving birth and bit and sucked on her lips during an improvised kissing scene.
She further accused the married father-of-two of conspiring to smear her reputation, citing a text message from Baldoni’s publicist Melissa Nathan which read: ‘We can bury anyone.
Baldoni (seen last year) and Lively’s legal fight began after she sued him for sexual harassment just days before Christmas
‘Her bombshell claims made global headlines thanks to the near-simultaneous publication of a 4,000-word New York Times expose that quoted heavily from the civil rights complaint.
Baldoni countersued Lively and Reynolds, turning the narrative on its head by claiming it was their team doing the smearing and asking for $400 million in damages.
He accused her of twisting the meaning of his texts and emails and working in tandem with Sloane, a powerful Hollywood publicist, to plant damaging stories about him in the media.
It was all a ploy, Baldoni argued, to rebuild Lively’s reputation after she came in for criticism for being prickly and difficult in interviews and promotional events.
Any negative publicity surrounding his blonde leading lady had arisen ‘organically’, his suit contends.
Baldoni also sued The Times for $250 million, claiming it ‘relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims.
The decision to publish the site on Saturday comes after the star amended his $400 million suit accusing Lively of giving The New York Times advance access to her sexual harassment complaint; Baldoni and Lively pictured on set last year
‘The latest version of his federal complaint goes further, arguing that The Gray Lady had exclusive advance access to her civil rights complaint, citing an October 31 date in the metadata for their story.
If it’s confirmed that Times staffers began putting the material together months in advance, they should lose the typical legal privilege afforded to journalists who quote from published court documents, his lawyers contend.
The newspaper plans to ‘vigorously defend’ itself. A spokesman told DailyMail.com that the new claims concerning metadata are ‘bogus’ and ‘wrong’.
The feud took an explosive twist last month when DailyMail.com published previously unseen raw video footage of Baldoni and Lively filming a romantic dance scene as their characters Lily Bloom and Ryle Kincaid, a pretty young florist and her charming but abusive neurosurgeon lover.
Lively’s suit alleges that Baldoni ‘leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, it smells so good’ during the interaction, which is key to her allegations.
In the footage obtained by DailyMail.com the pair are seen engaging in what appears to be playful but professional banter between takes.Baldoni asks Lively if he’s ‘getting beard’ on her.
‘I’m probably getting spray tan on you’ she replies. That prompts Baldoni to say ‘it smells good’ before they both laugh.
Freedman flagged the footage as proof that his client behaved appropriately and had ‘nothing to hide’. Lively countered that it confirmed her claims of harassment.
