Topics: Blake Lively, Celebrity, Film and TV, Justin Baldoni, US News, Hollywood
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' legal team have asked for an 'appropriate protective order' following Justin Baldoni's team's release of footage from the set of It Ends with Us.
In December 2024, Blake Lively filed a legal complaint against Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and allegedly taking part in a 'smear campaign' against her.
Earlier this month, the A Simple Favor star filed another lawsuit for harassment and retaliation alleging Baldoni engaged in inappropriate behavior on set - including in one scene where their characters perform a slow dance. Baldoni's legal team has branded Lively's accusations as 'categorically false'.
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In Lively's latest suit, she alleges in the slow dance scene within It Ends with Us, Baldoni 'leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, "It smells so good".'
The suit also accuses Baldoni of 'caressing Lively with his mouth in a way that had nothing to do with their roles'.
Baldoni's company filed its own suit against Lively last week and on Tuesday (January 21), his legal team publicly released footage from the scene in question.
Baldoni's team stated alongside the footage: "Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism."
However, Lively's team slammed the footage as 'damning' and 'an unethical attempt to manipulate the public'.
Lively and Reynolds' legal team has since delivered a letter to Judge Lewis J Liman in the Southern District of New York seeking an 'appropriate protective order'.
According to court documents obtained by USA Today, the letter accuses Baldoni and his legal team of a 'harassing and retaliatory media campaign' with 'almost daily media statements and other releases' to the press.
The letter follows a cease-and-desist letter which was reportedly sent by Lively and Reynolds' legal team in December 2024.
It was allegedly sent to Baldoni's primary attorney Bryan Freedman asking him to stop releasing 'defamatory and retaliatory statements' about the Gossip Girl star.
Baldoni and his business associates also received a letter asking them to stop 'all unlawful conduct toward the Lively-Reynolds parties and their affiliates'.
On Tuesday, Lively and Reynolds' legal team alleged Freedman has 'given television interviews, appeared on podcasts, issued inflammatory written statements, and leaked information [...] to the Hollywood press and tabloid media' 'virtually every day'.
"Those statements not only continue the campaign of retaliation that was the subject of Ms. Lively's First Cease and Desist, but they contain numerous new false statements about Ms. Lively and others," they argue.
Lively and Reynold's attorneys say they have 'repeatedly' tried to 'caution Freedman federal litigation must be conducted in court and according to the relevant rules of professional conduct'.
They resolved: "His conduct threatens to, and will, materially prejudice both the Lively Case and the Wayfarer Case by tainting the jury pool, because his statements are deliberately aimed at undermining the 'character, credibility, (and) reputation' of numerous relevant parties and likewise includes 'information the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is likely to be inadmissible as evidence in a trial,' thereby creating a substantial risk of prejudice not just for Ms. Lively, but for numerous other parties in the matters."
Alongside an 'appropriate protective order,' Lively and Reynolds' legal team subsequently also requested a hearing to 'address the appropriate conduct of counsel moving forward'.
Bryan Freedman told UNILAD: "Prior to filing her lawsuit in court, Ms. Lively went to The New York Times in an effort to publicly destroy Justin Baldoni. When Mr. Baldoni exercises his right to publicly defend himself by putting forth actual facts and evidence, for Ms. Lively and team this instantly becomes morally and ethically wrong. Ms. Lively wants very different standards to apply to her but fortunately, truth and authenticity apply to everyone and can never be wrong. Looking at the video and the evidence to come, I can understand why Ms. Lively would now, not want this to play out in public."
UNILAD has contacted representatives for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni for comment.
