Blake Lively Drops New Bombshell Against Justin Baldoni Involving 'Scorched Earth' Tactics

Yahoo

11-04-2025

37-year-old actress is doubling down in her ongoing legal war against "It Ends With Us" director and co-star , accusing him of using aggressive litigation tactics to silence her sexual harassment claims.
On Thursday, Blake Lively and her legal team issued a fiery new statement, condemning Baldoni's $400 million defamation lawsuit as a retaliatory attack on her right to speak out.
The courtroom clash began in December 2024 after Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of their film and claimed he orchestrated a smear campaign against her.
In response, Baldoni filed a sweeping defamation suit not only against Lively, but also her husband and longtime publicist Leslie Sloane. He also took legal aim at The New York Times, filing a separate $250 million libel suit over its reporting on the case.
All parties named in Baldoni's lawsuits have denied the allegations.
Now, as Lively and Reynolds attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed, her legal team is launching new accusations, claiming Baldoni is actively working to dismantle California laws designed to protect sexual harassment victims from legal retaliation.
In a statement to Us Weekly, Lively's attorneys wrote:
'Mr. Baldoni has gone from monetizing a brand devoted to believing and supporting women, to leading the charge to tear down the very law that protects women who come forward about sexual assault, harassment and discrimination.'
They cited California's AB 933 statute, a sexual harassment privilege law meant to prevent perpetrators from using defamation suits to silence victims. 'The chilling message scorched earth litigation sends to victims is stay silent or be destroyed,' Lively's team stated.
The remarks accompanied a new reply brief filed on Lively's behalf, which contends that Baldoni's claims are not only meritless but also legally time-barred.
'The Wayfarer Parties' attempt to slap Ms. Lively with a retaliatory lawsuit… has not only failed miserably but exposes them to substantial economic damages,' the brief read. 'Ms. Lively will continue to show all victims that they are not alone, that they do not have to stay silent, and that the law is on their side.'
This latest volley comes just a week after Baldoni accused Lively of staging a public relations stunt to undermine his career. He argued that her attempt to dismiss the defamation suit, filed March 20, was a calculated effort to 'ruin the reputations and careers of the Wayfarer parties.'
In his own filing, Baldoni defended his lawsuit as an exercise of his First Amendment right to petition the court.
Lively's attorneys, Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, responded forcefully to Baldoni's framing, telling TMZ:
'Justin Baldoni, the man who has built his brand on supposedly speaking up for victims, believes that the First Amendment rights of victims of sexual assault and harassment to speak out should give way to the rights of perpetrators to sue their victims 'into oblivion.''
Her legal team accused Baldoni and his attorney, Bryan Freedman, of attempting to dismantle protections for victims while discouraging others from speaking up.
In response, Freedman pushed back in a statement to Daily Mail, saying:
'This convoluted statement makes it abundantly clear that Ms. Lively and team are rattled and once again resorting to making inflammatory remarks to steer focus away from the actual facts.'
Freedman went on to criticize Lively's past media focus, saying it's 'surprising that Ms. Lively and her team are suddenly speaking so passionately about the hard-won rights of the survivor community, considering she sidestepped this topic for the entirety of the film campaign... focusing instead on her hair care and alcohol products.'
He added, 'She does not need discovery to find out who smeared her. Just a mirror will do.'
This tense back-and-forth continues to intensify, with a court showdown officially set for March 9, 2026.
Lively, Reynolds, and Sloane filed last month to dismiss Baldoni's 'vengeful and rambling' complaint. In his own sharp-edged statement, Reynolds described Baldoni as 'thin-skinned' and called himself a 'supportive spouse' standing beside Lively in her fight.
But Baldoni's legal team isn't backing down either.
Just last week, attorneys representing both the actor and Wayfarer Studios fired back, labeling Reynolds Lively's 'co-conspirator' and urging Judge Lewis J. Liman to deny the couple's dismissal request.