Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni lawsuit gets messier with legal drama
Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni lawsuit gets messier with legal drama
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Blake Lively's team slams Baldoni's over Taylor Swift subpoena
Blake Lively's team has condemned Justin Baldoni's team's decision to subpoena Taylor Swift, calling it a blatant attempt to exploit Lively's friendship for tabloid attention.
unbranded - Entertainment
A bitter dispute between former costars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni is continuing to escalate.
In a flurry of filings over the last several days, Baldoni's lawyers sought access to Lively's medical records, and Lively's team withdrew a claim of emotional distress first included in her suit, then accused his team of orchestrating the entire thing as a "public relations stunt."
Lively and Baldoni, who co-headlined the 2024 summer blockbuster "It Ends with Us," have since been locked in a court battle over claims of a toxic work environment, rife with sexual misconduct. Lively has alleged rampant harassment by Baldoni, followed by an online smear campaign aimed at keeping her silent, while Baldoni has alleged Lively used her star power to shut him out of the success of a movie that was rightfully his.
'It Ends with Us' was supposed to be a BookTok Hollywood success story. What went wrong?
In her original lawsuit against Baldoni, Lively claimed he and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, had caused "intentional infliction of emotional distress." On Monday, June 2, lawyers for Wayferer and Baldoni filed a motion to compel the actress to share her medical records to prove that distress.
If Lively had in fact suffered severe emotional damages as the result of "It Ends with Us" filming and the ensuing public relations disaster, they argued, she should need to prove it through medical records – or withdraw the claim and promise not to bring it back up in court.
Lively's team, on the other hand, argues that she had agreed to drop the claim as a run of the mill legal proceeding in order to streamline the lawsuit, and that Baldoni's lawyers were attempting to take the move out of context, and blow it out of propotion to create a media narrative.
Baldoni's "motion was filed for a single audience: the media," lawyers for Lively wrote in a response filed June 2, accusing Baldoni's team of "desperately searching for an angle to make a show out of Ms. Lively's decision to streamline her case." The filing also alleges that Baldoni's team met with Lively's lawyers and did not raise concerns, only to pull a bait and switch, filing their motion to compel minutes after meeting and alerting the "tabloid" media.
"This is a routine part of the litigation process that is being used as a press stunt. We are doing what trial lawyers do: preparing our case for trial by streamlining and focusing it; they are doing what they do: desperately seeking another tired round of tabloid coverage," Lively's lawyers, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, wrote in a statement to USA TODAY June 2. USA TODAY has reached out to Baldoni's lawyers for comment.
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"The Baldoni-Wayfarer strategy of filing retaliatory claims has exposed them to expansive new damages claims under California law, rendering certain of Ms. Lively's original claims no longer necessary," the statement continued. "Ms. Lively continues to allege emotional distress, as part of numerous other claims in her lawsuit, such as sexual harassment and retaliation, and massive additional compensatory damages on all of her claims."
This legal tit for tat is the latest in an ongoing battle between Lively and Baldoni, who were once poised to be the faces of a film aimed at redefining how audiences view domestic abuse. Swapping lawsuits and increasingly hostile claims, the pair have now found themselves at odds in both the courts and the press.
Baldoni and Lively are headed to trial next year.
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