Justin Baldoni's lawyer blasts Blake Lively's ‘false victory tour' after $400m countersuit was dropped
Justin Baldoni's lawyer has slammed Blake Lively's recent grin-filled outings as a 'false victory tour' after his $400 million lawsuit alleging extortion and defamation against her was scrapped.
Bryan Freedman, representing the 'It Ends With Us' director, had some choice words for the 'Gossip Girl' alum after she celebrated her legal win by attending the Chanel Tribeca Festival Artists Dinner in NYC Monday night.
Speaking to TMZ, Freedman said that Baldoni's legal upset 'hasn't proved a thing.'
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4 A judge this week scrapped Justin Baldoni's $400 million lawsuit alleging extortion and defamation against Blake Lively.
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'As a matter of fact, it's just the opposite,' he said, adding that 'what we wanted our win is to show there was no smear campaign, and there's no sexual harassment.'
'Look at the facts, look at what's been shown, look at the receipts, look at the video,' he went on, adding that he had hoped Lively didn't 'drop her lawsuit … because she's on a false victory tour, and she's afraid of the truth.'
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'The truth is, you know, going to be shown through depositions, which is what's going to be next, I've noticed her deposition — it's set in June — we're going to see if she's going to appear at that deposition or not,' Freedman told the outlet.
'And we're gonna proceed forward with the case, and we're gonna show that there was no sexual harassment, and we're gonna show that there was no smear campaign.'
The Post has reached out to Lively's reps for comment.
4 Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has since slammed Lively's recent grin-filled outings as a 'false victory tour.'
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4 Lively celebrated her legal win by attending the Chanel Tribeca Festival Artists Dinner in NYC Monday night.
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Elsewhere, Freedman slammed the 'Age of Adaline' actress' 'predictable declaration of victory.'
'Ms. Lively and her team's predictable declaration of victory is false, so let us be clear about the latest ruling,' he told Page Six Tuesday.
'While the Court dismissed the defamation related claims, the Court has invited us to amend four out of the seven claims against Ms. Lively, which will showcase additional evidence and refined allegations,' he continued.
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'This case is about false accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation and a nonexistent smear campaign, which Ms. Lively's own team conveniently describes as 'untraceable' because they cannot prove what never happened.'
In addition to dismissing Baldoni and Wayfarer's $400 million countersuit against Lively, the judge also dropped Baldoni's $250 million defamation lawsuit against the New York Times.
4 Freedman slammed the 'Gossip Girl' alum's 'predictable declaration of victory.'
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Though Judge Liman granted Lively's motion, he gave Baldoni a chance to amend and refile his claims against Lively and Reynolds, which must be done by June 23.
Lively's lawyers, Esra Hudson & Mike Gottlieb, celebrated Monday's legal win, calling it a 'complete vindication' for the actress.
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When I was scrolling on TikTok last fall, I came across Mean Girls . The scene, clipped from an episode of the new NBC sitcom St. Denis Medical , went viral, making Filipinos in the comments laugh and feel seen. People of other backgrounds who work in health care nodded along, noting the accuracy. And I, a Filipina with a few family members working in medicine, even let out a chuckle. It was as if for the first time, a widely understood reality finally made its way into mainstream television: Filipinos dominate the health care industry. 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NBC Yssamei Panganiban as Sharice and Nico Santos as Rene, members of the 'Filipino mafia' in St. Denis Medical. Although the Filipino mafia was only the subject of one episode (so far) on St. Denis , other Filipinos in scrubs have recently appeared onscreen this year as medical TV dramas underwent a renaissance. HBO Max's The Pitt , arguably the buzziest new show of the year, features three Filipina characters working in an emergency room: two are nurses, who often chit-chat in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines, and one is a doctor. And when Netflix debuted its own soapy medical romance Pulse this spring, the cast included a Filipino actor playing a surgery intern. 'It feels like the powers that be in the entertainment industry are at last starting to get it —finally noticing us, seeing us, and inviting us to tell our stories.' There have been other flashes of representation in recent years, like a brief scene of nurses speaking Tagalog in the locker room in New Amsterdam in 2023 , or a minor character, Nurse Villanueva, appearing on The Good Doctor from 2017 to 2024. This new wave of shows marks a long-awaited breakthrough in representation—and more accurately depicts the reality of working in a hospital. It feels like the powers that be in the entertainment industry are at last starting to get it —finally noticing us, seeing us, and inviting us to tell our stories. With immigrant communities under attack right now in the U.S., this kind of visibility and celebration, for any minority group, is more important than ever. 'It is crazy that it's taken this long for there to be such concrete representation, but it's so special to be a part of it and show it in so many different forms,' says Isa Briones, who stars in The Pitt as a prickly and ambitious med student named Dr. Trinity Santos. 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Santos understands that struggle. 'I have sort of a love-hate relationship with the position that I'm in because at the very core of it, this is just what I want to do for a living. …. But when you start working at a certain level, there is that layer of, you are the face of the community . I feel that not only with being Filipino, but being queer as well,' he says. He later jokes, 'If I fuck up, please don't hold it against me. I am just a person, and I will make mistakes. And someday I hope that it gets to a point where we can play all types of characters, and those characters not be seen like, 'Oh my God, all Filipinos are like that.'' NBC Santos says, 'When you start working at a certain level, there is that layer of, you are the face of the community .' Briones was glad to be on the set of The Pitt with two other Filipina actors who came from different backgrounds as a way of showing this long-overlooked community is not monolithic. 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Sadorra sums it up well: 'The things that make me different used to be things that I was afraid of writing about, but now I fully embrace it and it's only yielded great results.' Warrick Page Abellera studied pre-med before pivoting to acting. But even as more Filipinos appear on screen, I can't help but wonder if casting them as doctors and nurses will become just another pigeonhole—like the delivery man, the IT guy, and the exotic sex symbol tropes that Asians have long been typecast as. Knowing this, Villanueva made sure to be selective about which roles she takes on. 'If it's a Filipino nurse and there's more to 'yes, doctor,' you get to see more of the personality, or have more of a backstory, then of course, I absolutely would audition for that,' she says. When she was auditioning for The Pitt and saw the character's name was Princess—an 'if you know you know' nod to the over-the-top names Filipinos give their kids—she knew the writers were 'going deep in their research.' 'The hope for the future is just more . Not only in front of the screen but also behind it.' '[Working in] medicine is also a little bit of a [stereotypical career] in the community,' Muirhead says. 'It's like a dream, kind of our golden mountain to chase, especially for older generations. But what a beautiful beacon [it is].' Santos agrees: 'It's the easiest entry into our culture, and then you let them know: We're not all nurses.' Abellera says we're in the midst of a cultural shift 'where Filipino and Filipino American stories are really making their way into not only art, but different spaces like cuisine, sports, music, design, and literature in a way that I never experienced growing up.' And as a parent of a 4-year-old, she's excited to be able to show her child Filipinos on TV, from Josh, the new host of Blue's Clues , to herself. ANNA KOORIS // Netflix Filipino actors hope for more opportunities onscreen, behind the camera, and beyond.. Indeed it is an exciting time, as Hollywood has embraced more stories from people of color in recent years. But it's also a fraught one, as DEI initiatives are increasingly under threat. The hope for the future is just more . Not only in front of the screen but also behind it. While The Pitt , St. Denis Medical , and Pulse spotlight Filipino actors and storylines, all three shows are led by white male showrunners or co-showrunners. ( Pulse has a female co-showrunner.) There's always more room for improvement, whether it's in the writers' room, the director's chair, or the C-suite. 'To the executives: People want these real stories. The Pitt is an example of that,' Briones says. 'So seek out new writers, new directors, seek out the people who are going to tell their unique stories about their cultural background, and also stories that don't have to be about their Asian-ness, their Filipino-ness, or whatever—it's just ingrained.' The success of The Pitt and St. Denis demonstrate that there's an appetite for more Filipinos onscreen. 'I think what networks were afraid of was, if you get too specific, the show is not going to translate to a wider audience,' Sadorra says. 'But it's almost like the opposite of that has been true—the more specific you get, the more universal it becomes.' He adds later, 'The response of that [nurse mafia] clip that went viral, and people really loving that episode in particular, has shown us that this is really resonating with people, and it would be smart of us to keep exploring stories in that area. So I hope we get to do that for a second season.' My fingers, for one, are crossed to see more Rene and the Filipino mafia on screen in the future. I can't wait to gossip about it. Related Story
