
Blake Lively granted protective order amid Justin Baldoni legal battle
Three days after she requested a protective order requiring the director's team to identify everyone who would attend her deposition, Judge Lewis J. Liman granted her request on July 14, E! News reported.
According to legal documents obtained by E! News, Lively is expected to "make arrangements for opposing counsel to have a dedicated computer and the ability to print and copy documents in the space chosen by Lively."
Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios are required to notify Lively of the individuals who will attend her upcoming deposition, which is set to occur on July 17, two days prior, reported E! News.
In June, a New York federal judge has ruled that actor-producer Justin Baldoni can access messages between actress Blake Lively and singer Taylor Swift.
These messages are related to the film It Ends With Us and the ongoing legal case between the movie's stars, reported Variety.
According to the publication, Lively had asked the court to prevent Baldoni from obtaining these messages, arguing that he was trying to involve Swift to gain public attention.However, Judge Lewis Liman disagreed and found that the messages might provide crucial information relevant to the case.
In his order, the judge stated that while public opinion plays a role in high-profile cases, the messages could offer useful insights.
He also reminded the parties that a protective order is in place, so the messages cannot be shared with the press."A motion or request may be, and in this case often has been, both a legitimate litigation tactic and an attempt to manoeuvre in the broader court of public opinion," the judge wrote. Baldoni's lawyers had earlier sent subpoenas to Swift and her legal team.
However, Swift's team issued a statement saying that she had no role in the film except allowing one of her songs to be used. They also said she only saw the film weeks after its release. Following this, Baldoni's team withdrew the subpoenas.
Lively's lawyers sought to resolve the matter entirely, insisting that Swift was not involved. However, the judge ruled that since Lively had mentioned Swift's knowledge of issues on the film set, her messages could help prove or disprove her claims of harassment and retaliation
Lively had sued Baldoni in December, accusing him and his publicists of spreading false stories about her in the media after she spoke about sexual harassment during the film's production. Baldoni filed a countersuit, accusing her of ruining his reputation, but that case was dismissed last week.
Lively's legal team alleged, per the July 11 filing, that Baldoni's team had previously "refused Ms. Lively's reasonable requests" to cooperate.
However, Baldoni's legal team opposed Lively's motion in a July 13 letter to the judge.
"Lively relies solely on inapplicable authority and unsupported accusations about opposing counsel and their motives," the actor's legal team wrote. "Lively does not present a single fact to support her allegations of a 'plot' to use the deposition as a 'publicity stunt'," E! News reported.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
'Doctor Sleep', 'American Manhunt', 'MurderBot', 'Voy! Voy! Voy!': Our top picks for the weekend watch
Doctor Sleep Apple TV+ | Horro Imagine if you could travel worlds while you slept, seeing new realities and creating new dreams. Now, what if you open your eyes mid nap to see that you are a child and slowly it dawns upon you that you are stuck in your most traumatic memory? You wake up terrified, but the worst part isn't that you keep seeing scary things – it's that you know that things that go bump in the night are real – because they've been coming for you your entire life. This tale by horror guru Stephen King is set years following The Shining, and in it, functioning alcoholic Dan Torrance is drawn into a situation where he must save a young child who has similar powers as him and is being hunted by a cult. But to do this, he must go back to the place where it all started, to those haunting corridors that hold his nightmares. By Karishma Nandkeolyar American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden Netflix | 3 Epidoses | Docuseries Want to indulge in a little bit of education, but in the most cinematically engaging format possible? Netflix continues to reinvent the infotainment genre, and this week's pick is the gripping docuseries American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden. Told over three tightly edited episodes, it traces the decade-long global pursuit of the al-Qaeda leader, from the aftermath of 9/11 to the secret SEAL Team 6 raid in Abbottabad. What sets it apart is the emotional storytelling, including firsthand accounts from CIA analysts, rare archival footage, and a real sense of moral tension: Can you really kill your way out of terror? It's part history lesson, part spy thriller, and all-consuming. And even if you think you know the story, this one hits differently! By Somya Mehta MurderBot Apple TV+ | 10 Episodes | Sci-Fi / Comedy / Action A robot gone rogue? In 2025, that hits a little too close to home. But MurderBot takes that premise and flips it into something surprisingly funny and heartfelt. Alexander Skarsgård is brilliant as a Security Unit that hacks its own governor module, giving it free will. Instead of going full Terminator, it tries to keep a low profile by babysitting scientists on a dangerous alien planet, while secretly just wanting to binge soap operas in peace. It's weird, witty, and has way more emotion than you'd expect from a show featuring a bot with sarcasm issues. With just one season featuring 10 sitcom-length episodes, the show is perfect for a weekend binge. Season 2 is already confirmed. By Husain Rizvi Voy! Voy! Voy! Netflix | Arabic | Dramedy Based on a true story, Voy! Voy! Voy! tells the story of a man fed up of his life in Egypt and dreams of making it big in Europe. His modus operandi? Feign blindness and become a member of a blind football that's travelling to Poland. Directed by adman-turned-filmmaker Omar Hilal, the movie boasts a stellar cast, including the Arabic stars Mohamed Farrag, Nelly Karim and Bayoumi Fouad. Voy! Voy! Voy! is part screwball comedy and part touching, as it dwells on people's aspirations, hope and disappointment — and how the world works. Prepare to laugh, ponder and empathise as you witness Hassan's (Mohamed Farrag) journey. This production released alongside Barbenheimer (yes, Barbie and Oppenheimer) and went on to taste resounding success at the Arab box office. As for the title, it refers to the word blind footballers say when they have the ball to themselves to avoid bumping into others. For fans of: Drama, genuine laughs, and rooted Arabic cinema. By Rajagopalan Venkataraman


Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
New tools, diverse storytelling: Is AI democratising filmmaking?
"Dad, I know this looks real, but it's only AI. You don't have to wire money to anyone!' says a young, handcuffed woman, sitting in the centre of a dingy room. That video, and many others, made the rounds on social media shortly after the launch of VEO3. Google's new AI video generation model promised anyone with an access to a computer the ability to generate near-realistic videos from simple text prompts — and it kept its promise. What had been primarily a tool for filmmakers was suddenly available to everyone. What if this tool lands in the wrong hands: those who will abuse it for purposes other than the art of audio-visual storytelling? And that, of course, is not the only 'downside' of AI in film. Recently appointed Head of Luma AI's LA Studio, Verena Puhm has made significant waves in the field, trailblazing through a world of new opportunities in the art of audio-visual storytelling with AI. Puhm attended the AI Film Festival in Dubai, where she vowed the audience with her Sora Selects Film 2025 AI short film MILK. She also spoke frankly about the pros and cons, hinting at another shortcoming: IP and copyright infringements, anticipating what would occur a couple of months later, when Disney sued Midjourney for using Disney's IP. In this context, Puhm broadens the discussion in our interview: 'There's a big responsibility also on creatives to just do the right thing. If you put in 'Batman is fighting Spider-Man' in Midjourney, you might get Batman and Spider-Man fighting. Is that the content that you want to create? Then you cannot sell it.' One of the keywords that quickly crystalises from the interview is 'agency.' Puhm criticises some AI filmmakers for ripping off other artistes, for prompts like: 'in the style of Wes Anderson.' As James Cameron once pointed out, we're all models. We have been trained on movies, trained on stories, trained on the world's materials, but that doesn't give filmmakers permission to rip off other artists' work. Generally, it's not the intention of the AI toolmaker to encourage this, so it shouldn't be the intention of the creative using it, either. For audio-visual filmmakers who are just starting out in AI, Puhm suggests that they educate themselves before going through the creative process, and to keep doing what any creative would have done before the existence of AI: to secure their rights and involvement. While AI toolmakers aren't taking anything away from the creative in the same way studios have done in the past, Puhm points out that if there's a concern with IP retention or copyright, then leave traces of human involvement in the creation. For example, manipulate the created image in Photoshop, make screenshots or screen recordings of the process, do anything to document interaction between human and machine. While the use of AI was somewhat frowned upon at previous editions of the Cannes Film Festival — not just because the tools we have today hadn't been developed yet — Puhm noticed a change at this year's edition: AI was met with curiosity for the first time. 'If you're curious, you're not there yet where you're judging, and the biggest issue that I've seen in the past was that people are judging too fast. They judge based on fear or ignorance and no education.' One of the greatest opportunities AI film-making has to offer any storyteller around the world is that it 'provides this new playground for filmmakers that have historically been left out of the narrative because they were either not locally in Hollywood… to tell a story, did not have personal ties to studios … and now they pitch their project and (it) would get made (even though) they did not have a story that would reflect what the mostly male, white-dominated studio heads would want to see.' Instead of seeing it as a menace, AI can be a tool of connection between different cultures. 'It's an opportunity to under-represented voices to tell their story… all of a sudden, I can connect with someone from Zimbabwe that I never would have met. I would have never understood their cultural norms, beliefs, religion, anything that really makes me understand a different culture, and helps me expand my view on the world.' As a creator and storyteller herself, Puhm sees AI more as an expansion of humanity's film-making capabilities; writers can verbalise what they want to see in an image, designers can use motion graphics, and add sound and audio without the necessary skills you needed before. With a long background in traditional film-making, Puhm recalls the moment she first brushed shoulders with AI as a film-making tool: 'I felt that I got my agency back. I did not have to rely on gatekeepers to green-light my projects.' To Puhm, the biggest argument in favour of AI is democratisation: giving power back to the people, which is happening with the accessibility of film-making tools, and giving respect back to the artists, who 'historically have been very much exploited by the system... even though the creatives are the ones that are creating worlds; so with this new shift we can become storytellers on any platform.' She concludes: 'That's what it's about … giving artists an opportunity, the respect they actually deserve and to shape how the future of storytelling can look like. Hopefully, it will be broader than what we have experienced in the past.'


Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Designer Caroline Zimbalist pushes fashion boundaries
At her kitchen stove, fashion designer Caroline Zimbalist looks like an alchemist at work as she stirs a pot full of corn starch and a thickener made from seaweed. The peppermint-scented mixture glitters as she carefully pours it into silicone molds of hearts and leaves. When the material hardens, Zimbalist will stitch it into unique, made-to-order dresses that she sells on her website. She hopes her designs, which have been worn by celebrities including Chappell Roan, will put a spotlight on materials that aren't sourced from planet-polluting fossil fuels, such as oil. 'It's almost like a vessel to show the world,' she said. Other small-scale designers are testing out tapioca, gelatin and other kitchen-shelf ingredients. Meanwhile, big names such as Adidas and Hermes have experimented with mushroom leather, while the Lycra brand is incorporating a new largely corn-based material into stretch fabric. Some experts are skeptical that these textiles — commonly referred to as biomaterials — will go mainstream, but designers such as Zimbalist hope their experiments will set an example for larger brands to follow. Over 60% of clothing comes from petroleum-based synthetics like polyester, according to Textile Exchange, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable fashion. Manufacturing those materials creates emissions. Synthetic garments can also shed microplastics during washing. And as fast-fashion brands pump out new clothes for customers who expect new designs every few weeks, many garments end up in landfills. A piece by fashion designer Caroline Zimbalist is displayed in the Queens borough of New York. Photos: Associated Press Zimbalist's designs gained attention in 2024 when Roan wore one on 'The Tonight Show.' The New York-based designer has since dressed stars such as comedian Atsuko Okatsuka and actors Anna Lore and Reneé Rapp. She takes commissions for custom clothing pieces, which cost between $150 and $1,200, via her website, which notes her 'unique recipe of biodegradable and natural materials.' As to whether her approach could be reproduced at a larger scale, Zimbalist says her materials could most practically be used to replace plastic hardware such as buttons and zippers. She acknowledges they can be sticky if not dried correctly, stinky if not treated and melty if exposed to extreme heat. 'Even incorporating it in small ways to start would be really strong,' she said. Fossil-fuel derived fabrics are ubiquitous because they're cheap and made from plentiful raw materials, said Dale Rogers, an Arizona State University professor who studies supply chains. Many clothes are also made of materials that come from plants or animals such as cotton, silk, wool and cashmere. But some have environmental impacts. Cotton uses a lot of water. Sheep and goats burp out methane. Some biomaterials have gotten closer to widespread use. Mycelium leather, made from mushrooms, has been used to create luxury shoes, accessories and handbags by brands such as Stella McCartney, Lululemon, Adidas and Hermes. Still, Rogers said he's not convinced there's enough demand for alternative materials to overcome companies' aversion to the higher costs of producing them at a large scale. 'Honestly, in the end, cost drives almost all decisions,' he said. Getting larger companies to use alternative materials depends on whether they will pay more for a fabric that matches their values, said Jon Veldhouse, the CEO of Qore LLC. His company makes a product called Qira that replaces about 70% of the fossil-derived components of elastic synthetic fabrics with a corn-based material. The Lycra Company, which sells its stretchy material to major brands, initially expects to incorporate Qira in around 25 percent of its Spandex business, said Lycra chief brand and innovation officer Steve Stewart. But that option will be more expensive, and they haven't yet announced any takers. It can also be hard to measure the sustainability of farming practices that go into producing raw materials for new fabrics. Cargill is Qore's partner and corn supplier, and it gets its grain from farmers in the vicinity of their processing plant. Veldhouse said many already plant cover crops or reduce tilling to lower environmental impact, but he couldn't provide data on how many use those approaches. Associated Press