Blake Lively demands Justin Baldoni say if he'll testify at trial, with no sign of settlement in case
Published in Entertainment News
NEW YORK — Lawyers for Blake Lively on Tuesday asked a judge to compel her “It Ends with Us” co-star Justin Baldoni and others she’s suing for retaliation to disclose whether they will take the stand at the trial starting next month, with talks over a potential settlement appearing to founder.
Lively’s case is slated to begin in Manhattan Federal Court on May 18, with a jury set to weigh claims accusing Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, of retaliating against Lively after she alleged he had sexually harassed her, his PR firm of aiding and abetting a subsequent smear campaign and breach-of-contract allegations.
Mostly granting motions by Baldoni’s side, Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Liman last week dismissed the bulk of claims in Lively’s sweeping suit, in part finding she couldn’t allege she was sexually harassed on set as a matter of law because she was considered an independent contractor on the film produced by and starring Baldoni and not his employee.
Jurors are nevertheless expected to hear some sexual harassment allegations as part of the retaliation claims.
Baldoni and everyone else Lively is suing — including Wayfarer CEO Jamey Heath, Baldoni’s co-chair at Wayfarer Steve Sarowitz, and public-relations consultants Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan — have refused to say whether they’ll show up for the trial or sit for taped depositions beforehand, Lively’s attorney Michael Gottlieb wrote to the court Tuesday, accusing Baldoni’s team of gamesmanship.
“Defendants’ refusal to provide this straightforward information to Ms. Lively appears designed to manufacture a strategic advantage by depriving Ms. Lively of information that will substantially influence her ability to complete, in a timely fashion, the witness and exhibit lists, as well as other exchanges,” Gottlieb wrote.
“If some or all of the parties are refusing to appear at trial, Ms. Lively is entitled to know in advance.”
Following Liman’s lengthy opinion last week, lawyers for both sides separately met with the magistrate judge assigned to the case at closed door teleconference hearings on Monday to discuss their positions on a potential settlement, according to court records.
Tuesday’s filing indicated the talks went nowhere and that the case is proceeding to trial full speed ahead.
Lively’s team declined to comment Tuesday. An attorney for Baldoni, Bryan Freedman, could not immediately be reached.
Lively’s December 2024 lawsuit alleged she had been sexually harassed by Baldoni throughout filming the adaption of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel about domestic violence and that Baldoni and his PR team orchestrated a smear campaign against her after she spoke out.
The “Gossip Girl” actor’s lawyers say her reputation and career suffered devastating consequences, citing findings of 176 million hits online calling her a “bully,” “mean girl,” and “tone deaf” after Baldoni and his crew allegedly “planned, coordinated, and implemented” a career-ending smear campaign.
Baldoni and his co-defendants have argued that public opinion soured on Lively organically.
“[The] parties fiercely dispute the extent to which the backlash against Lively was ‘organic’ or ‘artificial,’ and which steps the Wayfarer Parties may have taken to protect themselves (versus which ones they may have taken to destroy Lively personally and her career),” Liman wrote in his opinion.
“A jury can and should decide those questions.”
Baldoni, 42, last year countersued in response to Lively’s suit, bringing a bucketload of claims against her and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, alleging he’d been defamed and extorted and demanding an enormous $400 million in damages. Liman threw out that lawsuit last summer.
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