HomeEntertainmentBaldoni, Lively legal professionals face off in $400 mil 'It Ends With...

Baldoni, Lively legal professionals face off in $400 mil 'It Ends With Us' case

Lawyers for Hollywood stars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively confronted off Monday of their $400 million defamation struggle, as Baldoni’s facet dropped a cache of case paperwork on-line prompting censure from the choose.

Hollywood energy couple Lively and Ryan Reynolds are being focused by Baldoni, Lively’s co-star on bleak romance film “It Ends With Us,” after she sued Baldoni and alleged sexual harassment.

In the most recent caustic twist within the authorized battle engulfing the movie, Baldoni’s workforce created an internet site containing a trove of messages and paperwork regarding the case.

In courtroom, Judge Lewis Liman stated the most recent amended grievance, which included emails and textual content messages between Baldoni and Lively and Reynolds — who Baldoni can be suing — broke courtroom process, U.S. media reported.

The Manhattan federal choose threatened to convey ahead the date of the trial, presently slated for March 2026, if the events to the case proceed to litigate the dispute within the media.

“You’ve got a lot in front of the court that gives, I think, the public plenty to feast upon,” Liman stated reportedly.

The $400 million swimsuit from Baldoni, who additionally directed the movie, got here after Lively filed a sexual harassment grievance in opposition to him, protesting her therapy on set, after which a lawsuit accusing him of launching a retaliatory media marketing campaign in opposition to her.

Baldoni has sought to have the case in opposition to him dismissed.

“We just couldn’t be more pleased with how all the issues were managed. We’re going to move as quickly as we possibly can and prove our innocence,” Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman stated exterior courtroom following the listening to.

Lively’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb stated he was “very happy with how the hearing went” — however didn’t elaborate.

The struggle between the celebrities was dragged into the highlight when followers observed throughout promotion of the movie that they didn’t comply with each other on social media.

It rapidly emerged that Lively had complained of Baldoni’s conduct on the set, accusing him of — amongst different issues — talking inappropriately about his intercourse life and searching for so as to add intimate scenes into the movie that she had not beforehand agreed to.

Lively additionally stated lead producer Jamey Heath had watched her whereas she was topless, regardless of having been requested to show away.

Then, Lively alleges, Baldoni ignited a PR marketing campaign to smear her and divert consideration away from complaints she may make concerning the males’s alleged actions.

Baldoni has additionally sued The New York Times after it revealed a chunk about that alleged smear marketing campaign, together with what it stated had been emails and texts discussing the media outcry.

Baldoni countered that Lively hijacked the manufacturing of “It Ends With Us” and that she defamed him and, with Reynolds, sought to extort him.

© 2025 AFP

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