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The very first court hearing in the wide ranging legal and media war between It Ends With Us stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni today saw a federal judge threatening to move up the March 2026 trial start date if the high profile matter continues to be “litigated in the press.”
Despite the protests of Baldoni’s very media active lead lawyer Bryan Freedman that his client had “suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in damages” from Lively’s claims of sexual harassment on the set of the film based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel and an online smear campaign leading up to the Sony distributed movie’s August 2024 release, Judge Lewis J. Liman imposed an Empire State rule on both sides to mind their public p’s and q’s.
Essentially, neither side in the multi-pong matter is to say anything to the press that could taint a potential jury. How long that hold, knowing some of the personalities involved, is anyone’s guess. Both sets of lawyers very circumspect outside. Freedman just reiterated that he wants case to move fast. Lively and Ryan Reynold’s top attorney Michael Gottlieb said he was “very happy” with how today’s nearly 90-minute hearing went.
Neither Blake Lively nor Ryan Reynolds were in court today. Justin Baldoni was not there either.
With all parties still aiming for trial start of next spring in the now. consolidated case s of Livelly’s New Year’s Eve harassment and retaliation case against Baldoni, his PR team and financiers, and the Jane the Virgin vet’s initial January 16 $400 million defamation and extortion case against the Gossip Girl alum, Reynolds and their publicist Leslie Sloane, the 11 am ET/8 am PT kicking off session before Judge. Liman got both very procedural and very pointed very quickly.
Depositions, discovery and dismissal of defendants were all in pole position today as the complexity of the case(s) that has captivated Hollywood even since Lively filed a complaint on December 20 with California’s Civil Right department. Also high on the peeking order in the 500 Pearl Street Courthouse on Monday was so-called “pre-trial publicity” from Freedman.
Even with more than few moves by Judge Liman to keep the volume down, the packed Courtroom 15C also saw both sides heave accusations of media manipulation at each other. Freedman pressed his clients’ claim that Lively was in cahoots with the New York Times for weeks if not more on their December 21 expose ‘We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,’
Already having given notice last week that they will seek to have Baldoni’s lawsuit tossed out, Lively and Reynolds’ legal team are seeking a protective order to stop the media friendly Freedman from more “extrajudicial statements” about Lively and her character, as well to stop him from taking the actress’ deposition in the case.
With an increasingly full agenda, today’s hearing remarkably marks the end of the first phase of the six-week long multi-lawsuit conflict between Lively and Baldoni with things now actually in front of a judge. Not unexpectedly, in a tussle that has played out from Day 1 in the courts and the court of public opinion simultaneously, the lead up to Monday’s session saw a squall of new filings, documents, statements and even the posting of much-hyped full transparency website promised by Freedman.
Earlier Monday, attorney Gottlieb told Judge Liman, Lively and Reynolds’ side will be putting their proposed protective order on Freedman before the courts by March 11. Taking any deposition of Lively off the table for now, Judge Liman made it very clear that sooner would be better in his opinion than later for that protective order to show up.
The judge also left no doubt that he was not impressed by attempts by the Ladypool lawyers to decide who (a.k.a. not Freedman) gets to question Lively from the other side.
In the end, despite the attention the manicured timeline posted online by Baldoni’s team, the real meat and bone was in an amended complaint which has added the New York Times as a defendant to the $400 million case. Freedman told the court that he is set to pull the plug on the pretty much $250 million still born LA case against the Gray Lady that Baldoni filed on NYE over the paper. At the other table, Gottlieb said that his side had received no notice that the NYT was being added to the main case before it hit the press. To that, the Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP partner said Lively and Reynolds may be filing an amended complaint of their own.
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