Blake Lively’s lawyers make legal intervention after Justin Baldoni leaks ‘It Ends With Us’ video
Blake Lively‘s legal team is taking action against Justin Baldoni and his lawyers over a video he leaked of the duo on the set of It Ends with Us.
Following Lively’s accusations that Baldoni sexually harassed her during the production of the movie, which he directed as well as co-starred in, his attorney, Bryan Freedman, has been on a lengthy press tour to defend his client. Additionally, he has released a flurry of purported evidence in which he alleges deems Lively’s accusations to be false.
Now, in a letter to a federal judge earlier this week, Lively’s legal team argued that Freedman was violating the New York Rules of Professional Conduct by litigating the case in public. The decision came after Freedman leaked a ten-minute video of raw footage from the set of It Ends with Us, in which Lively and Baldoni are filming a dancing scene. According to Baldoni’s lawyer, the footage exonerates his client of inappropriate behaviour.
Lively’s team is not trying to secure a gag order against Freedman since the New York Rules of Professional Conduct allow lawyers to make public statements about ongoing litigation. Instead, they are asking the court to force Freedman to stop releasing evidence and making comments that could significantly prejudice the jury. Given the high-profile nature of the case and the evidence that both parties have already released, the horse may already be out of the barn.
In response to Lively’s request for intervention, another of Baldoni’s lawyers, Kevin Fritz, made his own legal filing in which he accused Lively of starting the whole thing, saying that her attempt to block further public statements was merely an “intimidation tactic” (per Variety).
Ever since the New York Times published a lengthy article about Lively’s allegations in December, Baldoni and his lawyers have been lodging a fiery counteroffensive. Lively accused her co-star not only of sexual harassment but of orchestrating a smear campaign with a crisis PR agency to turn public sentiment against her.
The number of lawsuits and threats of legal action are almost too numerous to count, but they have expanded to include the New York Times, Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and Marvel president Kevin Feige. Baldoni even dragged Taylor Swift into the discourse, which is a dangerous move if he’s hoping to win over the public’s sentiment.
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