Blake Lively is asking a judge to put a stop to a “retaliatory media campaign” by actor Justin Baldoni’s lawyer.
Lively’s legal team is accusing Baldoni’s lawyer of engaging in a “harassing and retaliatory media campaign” against the actress and her husband Ryan Reynolds after she sued Baldoni for harassment on the set.
Lively, 37, and Reynolds, 48, have been married 13 years and they share four children.
Lawyers for the “Gossip Girl” veteran submitted a letter to the court accusing attorney Bryan Freedman of “improper conduct,” TMZ reports.
Lively filed a lawsuit in December accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of “It Ends with Us.” She formally sued Baldoni on Dec. 31, the same day he filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times for an in-depth article on Lively’s allegations against Baldoni.
Lively claimed in her sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni that, during the filming of a scene, he “leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘it smells so good.'”
Lively said those lines were not in the script, and that he was not “remotely in character, or based on any dialogue in the script.”
Her lawsuit alleged that “nothing needed to be said because, again, there was no sound” and that Baldoni was “caressing Ms. Lively with his mouth in a way that had nothing to do with their roles.”
But Baldoni’s legal team released footage from the set of that shows Lively laughing and appearing comfortable and not all stressed by what he said to her.
Lively accused lawyer Freeman of releasing the video footage to taint the jury pool.
“The following videos captured on May 23, 2023 clearly refute Ms. Lively’s characterization of his behavior,” attorney Freeman wrote in a statement that preceded the video.
“The scene in question was designed to show the two characters falling in love and longing to be close to one another. Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism.”
But in a statement, Lively’s attorneys say the video footage shows the opposite.
“Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning,” the statement read. “The video shows Ms. Lively leaning away and repeatedly asking for the characters to just talk. Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort.”
The lawsuit could set a precedent for the way Hollywood stars interact with each other on movie sets in the future.
