Another day, another statement added to the legal drama between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
The pair are currently embroiled in lawsuits with each celebrity making severe accusations about the other. And following Lively’s request for a gag order, Baldoni’s lawyer has issued a scathing statement.
After rumours of an off-set rift between the stars of It Ends With Us, Lively filed a lawsuit against her co-star and director in December, accusing him of sexual harassment and trying to launch a smear campaign against her.
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Baldoni called all of this ‘categorically false’ and recently filed against her and husband Ryan Reynolds for defamation.
His suit was filled with his own share of claims while also including images from the premiere and ‘unedited’ footage from the film.
While the past few weeks have seen much of this legal battle between the stars play out pretty publicly, it seems Lively has had enough as she and Reynolds asked a judge to impose a gag order on Baldoni's legal counsel.
A letter to Judge Lewis J. Liman claimed the star’s lawyer, Byran Freedman, has ‘given television interviews, appeared on podcasts, issued inflammatory written statements, and leaked information to the Hollywood press and tabloid media’.
They went on to accuse him of making false statements about the couple with this ‘virtually every day’ address of the case and claimed he’s launched a ‘harassing and retaliatory media campaign’ against them.
This gag order has therefore been requested to stop the ‘improper conduct’ as it allegedly ‘might prejudice the jury’.
And Freedman has now said his team’s only goal is to ‘defend their clients with pure, unedited facts’ following Lively’s ‘hit piece’ against Baldoni.
He said in a statement to DailyMail.com: “The irony is not lost on anyone that Ms. Lively is so petrified of the truth that she has moved to gag it.
“The immense power that she wielded in Hollywood built on pure fear of her husband and their powerful friends came to an end the moment Ms. Lively planned a mass distribution of a disturbingly false and well calculated hit piece in The New York Times.”
With The New York Times having released an article following Lively’s lawsuit, Baldoni is also suing the publication for defamation.
Freedman’s statement continued: “Ms. Lively did this with the sole intent to ruin the lives of innocent individuals, and then went the extra mile to place blame on a fictitious smear campaign, all because she quite simply could not accept that the public had organically seen through her facade.
“When you accuse innocent individuals of something so disturbing as sexual harassment without thinking of the destruction it would cause to not only them, but the entire domestic violence community, this is where accountability for such mean spirited actions must be taken.
“We will always respect the court; however, we will never be bullied by those suggesting we cannot defend our clients with pure, unedited facts.
“All we want is for people to see the actual text messages that directly contradict her allegations, video footage that clearly shows there was no sexual harassment, and all the other powerful evidence that directly contradicts any false allegations of sexual harassment and subsequent smear campaign.
“It seems that in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
Lively’s team have called Baldoni’s lawsuit against her ‘another chapter in the abuser playbook’.
LADbible has contacted Blake Lively’s representatives for comment.
Topics: Celebrity, Entertainment, Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni
Jess Battison