For a moment, it seemed like the dust had settled. However, the Daily Mail can exclusively disclose that the legal conflict between Blake Lively and her former co-star Justin Baldoni is far from resolved.
While Lively, 38, marked what appeared to be a victory by dressing up as an elderly woman for Halloween festivities alongside her husband Ryan Reynolds, Baldoni’s representatives have countered claims suggesting his $400 million lawsuit over “It Ends With Us” was nullified by missed deadlines.
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, informed the Daily Mail that such claims are inaccurate, asserting that no deadlines were overlooked.
The seasoned attorney further explained that the decision not to file an amended complaint—resulting in Judge Lewis Liman’s final judgment on Monday—was a strategic move to maintain Baldoni’s ability to appeal.
In an exclusive statement to the Daily Mail, Freedman expressed, “The facts of this case are consistently and entirely misrepresented in the media.”
“Even a straightforward procedural update has been completely misconstrued,” he added.
While Lively, 38, celebrated what looked like a win by dressing up as an old lady for Halloween celebrations with husband Ryan Reynolds, Baldoni’s team have hit back at reports that claimed his $400m lawsuit was a busted flush due to missed deadlines
He went on: ‘At this point, we have to set the record straight: no deadlines were missed. Our clients chose not to amend their complaint to preserve appeal rights.
‘In the meantime, we are focusing on Ms. Lively’s claims. We remain fully committed to pursuing the truth through every legal and factual avenue available and look forward to our day in court.’
The long-running legal drama was sparked by Lively’s decision to file a $250m harassment complaint against the It Ends With Us director last December – claiming he had behaved inappropriately towards her on set.
With that came a New York Times expose that saw Baldoni, 41, accused of sexually harassing Lively and claimed the dad-of-two had orchestrated a media smear campaign against his leading lady.
The following month, Baldoni hit back with a $400m lawsuit of his own that accused Lively and the Gray Lady of defamation, with Reynolds also added to the file.
According to Baldoni, Lively had attempted to hijack his film and memorably compared herself to Game of Thrones character Khaleesi – boasting that Reynolds and former pal Taylor Swift are her ‘dragons’.
On Halloween the 38-year-old beauty and her husband Ryan Reynolds had fun dressing up in costumes. They were the old couple Carl and Ellie from the 2009 animated classic film Up
The Gossip Girl star, 38, filed a motion on October 30, accusing the producer of It Ends with Us of ‘failing to comply’ with a court order requiring him to produce the full, now-infamous video of his wife Natasha’s home-birth
The blockbuster case has also seen a welter of claims and counter claims while Swift was also dragged in and was subpoenaed, although that was later canceled.
Much of the current drama in the case now revolves around Lively’s suit – including a recent allegation that the actor allegedly illicitly used technology to orchestrate a smear campaign against his costar.
‘Baldoni and his team of attorneys, agents and public relations professionals used digital tricks to conceal critical evidence in the legal proceedings,’ Lively’s legal team alleged.
The filing went on: ‘Defendants have hid the ball at every turn in the discovery process, either failing to produce documents, or improperly cloaking them in the attorney-client privilege.’
Lively demanded It Ends With Us producer Jamey Heath hand over more footage of his ‘naked’ wife giving birth to their child, in a bizarre twist to her sexual harassment lawsuit, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal.
The Gossip Girl star, 38, filed a motion on October 30, accusing Heath of ‘failing to comply’ with an August 27 court order requiring him to produce the full, now-infamous video of his wife Natasha’s home-birth by September 2.
Blake accused Heath of showing her and an assistant his wife’s ‘fully nude’ home-birthing video, which she described as ‘pornography,’ but that the producer and director Justin Baldoni intended to show her their vision of the film’s birthing scene.
In her redacted motioned filed with the Southern District court of New York, Lively says Heath – who worked alongside the film’s director and co-star Justin Baldoni – has only provided a three-minute clip, which she ‘has consistently disputed’ is the same ‘inappropriate’ video he showed her on the set of the movie.
She claims Heath’s lawyers ‘insisted for weeks that they were ‘not aware’ of any other video’ and that they have ‘refused to provide any further video on the sole basis that, in their view, the Order Compelling Production should be read exceedingly narrowly and does not require Mr Heath to produce it’.
Lively’s camp also complained about being showered with discovery motions by Baldoni’s team – claiming no fewer than 12 had been submitted.
Lively’s lawyers also claimed that Baldoni and his team worked in concert to try to destroy Lively’s reputation with the use of multiple digital resources, which included the app Signal; voice memos; and other software, lawyers for the Los Angeles-born actress said in the court filing.
All parties have denied the allegations against them
