Lawyers for actors Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively spent their first day in court sparring over the sexual harassment and other allegations that have erupted surrounding their film, \u2018It Ends With Us\u2019.<\/p>\n
In December, Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and starting a smear campaign against her.<\/p>\n
Baldoni has denied her claims and, in response, sued her on a various grounds, including defamation.<\/p>\n
The movie co-stars were not required to attend the pretrial meeting at federal court in Manhattan on Monday.<\/p>\n
But the hour-and-a-half hearing still turned heated as lawyers for each side claimed the other was badmouthing their client outside of court.<\/p>\n
The case \u201cis supposed to be resolved here in court\u201d, Lively\u2019s attorney, Michael Gottlieb told Jude Lewis Liman. \u201cIt\u2019s not supposed to be resolved in the press.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Gottlieb accused Baldoni\u2019s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, of making \u201cinflammatory extrajudicial comments\u201d about Lively\u2019s \u201ccharacter and motives\u201d during appearances on news channels.<\/p>\n
In response, Mr Freedman said Mr Gottlieb was trying to impose a \u201cgag order\u201d preventing him from talking to the media. Baldoni, he said, was the one who had suffered harm to his reputation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy client is devastated financially and emotionally,\u201d Mr Freedman told the court.<\/p>\n
Based on a bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover, \u2018It Ends With Us\u2019 became a box office hit after it was released in August. But despite its financial success, rumours of a bitter feud between Baldoni and Lively began swirling before the film was even released.<\/p>\n
Both sides in the legal fights have \u201cgiven the public plenty to feast upon\u201d, Judge Liman said on court in Monday.<\/p>\n
He said that if the case ended up being \u201clitigated in the press\u201d, he could be forced to move up a March 2026 trial date so that jurors do not become prejudiced against either of the defendants.<\/p>\n
The judge also said he would adopt a New York Bar Association measure \u2013 Rule 3.6 \u2013 that bars lawyers from making statements publicly that could sway the outcome of a trial.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s hearing came after Baldoni filed an amended complaint against Lively, which included a 168-page \u201ctimeline\u201d of events in the case.<\/p>\n
His team also launched a website with the new complaint as well as other publicly available videos and text messages surrounding the case.<\/p>\n
Lively\u2019s lawyer brought up the website in court on Monday. \u201cWho created the website?\u201d Mr Gottlieb asked. \u201cWho funded it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Gottlieb also took issue with out-takes Baldoni has released from a romantic scene in \u2018It Ends With Us\u2019, which he says proves that Lively\u2019s allegations of sexual harassment are unfounded.<\/p>\n
But Lively has responded by saying the footage of the pair filming a slow dance scene is \u201cdamning\u201d and corroborates her claims.<\/p>\n
Lively\u2019s team on Monday pledged to file an amended complaint of its own, which would involve even more people in the case.<\/p>\n
Several other parties already are embroiled in the legal drama. Baldoni is suing the New York Times for libel, claiming his co-star gave the outlet advance access to her civil rights complaint.<\/p>\n
The Times was the first a story to publish about her suit last December. The New York Times has denied these allegations.<\/p>\n
Several public relations firms who worked with Baldoni and Lively during their film are also defendants in the case.<\/p>\n
Some of those matters will be dealt with in a separate trial after Lively and Baldoni\u2019s, Judge Liman said on Monday.<\/p>\n
He also said Baldoni and Lively\u2019s legal teams would need to agree to a protective order, a legal document that shields people involved in the case from another person accused of abusing or harassing them.<\/p>\n
Such an order is necessary, Judge Liman said, because of the \u201csignificant number of high-profile individuals\u201d in the case and the \u201cnature of the allegations\u201d.<\/p>\n
During the hearing, Baldoni\u2019s attorney also pressed the judge to stick to the pre-trial schedule that both sides suggested, saying his client wanted the case to progress \u201cas quickly as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n
Judge Liman agreed to Baldoni\u2019s lawyer\u2019s request, with a few small schedule changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will come a time that the jury will speak on this issue,\u201d Judge Liman told the court.<\/p>\n
The post Baldoni, Lively lawyers spar in first court appearance<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lawyers for actors Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively spent their first day in court sparring over the sexual harassment and other allegations that have erupted surrounding their film, \u2018It Ends With Us\u2019. In December, Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and starting a smear campaign against her. Baldoni has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}