The highly anticipated courtroom showdown between Blake Lively and her co-star, Justin Baldoni, is set to unfold next year, adding another layer of drama to their ongoing legal disputes.
The lawsuits keep coming, and the legal drama seems far from over. It has been confirmed that in early January 2025, Blake Lively will be hit with a barrage of countersuits from It Ends with Us actor-director Baldoni and his associates.
Baldoni’s business partner, Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath, and multiple publicists named in Lively’s lawsuit will counterattack.
The courts open on January 2nd and Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, made a bold promise that a shockwave would reverberate through the entertainment industry, setting the stage for a dramatic legal battle.
Before filing the documents, the attorney spoke to PEOPLE Magazine, Deadline, and the Daily Mail to say the revelations would significantly alter the current narrative.
Freedman stated: “I am not going to speak to when or how many lawsuits we are filing, but when we file our first lawsuit, it is going to shock everyone who has been manipulated into believing a demonstrably false narrative.”
Freedman claimed that the countersuit’s contents would be supported by irrefutable evidence and tell the true story of how things went down between the creatives and their respective publicity teams.
Freedman revealed that the level of intentional and unethical manipulation of the press to tarnish his client’s reputation is unprecedented in his 30 years of practice, underscoring the severity of the situation.
He drew a stark comparison, likening the situation to the high-profile cases of Megyn Kelly and Gabrielle Union when NBC attempted to dismiss their grievances.
He said: “In over 30 years of practicing, I have never seen this level of unethical behavior intentionally fueled through media manipulation. It reminds me of what NBC tried to do to Megyn Kelly and Gabrielle Union; we all know how that ended. Standby.”
In Blake Lively’s 80-page legal complaint, she accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, degrading her body, making inappropriate remarks about her body, and quizzing her about her intimate life with her husband, Ryan Reynolds.
The suit adds: “Mr. Baldoni then intrusively asked Ms. Lively whether she and her husband climax simultaneously during intercourse, which Ms. Lively found invasive and refused to discuss.”
In the legal complaint, Lively said she attended an “all hands” meeting in January with Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath, and others to discuss the “hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the film.”
The complaint said: “Ms. Lively was forced to address concerns about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath’s misconduct with them directly and began doing so months before filming began. The concerns she raised were for herself and the other female cast and crew, some of whom had also spoken up.”
The suit added: “Mr. Baldoni then intrusively asked Ms. Lively whether she and her husband climax simultaneously during intercourse, which Ms. Lively found invasive and refused to discuss.”
The meeting resulted in Baldoni and Heath agreeing to stop “showing nude videos or images of women, including the producer’s wife, to BL and/or her employees.”
The men also agreed to stop talking about their “previous pornography addiction or BL’s lack of pornography consumption” and “descriptions of their genitalia.”
According to the complaint, Baldoni urged Lively to “simulate full nudity” while filming a scene in which her character gives birth to a baby girl.
Baldoni told Lively, a mother of four, that it was “not normal” for women to wear their hospital gowns while giving birth.
The suit went on to say: “While Lively disagreed, she compromised and agreed to be nude from the chest down. Neither Baldoni nor Heath closed the set before filming the scene. Allowing non-essential crew to pass through while Ms. Lively was mostly nude with her legs spread wide in stirrups and only a small piece of fabric covering her genitalia.”
In the wake of Lively’s legal actions, Baldoni faced several dire consequences. He was sued by a former publicist and dropped by the agency WME, which also works with Lively and Reynolds.
