Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s attorneys trade snipes — as NYC judge warns them to tone it down in bombshell court battle: ‘They started it’
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s attorneys traded snipes Monday — as a federal judge warned both sides to tone it down amid their bombshell Hollywood court battle.
Manhattan federal judge Lewis Liman instructed lawyers for both Lively and Baldoni not to make “extrajudicial statements” that could sway potential jurors in advance of a March 2026 trial.
“You’ve got a lot in front of the court that gives, I think, the public plenty to feast upon,” Liman said at the end of the first hearing in the dueling litigation fight over alleged harassment on the set of “It Ends With Us.”
The judge urged both sides to follow New York state rules that limit public statements about litigation — and even floated moving up the trial date if the case continues to be “litigated in the press.”
The warning, which both sides of the long-simmering feud agreed to adhere to, came after the attorneys traded barbs repeatedly during the hearing.
Lively’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb accused Baldoni attorney Bryan Freedman of making “inflammatory comments” attacking the actress’ “character as well as her motives” — including in an appearance on the podcast of media personality Megyn Kelly, his former client.
The statements have been “reposted and circulated hundreds of times, perhaps more, to outlets all around the world,”Gottlieb said.
Freedman, meanwhile, accused Lively’s camp of working with the New York Times for months in advance of the newspaper’s story about her allegations titled, “We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.“ Baldoni is suing the Times in response to that article, claiming defamation.
“I can offer you statements made by Ms. Lively’s attorneys. This is not a one-way street,” Freedman said.
“My grave concern is that my clients suffered hundreds of millions of dollars of prejudice as a result of actions they were blindsided by,” he added.
Freedman ultimately admitted that his squabble with Gottlieb about what each side has said to the media about the case was childish.
“Not to sound like a four-year-old fighting a four-year-old with ‘They started it,’ but in these kinds of cases, once someone says something it becomes fact: There’s no way to fight against it,” Freedman said.
But he still insisted: “This was not started by us, your honor.”
Lively, 37, sued Baldoni, 41 — who also co-starred in and directed the romantic drama — in December for $250 million, claiming he sexually harassed her while filming and launched a smear campaign when she spoke out about her alleged mistreatment.
The “A Simple Favor” starlet plans to file an expanded version of her suit by Valentine’s Day, possibly including more claims and adding new parties as defendants, her lawyer said Monday.
Baldoni has denied her accusations. He and his publicists countersued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds on New Year’s Day for $400 million, alleging she defamed them.
Baldoni’s suit includes texts that appear to reference Lively’s close friend Taylor Swift.
Lively’s lawyer noted Monday that the case involved “a significant number of high-profile individuals” — without naming names — as he pushed the court for a so-called protective order to keep evidence under wraps.
Such an order “will be appropriate in this case given the nature of the allegations and the high profile nature of some of the individuals who will be involved,” Gottlieb said.
The judge ordered both sides to file the proposed terms of such an order for approval by March 11.
Neither Lively nor Baldoni attended Monday’s hearing.
