Justin Baldoni‘s team is firing back against a motion from Blake Lively‘s attorneys to impose a gag order against their lawyer Bryan Freedman, who’s accused of effectively continuing the alleged smear campaign against the actress by leaking information and issuing false statements to the press.
Counsel for Baldoni and his associates, in a letter filed on Thursday, say the moves were necessary to protect their clients from fallout over The New York Times article that they characterize as sparking the dispute with cherry-picked and spliced texts and emails. The backlash from that story has been “utterly calamitous,” the filing states, with the It Ends With Us director and his team being “exiled from polite society” and suffering damages “totaling hundreds of millions of dollars due to Ms. Lively’s scorched-earth media campaign.”
The legal maneuvering is part of Lively’s civil rights lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York earlier this month, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment during the making of It Ends With Us, and him and his associates of marshaling a sophisticated plan to undermine her reputation in retaliation for speaking up about sexual misconduct on the set of the film following the movie’s release. Baldoni, who both directed and stars in the film opposite Lively, filed his own complaint last week against the actress and husband Ryan Reynolds seeking at least $400 million in damages. He’s represented by no-holds-barred lawyer Bryan Freedman, who isn’t shy when it comes to talking to the press (at one point, he warned he would sue anyone connected with certain “abhorrent” behavior into “oblivion”).
On Tuesday, within hours of Baldoni’s team providing footage to the media from the set of It Ends With Us that they say vindicates them, Lively’s lawyers moved for the court overseeing her lawsuit to impose a gag order against Freedman. Michael Gottlieb, representing the actress, said that the leaking of that footage, among other moves amid the media blitz, violates various rules relating to professional conduct for lawyers, namely one that prohibits attorneys from making statements outside of court proceedings that could impact the case by biasing potential jurors.
But Kevin Fritz, another lawyer for Baldoni, argues there’s an exception to the rule that permits statements necessary to protect clients from fallout over negative publicity that they didn’t instigate. He argues that Baldoni’s legal team was protecting him from Lively’s media campaign.
Examples of alleged attacks from Lively include her side describing Baldoni as an “abuser” and his lawsuit as “another chapter in the abuse playbook” to The Hollywood Reporter. Also referenced in the letter is Lively’s counsel describing the leaked footage as “damning.”
“Having publicly made ruinous allegations that the Wayfarer Parties can prove are false, the Lively Parties now invoke attorney disciplinary rules as an intimidation tactic,” Thursday’s letter states. “The Lively Parties’ desire to force the Wayfarer Parties to defend themselves privately against allegations made publicly is not a proper basis for a gag order. It is tactical gamesmanship, and it is outrageous.”
A spokesperson for Lively declined to comment.
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