Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively.
Getty Images (2)Justin Baldonithe lawyer of Bryan Freedman retaliated Blake LivelyResponse to director’s $400 million lawsuit.
“After my clients filed a comprehensive complaint containing nearly 200 pages of undeniable facts and documentary evidence that crushed their false claims of a smear campaign by providing falsified communications to The New York Times“Blake and his legal team have only one heinous pivot left, and that is to double down on the sickeningly false sexual allegations against Mr. Baldoni,” Freedman said. Deadline in a press release dated Saturday January 18.
Baldoni, 40 years old, continued Lively, 37, earlier this weekseeking $400 million in damages. In the file obtained by WeBaldoni’s legal team claimed that Lively was “determined to make Baldoni the real villain of her story” to cover up her alleged “tone-deaf” promotion of their film. It ends with us.
Baldoni directed and starred in the 2024 adaptation of Colleen HooverThe novel about an abusive relationship. Lively played protagonist Lily Bloom on screen and also served as executive producer. Baldoni played Lily’s husband, Ryle Kincaid.
Justin Baldoni is leaning on his loved ones amid his ongoing legal battle against Blake Lively. “We’re grateful to be with family, man,” Baldoni, 40, told photographers on Friday (Jan. 17) at Los Angeles International Airport in a video obtained by TMZ. “We have amazing friends, family and faith.” Baldoni shares his daughter Maiya, (…)
A few months after the film’s premiere in August 2024, Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and fostering a “hostile work environment.” She also claimed in her December 2024 lawsuit that Baldoni tried to coordinate a concentrated campaign to ruin her reputation. (Freedman, on behalf of Baldoni, denied the allegations at the time.)
Shortly after Baldoni sued Lively last week – also naming her husband, Ryan Reynoldsand their team of publicists in the lawsuit – she denied the accusations.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.
Théo Wargo/WireImage“This latest lawsuit filed by Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and his associates is another chapter in the abusers’ playbook. It’s an old story: a woman comes forward with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the attacker attempts to turn the tables on the victim. » Lively’s lawyers said We in a statement. “This is what experts call DARVO. Refuse. Attack. Reverse delinquent victim. Wayfarer has chosen to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch unfounded lawsuits, and threaten legal action in order to prevent the public from understanding that what it is doing constitutes retaliation against allegations of sexual harassment.
Updated: 01/07/24, 12 p.m. ET — Bryan Freedman, who is Justin Baldoni’s attorney, released the following statement in response to Lively’s team: “It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of using the media as a weapon when his team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending the New York Times crudely edited documents before (…)
The publicists named in the complaint also released a statement.
“It is devastating that we are forced to respond to this viciously self-serving ongoing litigation, littered with documented and provable falsehoods, in the midst of tragedy in California where we reside,” the statement read. We bed. “Five months ago, Ms. Lively chose to promote a film about domestic violence in a way that immediately provoked negative, organic reactions due to her own high-profile actions. Instead of accepting responsibility, she decided to cruelly blame us. This malicious attack on individuals by Ms. Lively and her team in which they chose to spoon-feed The New York Times with falsified, out-of-context, and edited text messages in an effort to portray themselves as a victim, they set off a chain of events that were harmful beyond measure.
The post continues: “To be clear, Ms. Lively and her team launched this media smear campaign for the sole purpose of gaining undeserved public sympathy for her own missteps. Over the past month we have received death threats, heinous abuse and vile anti-Semitic slurs hurled at us due to her decision to use us as scapegoats for her own choices promoting her film in which she earned millions of dollars. With this filing, we lift our own curtain on what happens when those in power use power, fear and money as a weapon to destroy, intimidate and bully those who get in their way.
Baldoni, for his part, was stay focused on your family in light of the situation.
“We’re grateful to be with family, man,” he told photographers at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday (January 17). “We have amazing friends, family and faith.”
Baldoni shares daughter Maiya, 9, and son Maxwell, 7, with his wife, Emilie Baldoni.