Justin Baldoni’s lawyer reacts to Blake Lively’s restraining order request


Justin Baldoni's lawyer addresses 'irony' of Blake Lively seeking gag order in legal drama

Justin Baldoni Tara Zimba/Getty Images

Justin Baldonilawyer of Brian Friedman has responded violently Blake Livelyseeking a gag order in the former actors’ ongoing court case surrounding the filming of It ends with us.

“The irony is not lost on anyone that Ms. Lively is so petrified of the truth that she has moved to silence her,” Friedman said Us Weekly in a Saturday, January 25, statement. “The enormous power she wielded in Hollywood, built on sheer fear of her husband and their powerful friends, ended the moment Ms. Lively planned the mass distribution of a disturbingly fake and well-calculated hit in New York Times.”

Lively, 37, publicly accused Baldoni, 41 about sexual harassment and alleged misconduct in the workplace via an article published by times in December 2024 Baldoni denied the allegations and subsequently sued the newspaper for defamation. He too filed a separate lawsuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynoldsearlier this month, claiming in court filings that Lively was “determined to make Baldoni the real villain in her story” to cover up her allegedly “tone deaf” promotion of the film.

Earlier this week, Friedman released a 10-minute video of Lively and Baldoni filming a dance scene for 2024 It ends with us. As a result, Lively sought a gag order through her legal team, claiming the footage was “embarrassing.” Baldoni’s team is now submission to stop Lively’s movement by approval of a judge.

“Ms Lively did this with the sole intention of ruining innocent people’s lives, and then went the extra mile to blame it on a fictitious smear campaign, all because she simply could not accept that the public had organically seen through her facade,” Friedman added in his statement. “When you accuse innocent people of something as disturbing as sexual harassment without thinking about the devastation it would cause not only to them but to the entire domestic violence community, that’s where accountability for such vile acts needs to be held.” .”

He continued: “We will always respect the court; however, we will never be bullied by those who suggest we cannot defend our clients with clean, unedited facts. All we want is for people to see the actual text messages that directly contradict her claims, the video footage that clearly shows that there was no sexual harassment, and any other powerful evidence that directly contradicts any false allegations of sexual harassment and subsequent smear campaign. It seems that in a time of universal deception, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Justin Baldoni's lawyer says the actor never meant to hurt Blake Lively


Related: Justin Baldoni never meant to ‘hurt’ Blake Lively, lawyer says

As Justin Baldoni’s legal battle with Blake Lively continues, his attorney Brian Friedman claims that the actor did not approach the situation with bad intentions towards his co-star. In an interview with NBC News’ Liz Kreutz on the Friday, January 3 episode of Today, Friedman denied Lively’s claims that Baldoni coordinated the defamation against her after (…)

Lively has not publicly commented on Friedman’s latest statement. us reached out for comment.

The Gossip girl alum who played the role of Lily Bloom in the It ends with usthere is before that denied all of Baldoni’s accusations and attacked Friedman for releasing the footage from the set.

“The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning toward Ms. Lively, trying to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth on her neck, thumbing her lip, caressing her, telling her how good she smells , and speaking to her out of character,” her legal team it said in a statement at that time.