Faceoff: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni – Three Things You Need To Know

In today’s episode, Sandy shares the latest updates on the ongoing legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, highlighting three recent actions taken by each side.

The PAGE International Screenwriting Awards sponsors the WRITERS HANGOUT.
Executive Producer Kristin Overn
Creator/Executive Producer Sandy Adomaitis
Producer Terry Sampson
Music by Ethan Stoller

Transcript

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Hello, my name is Sandy Adamidis, the social media director for the Page International Screenwriting Awards and your host for the Writers Hangout, a podcast that celebrates the many From inspiration to the first draft, revising, getting the project made, and everything in between. We'll talk to the best and the brightest in the entertainment industry, and create a space where you can hang out, learn from the pros, and have fun. Hey, writers, it's Sandy. I'm coming to you from Studio City, California, the jewel of the San Fernando Valley. And we're in the first quarter moon. There was a breeze, at least in my part of Studio City this evening, so I poured a glass of wine. I'm laughing at myself, wine, so I poured a glass of wine and sat outside with Sophie, Joe. And it was a perfect evening Writers. I handle social media for the page awards. In addition to the writers hangout, I exchange dms and comments with you all, You guys are so smart, funny, you make me laugh and you're kind. A writer commented on one of my Instagram posts today, And I felt like they were on the verge of giving up on writing, so I responded, offering My perspective on the discussion and acknowledging the challenges of the writer's journey, the writer wrote back saying, my response sounded like chat, GPT. then went on a disgruntled rant. I don't usually respond to rude comments. in fact, I don't get rude comments. But this time I decided to write back and say, next time an industry professional, engage us with you online. be respectful and not a jerk. Yeah. Writers, sometimes you're in front of your moment and for some reason you you fumble the ball because you're being defensive and you're angry. When your moment's there, you can take it or you can read. Reject it. No one owes you anything in this life. And I'm not saying that our interaction was this big interaction and it was gonna change this writer's path or course, or it's gonna change anything but. I would've gone above and beyond to help this writer. And it's not every day Somebody with over 20 years of experience in this industry gives you time. And when you get it, take it. And again, you guys are the best I just love. When you reach out to me you know we're here because of you. I am so grateful for all of you. Anyway. Have any of you out there come in hot only to realize later you might have lost a professional connection? Raising my hand? Let me know. At the Writers Hangout podcast@gmail.com, it's just spelled out the Writers Hangout podcast@gmail.com. It'll be fun to read some of them on the podcast and let me know if you wanna be anonymous. Okay, let's start the show. You've been asking me for an update on Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, and recently some new and interesting events have come up. I'm gonna go over three of them here. I have covered this lawsuit in over five episodes, and if you wanna go into a deeper dive into the beginning of this case, please go back and listen. But I'll do a quick recap of the case, It All started way back in December, 2024 when Blake Lively came forward with accusations of sexual harassment against. Justin Baldoni, when they co-star in the romantic drama it ends with us. I watched it on Netflix. I th. Think it could still be there. It ends with us, was directed by Justin Baldoni with a screenplay by Christie Hall, based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover. It tells the story of Lily Bloom. Played by Blake who moves to Boston to start a new chapter in her life. There she meets Riley, played by Justin, a neurosurgeon completing his residency. The two are drawn to each other and begin a relationship. Lily's first love appears and brings up her traumatic. Passed back to the recap, Blake Lively shared those misconduct claims by Justin with the New York Times. Blake's publicist claimed Justin orchestrated a public smear campaign to damage her credibility. In the wake of the harassment claims Baldi. Tried to hit back with a 400 million defamation and extortion Countersuit claiming Blake and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, tried to destroy him and hijack the premiere of it. Ends with us. Unfortunately for Bald Judge Lyman, the judge in the case dismissed the lawsuit in June. This just past June now since we last talked about. That's the end of the recap. And since we last talked about the case, three things have happened. July 31st, just a few days ago, Blake Lively sat for her deposition, Let's step back for a moment. A deposition is a pretrial oral testimony of a witness taken under oath outside court, recorded by a court reporter. This happens during the discovery process, allowing both sides to gather information, identify case strengths and weaknesses, Spot inconsistencies. And potentially lead to a settlement. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Blake gave her testimony in her lawyer's office. Not unheard of. That was me commenting. Not unheard of. And there was a surprised guest. Can you take a guest who it was need a hint? He likes to leave long voicemail messages in a husky voice. Still don't know. Come on down Justin bald and take a seat. Although you are not legally required to attend this meeting, staring down the female who is accusing you of sexual harassment is not a move. Most would make brave choice. I don't think so. Reality t reported. Baldoni said, if she's gonna accuse me, she's gonna have to say it to my face again. My opinion, not a good look. Given the case. Read the room. Reality T goes on to say Lively's deposition lasted for several hours, aside from the two actors. It was attended by legal teams of both parties, a videographer. Ooh. That means we're gonna see the video at some point. A source noted that the 37-year-old actor, wait, did they put the ages of anybody else in this article? Gotta do better. Okay. Where were we? A source noted that the 37. Oh, my year old actor didn't even flinch with belt's. Sudden attendance. Okay. I'm not familiar with reality tee's standards. things like how many sources they require before printing something. So I think that report I might look at with a grain of salt. Number two, the second thing that has happened. Wayfair Justin Boone's production company that produced it ends with us and backed by A billionaire is going after some of the biggest insurance companies in the world for denying them coverage to fight. Blake Lively. Writers, when you are. Shooting a tv. When you're shooting, filming anything, you have to have an insurance company to back the production. Now, when I worked at Davis Entertainment, I remember dealing with the insurance companies and getting certificates and I was a baby. I had no idea what I was doing, but it all worked out. There was no issues. the insurance people I spoke to, they were all really quite cool. I remember one of them took me to lunch, but I can't remember his name. Okay. Where were we? So they are going after some of the biggest insurance companies in the world for denying them coverage to fight Blake Lively. And basically the insurance companies are coming back with you, the production company did not inform us the insurance companies that Blake Lively and others complained of sexual harassment during pre-production and production of the film. So I guess they say you screwed up. We can't help you. Now this gets complicated with New York Mariners. Oh. I can't remember. I think it was Mariners. Anyways, Harko, national Insurance Company, Lloyd's all being involved. I'm gonna keep my eye on this and I will update you as the story unfolds. Okay, up next, number three. On the last content creators are finding their way into the legal clash between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni as Blake Lively subpoenas. Drew mentions of Candace Owens Megan Kelly and Perez Hilton. Wow. Isn't that an interesting grouping? Now, what is a content creator? content creators. They live on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and online. They share various videos or images to. Educate entertain, they're promoting what they want to talk about, what they want to present to the world. Be it pop culture politics, family knitting. Shout out to cousin Molly. They craft content that connects to their audience. The popular content creators have millions of dedicated followers. Their reach into your algorithm is powerful. Now I'm going to read to you from an article I found in Courthouse News online, and I just thought that this article laid it out, really clean very clean, Chris, very brilliantly and very quickly. and I'm not gonna read the whole article. It starts Lawyers in a lively baldoni feud. Spar over subpoenas of Candace Owens, me Kelly By Eric Lacer, and it's came out on July 30th of this year. Content creators are finding their way into the bitter legal clash between Hollywood A-Listers, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Justin Baldoni as a Wednesday hearing on Lively's subpoena Drew mentions of Candace Owens, Meg Kelly and Perez Hilton. Okay, I have to interrupt. Right here. Candace Owens, Meg Kelly, obviously I know who they are. We're gonna put them off to the side. Perez Hilton, he took that name. It's a takeoff on Paris Hilton because this is the early 2000 when Perez is coming up. He's online and he has a blog, vlog, whatever it was called. It was just a site. That he updated constantly all day, and he sat in a coffee shop. I don't know, a legend has it in on Sunset Boulevard. I really don't care. But this man would draw the most disgusting amateurish drawings on young Hollywood women's faces all day long, every day. Hour after hour. And it doesn't surprise me that a Perez Hilton would, no, he's cleaned up his act. He has children now, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's always trying to clean up his act, but it does not surprise me that Perez is allegedly involved in any of this. Okay, back to the article. Lively wants to subpoena Liner Friedman Cooley, the law firm of B'S attorney Brian Friedman. She suspects now Brian Friedman was also in the Diddy trial, if I remember correctly. Oh man, break your heart. That trial. She suspects that Freedman is part of b's supposed ongoing smear campaign against her, and that Freedman is using his deep Rolodex of influencer clients to circulate the campaign online. I am sure Brian Friedman spelled B-R-Y-A-N, has a very deep Rolodex. Kids back in the day. We didn't look up people on the computer. We wrote their name on a card and put it in a Rolodex. And when you were looking for a name, you would flip the Rolodex. And, one of my favorite lines from Cynthia Ti was way back in the day, best improv teacher who taught the best of the best in la. You name them, from Conan and Brian to Peewee Herman, to Lisa Kudrow, to Phil Hartman. Legends. But she would yell from you'd band stage and she would say to you, if the subject matter is pizza, you have to flip through the Rolodex of your mind of everything you know about pizza. And that works with writing too. If you're writing a scene and you're writing dialogue. And you don't know what to do next, and you're in a pizza place. Just flip the Rolodex in your mind of every single thing you know about pizza, and trust me, your next scene is going to come to you. Where were we? Attorney Ellen Garaffo argued Lively subpoenas, which seek information about agreements between content creators and freemen are overly burdensome to the firm risk, breaching privilege, and should be squashed. Grapho also complained. I hope Janine Graffo does get to play this part in the movie. Grapho also claimed that no such agreement exists. Prompting the judge to question why he need to rule on the issue in the first place. This is what the judge is saying back to Garaffo. Why are you asking me to write an opinion saying you don't have to answer the question that you've answered here today. In front of this assembled crowd asked us, district Judge Lewis Lyman a Donald Trump appointee. I agree with the judge. In addition to Friedman Lively's team, also subpoenaed right-wing influencers, Candace Owens, and Megan Kelly, as well as Gossip Blogger Perez Hilton, all of which purportedly have working relationships with Friedman and produce content. Criticizing Lively over the feud with Bald Lively's attorney Michael Gottlieb pointed to past comments from Friedman quoting him as saying Lively has. reputation for being a bitch and is a narcissist who cannot accept how she has behaved. That's either here nor there. You don't get to sexually harassed bitches or narcissists. There are the things Mr. Friedman says. When he goes on his client shows, Gottlieb said, arguing in support of the subpoenas Gottlieb added that it is a misrepresentation to suggest that No agreements were made between Freedman. And his content, creator clients, he argued that by his account Hilton posted Perez. Hilton posted more than 500 times about the SPAC between Lively and Baldi on his gossip website with the post skewing in B's favor. we'd like to know about Perez. Hilton Gottlieb said we'd like to know if there's actually an agreement in place between the two of'em. Owens Gottlieb claimed has shared an exclusive scoop about Lively and Baldon that used information from Friedman's affidavit. Interesting. Gottlieb also argued that he was recently made aware of a text chain in which Friedman introduced belt's team to another content creator client of his, who then went on to disseminate content attacking Lively. I am unable to say the name of this person in open court. Gottlieb said, Lyman didn't immediately rule on whether he'd quashed the subpoenas, though he did say that he found one which seeks freedman's communication with various meaning sources. Tremendously broad and actually quite chilling. still, the judge's ruling is still unlikely to end this saga with both sides apparently disagreeing on whether agreements were made between content creators and Friedman's law firm. Gottlieb acknowledged he may move to compel discovery in the not so distant future. Lehman previously quashed subpoenas from Lively seeking B's phone records, finding them overly intrusive. Just in case you're new to these reports about Blake Lively and Justin Bald, I don't think I hide it or I'm not trying to hide it. I am on Blake Lively's side. Some of you have written to me we've gone back and forth in our takes I've really enjoyed that communication. So if you have thoughts on this, again, write me at the Writers Hangout podcast@gmail.com I am crazy about you guys. I'm so glad we get to spend this time together see you next time. And that's a wrap for the Writer's Hangout. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your positive feedback will help us keep the show going so we can continue bringing you more future episodes. Remember, keep writing. The world needs your stories. The Writers Hangout is sponsored by the Page International Screenwriting Awards, with executive producer Kristen Overn, producer Sandy Adamides, and myself, Terry Sampson. And our music is composed by Ethan Stoller.