Justin Baldoni: He should sue Blake Lively

All too soon, the legal disputes surrounding allegations by US actress Blake Lively (37) against her “Just One More Time” co-star Justin Baldoni (40) will probably not come to a peaceful end. The actor and director’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has now announced that Baldoni will sue.

In an interview with NBC News on Thursday (January 2), Freedman said: “We plan to release every single message between the two of them. We want the truth to come out. We want the documents to be public. We want people to base their opinions on evidence.” The lawyer did not disclose exactly when Baldoni’s countersuit would be filed.

In addition to Baldoni, the plaintiffs are said to include his production company Wayfarer Studios, his press secretary Jennifer Abel and PR manager Melissa Nathan. They plan to name Lively, her press secretary Leslie Sloane and Baldoni’s former press secretary Stephanie Jones in the lawsuit.

With the lawsuit, Justin Baldoni responds to Blake Lively’s allegations in a December 20, 2024 lawsuit in which she claimed that Baldoni’s behavior during the filming and press tour of “Just One More Time” caused her “severe emotional distress.” Among other things, she accused her co-star of showing her explicit images and videos during the film’s production, questioning her about her personal sex life and trying to insert intimate scenes into the film that were not originally in the script. Lively also claimed that Baldoni, along with his publicist Jennifer Abel and PR agent Melissa Nathan from the crisis firm TAG PR, tried to manipulate social media and “destroy” her reputation. the entire document including text messages between Baldoni, Abel and Nathan as well as research entitled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine” on December 21st.

Ten days later, on December 31, Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times for libel. In the lawsuit, he alleges that in its article about Lively’s lawsuit and the film’s behind-the-scenes issues, the newspaper used “select” and altered news stories that were taken out of necessary context and intentionally spliced ​​together to mislead. The lawsuit named Baldoni, his production company, three of the film’s producers, and Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan as plaintiffs. The newspaper plans to vigorously defend itself against the lawsuit, it said in a statement. The article reported “meticulously and responsibly”.

Blake Lively’s legal team responded to Baldoni’s lawsuit against the New York Times a few days later: “Nothing in this lawsuit changes the allegations made in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department complaint.” “While we will not discuss these matters in the press, we encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s complaint in its entirety. We look forward to resolving each of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.” Lively has now formally filed a lawsuit again in federal court in New York against Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and other parties.