Lawyers for actors Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively spent their first day in court sparring over the sexual harassment and other allegations that have erupted surrounding their film, It Ends With Us.
In December, Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and starting a smear campaign against her. Baldoni has denied her claims and, in response, sued her on a various grounds, including defamation.
The movie co-stars were not required to attend the pretrial meeting at federal court in Manhattan on Monday.
But the hour-and-a-half hearing still turned heated as lawyers for each side claimed the other was badmouthing their client outside of court.
The case “is supposed to be resolved here in court”, Lively’s attorney, Michael Gottlieb told Jude Lewis Liman. “It’s not supposed to be resolved in the press.”
Mr Gottlieb accused Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, of making “inflammatory extrajudicial comments” about Lively’s “character and motives” during appearances on news channels.
In response, Mr Freedman said Mr Gottlieb was trying to impose a “gag order” preventing him from talking to the media. Baldoni, he said, was the one who had suffered harm to his reputation.
“My client is devastated financially and emotionally,” Mr Freedman told the court.
Based on a bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover, It Ends With Us became a box office hit after it was released in August. But despite its financial success, rumours of a bitter feud between Baldoni and Lively began swirling before the film was even released.
Both sides in the legal fights have “given the public plenty to feast upon”, Judge Liman said on court in Monday.
He said that if the case ended up being “litigated in the press”, he could be forced to move up a March 2026 trial date so that jurors do not become prejudiced against either of the defendants.
The judge also said he would adopt a New York Bar Association measure – Rule 3.6 – that bars lawyers from making statements publicly that could sway the outcome of a trial.
Monday’s hearing came after Baldoni filed an amended complaint against Lively, which included a 168-page “timeline” of events in the case. His team also launched a website with the new complaint as well as other publicly available videos and text messages surrounding the case.
Lively’s lawyer brought up the website in court on Monday. “Who created the website?” Mr Gottlieb asked. “Who funded it?”
Mr Gottlieb also took issue with out-takes Baldoni has released from a romantic scene in It Ends With Us, which he says proves that Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment are unfounded.
But Lively has responded by saying the footage of the pair filming a slow dance scene is “damning” and corroborates her claims.
Lively’s team on Monday pledged to file an amended complaint of its own, which would involve even more people in the case.
Several other parties already are embroiled in the legal drama. Baldoni is suing the New York Times for libel, claiming his co-star gave the outlet advance access to her civil rights complaint. The Times was the first a story to publish about her suit last December. The New York Times has denied these allegations.
Several public relations firms who worked with Baldoni and Lively during their film are also defendants in the case.
Some of those matters will be dealt with in a separate trial after Lively and Baldoni’s, Judge Liman said on Monday.
He also said Baldoni and Lively’s legal teams would need to agree to a protective order, a legal document that shields people involved in the case from another person accused of abusing or harassing them.
Such an order is necessary, Judge Liman said, because of the “significant number of high-profile individuals” in the case and the “nature of the allegations”.
During the hearing, Baldoni’s attorney also pressed the judge to stick to the pre-trial schedule that both sides suggested, saying his client wanted the case to progress “as quickly as possible”.
Judge Liman agreed to Baldoni’s lawyer’s request, with a few small schedule changes.
“There will come a time that the jury will speak on this issue,” Judge Liman told the court.