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Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni continue to make headlines, and not because of their acting abilities. The It Ends With Us co-stars came face-to-face last week in New York City as Lively sat for a July 31 deposition, part of her ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit. But what happened inside that room is now turning into a battle of its own.
© GC ImagesAccording to a new court filing submitted Monday, Lively’s lawyers are accusing Baldoni’s team of leaking selective details from the deposition to tabloids like TMZ and the Daily Mail almost immediately, down to what time it started (10:13 a.m. ET), what Lively wore, and who was in the room.
The implication is that Baldoni’s side is playing to the press, not the court. One of the key disputes centers on how the meeting was framed publicly. Reports highlighted that Lively was joined by husband Ryan Reynolds, her sister Robyn Lively, and eight lawyers, which they say created a narrative that she needed a large support team to testify, while Baldoni allegedly showed up with just attorney Bryan Freedman.
But Lively’s lawyers say that’s completely misleading. According to a three-page letter obtained by Deadline, Lively sat across from Baldoni himself, along with Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan, Jennifer Abel, and eight attorneys representing the Wayfarer and Wallace parties, two of whom directly questioned her.
“Consistent with their goal of creating a media circus around Ms. Lively’s deposition, it also appears that the Wayfarer Defendants immediately leaked details… to the tabloid media,” wrote Esra Hudson, partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, in a letter to Judge Lewis Liman, per Deadline.
Hudson accused Baldoni’s team of treating the deposition like a PR stunt, noting they rushed to file the entire 292-page transcript publicly the day they received it. They say it hadn’t yet been reviewed, corrected, or finalized.
“This tactic perfectly demonstrates the counsel-as-PR-agent role… there is no conceivable legal purpose to file the whole transcript, particularly… when only two pages were cited in their argument,” Hudson added. “The letter and attachment should be seen for what they are: a manufactured excuse to force the transcript into the public domain as fodder for the Wayfarer Defendants’ media campaign.” Meanwhile, Baldoni’s side attempted to undercut the accusations.
© GettyIn their own filing, attorney Kevin Fritz claimed Lively “admitted” during questioning that the only smear campaign she had "personal knowledge of involved [redacted]." Lively’s lawyers called that another example of cherry-picked spin, insisting the release of the transcript was just an excuse to get it into the press.
But they didn’t stop there. Later that same day, Lively’s team filed a motion for sanctions against Freedman, accusing the high-profile attorney of repeatedly making “biased and inflammatory pre-trial indictments” of Lively’s “character, credibility, and reputation,” including in the media.
“Justin Baldoni’s lawyer has tried to make this matter a public spectacle at every turn, even proposing to sell tickets to a televised deposition at Madison Square Garden,” a Lively spokesperson told People last month. “This is a serious matter of sexual harassment and retaliation, and it deserves to be treated as such.” Lively’s team made similar accusations earlier this year, when reports surfaced that she had tried to pressure Taylor Swift into making a statement of support amid the case. At the time, her attorney Michael Gottlieb hit back hard.
“This is what we have come to expect from the Wayfarer parties’ lawyers, who appear to love nothing more than shooting first, without any evidence, and with no care for the people they are harming in the process. We will imminently file motions with the court to hold these attorneys accountable for their misconduct here,” he said.
Baldoni has denied the allegations. His $400 million countersuit against Lively and Reynolds was tossed out in June. A judge also dropped several others from the case, including The New York Times. As of now, the trial is set for March 9, 2026, but with multiple side battles still playing out, including Baldoni suing his insurance companies over denied legal coverage, this case isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
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