Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni get trial date for ‘It Ends With Us’ lawsuit

Blake Lively appears at the screening for the film "It 'Ends With Us'" in London on Aug. 8, 2024. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK — A New York judge set a March 2026 trial date on Monday and moved an initial conference from mid-February to next week as the public feud between Blake Lively and her “It Ends With Us” costar and director Justin Baldoni continued to grow and accelerate.

And in a new and separate front in the series of legal battles surrounding the film that became a surprise hit last summer, Lively in a Texas court filed a request for a deposition of a man she says was central to turning online sentiment against her during its release and promotion.

The New York federal judge, Lewis J. Liman, told both sides in an order late Monday to prepare for a March 9, 2026, trial.

He also moved an initial conference from mid-February to next week and told lawyers to be prepared to address complaints about pretrial publicity and attorney conduct.

Liman took the actions after Lively’s lawyers claimed in a filing on Monday that an attorney for Baldoni was trying to taint potential jurors over lawsuits the actors have filed against each other.

The lawyers said Baldoni’s attorney was trying to wreck Lively’s career and turn potential New York jurors against her by creating a website to release selected documents and communications between Lively and Baldoni.

The lawyers said attorney Bryan Freedman, representing Baldoni, was “engaging in this extrajudicial campaign to influence these proceedings and the public perception of legal filings to this Court, and there already is a serious risk that his misconduct is tainting the jury pool.”

They added: “The endless stream of defamatory and extrajudicial media statements must end.”

Freedman said in a statement in response to Monday’s assertions that the “irony is not lost on anyone that Ms. Lively is so petrified of the truth that she has moved to gag it.”

“We will always respect the court; however, we will never be bullied by those suggesting we cannot defend our clients with pure, unedited facts,” the lawyer said. “All we want is for people to see the actual text messages that directly contradict her allegations, video footage that clearly shows there was no sexual harassment and all the other powerful evidence that directly contradicts any false allegations.”

In a letter to the judge on Thursday, Baldoni attorney Kevin Fritz accused Lively of a publicity campaign that left Baldoni and other defendants the “objects of public scorn and contempt.”

He said the actions had damaged those she sued so that they were “exiled from polite society and suffered damages totaling hundreds of millions of dollars due to Ms. Lively’s scorched-earth media campaign.”

In the separate filing in Hays County, Texas, a precursor to another potential lawsuit, Lively asks for an order for a deposition from Jed Wallace, a crisis management specialist she alleges was behind much of the social media manipulation surrounding the film that turned public sentiment against her through posts on Reddit and TikTok.

Wallace and his Texas-based firm Street Relations were brought on as subcontractors by publicists working with Baldoni and his production company, the filing said.

“He weaponized a digital army around the country, including in New York and Los Angeles, to create, seed, manipulate, and advance disparaging content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums,” the filing alleges.

Wallace is identified in Lively’s federal lawsuit, but he is not a defendant.

Freedman, who the filing says is Wallace’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.

Lively sued Baldoni, his production company and others in New York in late December for sexual harassment and attacks on her reputation and asked for unspecified damages. Baldoni sued earlier this month, accusing Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, of defamation and extortion and seeking at least $400 million in damages.

The judge said Monday that he’ll likely combine the lawsuits for trial.

“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni.

Lively came to fame through the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” and bolstered her stardom on the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012. She has since starred in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”

Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book pushing back against traditional notions of masculinity.

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AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton reported from Los Angeles.

Larry Neumeister And Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press