Judge tells attorneys for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni not to fight case through media

Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively in "It Ends With Us." (Nicole Rivelli/Sony Pictures via CNN Newsource)

Attorneys for Blake Lively and her former “It Ends with Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni, whom she has accused of sexually harassing her during the film’s fraught production, met in federal court for the first time on Monday, amid their complex legal saga that has been subject to weeks of dissection by social media spectators.

Neither Lively nor Baldoni were in the New York court for the pre-trial conference, where Judge Lewis Liman advised their attorneys to avoid making statements in public that could prejudice the proceedings. If the parties try to litigate this case in the press, the judge said he has the ability to move up the trial, currently scheduled for March 2026.

Attorneys for both Lively and Baldoni emphasized in court the negative impact the case has had on their clients.

“My clients are devastated financially and emotionally,” Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman said, adding that his clients have suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. He said they want the case to move forward quickly for the sake of their “future livelihood.”

Lively’s attorney Michael Gottlieb said the “retaliation campaign” by Baldoni’s team has been “devastating” for her.

“You’re not supposed to launch attacks on the other party’s character,” he said.

Gottlieb said he plans to file an amended complaint by February 14 that includes new claims and additional defendants.

In a statement after the hearing, Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, another one of Lively’s attorneys, said they were please with the results and “eager to move forward immediately with discovery in this case.”

“The Court granted our request that all attorneys in the matter actually follow the rule of law and not make any statements that could prejudice a jury,” they said. “This case deals with serious allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation. We will hold the defendants accountable, and we are confident that once all the evidence is submitted in this matter, Ms. Lively will prevail.”

CNN has reached out to Baldoni’s attorneys for comment.

How we got here

Baldoni – a writer, director and producer who also built a brand around encouraging men to be better allies to women – and Lively have been in a legal battle that began in December, when Lively accused him of sexual harassment and retaliation in a complaint first filed with the California Civil Rights Department, preceding a civil lawsuit that followed about a week later.

Baldoni, meanwhile, has denied Lively’s allegations. Last month, he filed a lawsuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy.

At the time, Lively’s lawyer’s told CNN in a statement that Baldoni’s suit “is another chapter in the abuser playbook. This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim.”

The movie, from Sony Pictures, was released in August 2024 and grossed more than US$148 million domestically. Based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel of the same name, “It Ends With Us” spotlights domestic violence in a couple, which was portrayed on-screen by Lively and Baldoni.

Both Baldoni and Lively provided in their suits text messages they say make their cases. Baldoni’s team also released video footage from the actors’ time working together and, on Saturday, published a website with his amended complaint and a timeline of the film’s production. Baldoni was also heard in an audio recording published by TMZ apologizing to Lively, reportedly sent while they were working on the project.

CNN has not independently verified the text messages included in either Baldoni or Lively’s lawsuits, nor the audio recording.

Baldoni’s lawsuit claims that Lively, who is best known for her work on the CW’s “Gossip Girl” and in “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” films, sought to take over much of the film’s creative direction, including having Reynolds re-write a scene to make “unauthorized changes to the script in secret.” (Reynolds had no formal role on “It Ends With Us.”)

The suit claims that Lively “summoned” Baldoni to the penthouse she shares with Reynolds in New York City for a meeting about the script, where Reynolds, along with a “megacelebrity friend” of the couple, praised Lively’s proposed revisions to the script.

One of the text messages included in Baldoni’s suit appears to show an exchange between Baldoni and Lively about her proposed script changes: “I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor),” he wrote with a wink emoji.

While Baldoni’s text message does not include a last name for “Taylor,” Lively is close friends with the artist Taylor Swift. CNN previously reached out to representatives for Baldoni, Lively, Reynolds and Taylor Swift to inquire whether the “Taylor” mentioned in Baldoni’s text is, in fact, Swift.

In one of Lively’s text messages in Baldoni’s suit, the actress makes reference to her friends, stating, “If you ever get around to watching ‘Game of Thrones,’ you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons.”

Both Lively and Baldoni claim in their lawsuits to have been the subject of retaliatory publicity campaigns by the other.

In Lively’s suit, she accuses Baldoni’s PR representatives of orchestrated attempts to hurt her reputation in the media as part of a “social manipulation campaign.”

In his suit, Baldoni refuted that claim, accusing Lively and Reynolds of “deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio.” Further, the suit accuses Lively and her publicity team of creating a “smear campaign against Baldoni and Wayfarer to deflect attention” away from criticism Lively received during the press tour for “It Ends With Us.”

Baldoni has also sued the New York Times for $250 million, accusing the newspaper of working alongside Lively’s team to publish a one-sided article that benefited Lively and contained doctored evidence.

The New York Times has denied Baldoni’s allegations and said it stands by its reporting.

A public feud

The legal filings in this case are only part of the story. Representatives for Lively and Baldoni have continued to spar over the information being provided to the public outside of court.

Lively’s lawyers have accused Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, of making “misleading and selective” statements about Lively and her ongoing legal dispute with Baldoni, and previously asked the judge in their case for a hearing “to address the appropriate conduct of counsel moving forward.”

At Monday’s hearing, Gottlieb referenced the website Baldoni’s lawyer launched days ago, which contains documents pertaining to the legal battle.

Gottlieb said he did not have an issue with the website posting court filings, but expressed concern that potential evidence would be released to the public in a one-sided manner and create an “arms race to the media” over issues that should be resolved in court.

“It’s very hard to unring the bell if you don’t have any limitations,” he said.

Freedman said Lively’s team had “very pointedly used the press,” and pointed out that damage can occur before a jury even hears the case.

“That’s the reason why you both have sued,” Liman responded. “I get it. I get it.”

By Sandra Gonzalez and Nicki Brown, CNN