Blake Lively’s lawyers react to Justin Baldoni opposing her motion to dismiss his defamation countersuit

What started as behind-the-scenes drama on the set of It Ends With Us has now exploded into a full-blown courtroom showdown. Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, once co-stars, are now locked in a high-stakes legal tug-of-war—and things are seriously heating up.

Let’s rewind for a sec: In December, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment during the production of the upcoming film. In response, Baldoni hit back with a massive $400 million defamation countersuit, claiming her allegations were false and deeply damaging to both his name and his company, Wayfarer Studios.

Fast forward to now, and Lively’s team has filed a motion asking the court to throw out Baldoni’s lawsuit altogether. According to her lawyers, Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, this isn’t just a legal maneuver—it’s about protecting survivors’ rights. In a fiery statement to TMZ, they said, “Justin Baldoni built his whole public image around being an ally for victims—yet here he is, trying to silence a woman who spoke out about her experience.”

They argued that Baldoni, along with his attorney Bryan Freedman, is trying to destroy Lively’s reputation in retaliation. “They are hell-bent on smearing her,” the statement read.

On the flip side, Baldoni’s legal team is pushing back hard. Freedman insists that the actor-director has every right to defend himself against what he calls “false and harmful” accusations. In a statement to People, he said, “Ms. Lively wants to block our right to have our day in court. But that right—to petition the court and clear one’s name—is protected by the First Amendment.”

So now we’ve got both camps invoking the First Amendment—Lively’s team saying survivors have the right to speak out, Baldoni’s team saying the accused have the right to fight back in court.

The legal war is far from over, and if the back-and-forth statements are any indication, we’re in for a very public, very messy legal saga.

Stay tuned, because this drama may be even more explosive than anything that happened on Gossip Girl or Jane the Virgin.