{"id":70235,"date":"2025-04-17T05:25:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T09:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/?p=70235"},"modified":"2025-05-01T05:28:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T09:28:31","slug":"how-blake-lively-triggered-justin-baldonis-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/how-blake-lively-triggered-justin-baldonis-lawsuit\/70235\/","title":{"rendered":"How Blake Lively Triggered Justin Baldoni\u2019s Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a move straight out of a legal thriller, Blake Lively<\/strong> quietly filed a lawsuit months before the world knew she was accusing It Ends With Us<\/em> co-star Justin Baldoni<\/strong> of sexual harassment \u2014 and the details are shaking Hollywood to its core.<\/p>\n

According to a bombshell Daily Mail<\/em> report, Lively\u2019s company, Vanzan<\/strong>, secretly launched legal action in September 2024<\/strong>, not under her name, but as a stealth operation to subpoena text messages from Baldoni\u2019s former PR team. The target? A treasure trove of digital receipts that could prove what Lively\u2019s camp now alleges was a coordinated smear campaign<\/strong> to ruin her reputation while promoting their film.<\/p>\n

The subpoena was sent to Stephanie Jones<\/strong>, Baldoni\u2019s ex-publicist, demanding access to communications involving Baldoni, Lively, and Lively\u2019s husband, Ryan Reynolds<\/strong>. What they got back, sources say, was a stash of texts between PR staffer Jennifer Abel<\/strong> and crisis manager Melissa Nathan<\/strong>. One chilling message allegedly read: \u201cWe can bury anyone.\u201d<\/em> Lively\u2019s lawyers are using this as Exhibit A in their claim that her co-star\u2019s camp plotted to discredit her behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s where it gets even murkier. That hidden lawsuit \u2014 filed under the radar and without Lively\u2019s name \u2014 was quietly withdrawn on December 19<\/strong>, just two days before she filed her formal harassment complaint with the California Civil Rights Department<\/strong>. Legal chess, or legal trickery? Depends on who you ask.<\/p>\n

Baldoni\u2019s powerhouse attorney, Bryan Freedman<\/strong>, wasted no time calling foul. In a statement to Page Six<\/em>, he slammed the subpoena tactic as a \u201csham lawsuit\u201d with \u201cno legal basis,\u201d accusing Lively and Reynolds of manipulating the legal system to fish for evidence without facing public scrutiny. \u201cThis was a clear abuse of process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lively\u2019s legal team, Esra Hudson<\/strong> and Mike Gottlieb<\/strong>, fired back hard. They defended the lawsuit as a standard legal tool<\/strong> \u2014 a legitimate Doe case meant to quietly investigate serious misconduct before making public accusations. According to them, it worked. The texts, they say, uncovered a disturbing \u201cplan to destroy Blake Lively,\u201d just as the film\u2019s promotional tour hit its peak last August.<\/p>\n

Then came the bombshell: Lively went public with her claims on December 21<\/strong>, and filed her formal lawsuit on December 31, 2024<\/strong>. Baldoni\u2019s response? A jaw-dropping $400 million countersuit<\/strong>, accusing Lively of defamation and malicious interference. That case is now a legal battleground, with Lively and Reynolds fighting to have it dismissed.<\/p>\n

As of now, the courts will decide whose narrative holds up. But one thing\u2019s for certain: what started as a quietly filed subpoena has turned into a full-blown war of reputations, with Hollywood\u2019s legal elite \u2014 and the public \u2014 watching every twist and turn.<\/p>\n

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In a move straight out of a legal thriller, Blake Lively quietly filed a lawsuit months before the world knew\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":70236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[458],"class_list":["post-70235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-news","tag-blake-lively"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}