Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s high-profile legal battle continues—and now, the actress is accusing her It Ends with Us co-star of trying to make her deposition public.
Lively gave her deposition at her attorney’s office in New York City on July 31. To the surprise of the many, Baldoni attended the event despite not being required to do so.
So, how will Baldoni’s latest move affect the case?
What Did Justin Baldoni Do to Blake Lively’s Deposition?
In a motion filed by Lively’s lawyer and obtained by Us Weekly, the 37-year-old star’s legal team claimed that Baldoni attempted to upload the full “292-page” deposition transcript to the public docket immediately upon receiving it.
“There is no conceivable legal purpose to file the whole transcript, particularly given that it has not been reviewed, corrected or finalized, and a mere two pages of it were cited in their argument,” the proposition read.
Lively’s attorney described the move as “a manufactured excuse to force the transcript into the public domain as fodder for the Wayfarer Defendants’ media campaign.”
Ryan Reynolds’ wife has already requested that the judge remove the rough draft of her deposition from the court record, as her motion to seal it remains pending.
Her legal team clarified that Baldoni and his team’s assertion that their client is “afraid of her deposition testimony becoming public” is “entirely untrue and deeply harmful.”
In fact, they emphasized that Lively “affirmatively pursued” litigation in order to “have her testimony heard in a legal process, governed by the rules of evidence.”
Unfortunately, they argued, her efforts were “substantially undermined” by the public filing of the rough draft transcript.
“To suggest otherwise is part of an ongoing character attack that Mr. Freedman has been advancing to undermine Ms. Lively’s credibility and taint the jury pool,” they argued.
The court document obtained by Page Six also revealed that Baldoni’s lawyers tried to “advance a storyline that the deposition was a face-to-face showdown between Mr. Baldoni and Ms. Lively” to “create a media circus.”
What Happened at Blake Lively’s Deposition?
While TMZ previously reported that only Lively, Baldoni, their lawyers, a court reporter, and a videographer were present during the deposition, Daily Mail claimed the Gossip Girl alum was also accompanied by her older sister, Robyn Lively, Reynolds, and eight lawyers.
According to Lively’s attorneys, she “testified across the table from Mr. Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel—all of whom attended the deposition in person—along with eight attorneys representing the Wayfarer and Wallace parties, two of whom questioned her.”
Previously, her legal team alleged that Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, attempted to turn Lively’s deposition into “a spectacle,” even suggesting selling tickets to a televised version held at Madison Square Garden.
“This is a serious matter of sexual harassment and retaliation, and it deserves to be treated as such,” Lively’s representatives said.
For starters, Lively is suing Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment on the set of It Ends with Us.
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