Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni Will Head to Trial in 2026
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni will face each other in court next year, when the former’s lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star heads to trial.
According to The Associated Press, a federal judge in New York scheduled the trial to start March 9, 2026. There will, of course, be plenty of pretrial hearings and developments before that, starting with an initial conference that Judge Lewis Liman moved from mid-February to next week.
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That conference is set to focus on attorney conduct and pretrial publicity. Last week, lawyers for Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds submitted a letter that accused Bryan Freedman — lawyer for Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios — of making “inflammatory” comments to the media and trying to taint the jury pool with a website hosting what they called “strategically selected documents and communications” between Lively and Baldoni.
Freedman, in response, told the AP, “We will always respect the court; however, we will never be bullied by those suggesting we cannot defend our clients with pure, unedited facts. 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.”
Additionally, Lively’s lawyers recently submitted a court filing in Texas seeking to depose Jed Wallace, a crisis management specialist they claim orchestrated the social media backlash against Lively during the It Ends With Us press tour. Wallace was mentioned in Lively’s federal suit against Baldoni, though not listed as a defendant.
The recent filing claims Wallace “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.”
Lively has accused Baldoni of sexually harassing her on the set of It Ends With Us and orchestrating a smear campaign against her. She first leveled these claims in a precursor complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department, before filing her lawsuit.
Baldoni has denied these claims and has, in turn, filed his own suit against Lively, accusing her of defamation, extortion, and invasion of privacy. Baldoni and several others have also sued The New York Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy over its story about Lively’s sexual harassment and smear campaign claims.
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