Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Seek Gag Order Against Justin Baldoni’s Lawyer Bryan Freedman
The back-and-forth continues.
Within hours of Justin Baldoni’s team leaking footage from the set of It Ends With Us, attorneys for Blake Lively in a letter moved for the court overseeing her civil rights lawsuit to impose a gag order against Baldoni lawyer Bryan Freedman. They accused him of effectively continuing the alleged smear campaign against Lively by repeatedly talking to the press, leaking information to gain public favor for his clients and issuing false statements.
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In a move atyptical of his litigation strategy, Freedman didn’t himself provide a comment, but sources close to Baldoni say it’s “grossly unfair to impose a gag order after Justin has been defamed by The New York Times in an article that they say has cost him three jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“All Justin wants to do,” the source says, is “release videos and text messages to prove the allegations are false.” The source adds, it’s “unbelievable that Blake Lively would go on a takedown campaign against Justin and then immediately turn around and say she wants a gag order so that Justin can’t defend himself.”
Earlier this month, Lively filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment during the making of It Ends With Us, and him and his associates of orchestrating a smear campaign following the movie’s release. Baldoni, who both directed and stars in the movie opposite Lively, filed his own complaint last week against Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds seeking at least $400 million in damages. He’s represented by no-holds-barred lawyer Freedman, who isn’t shy when it comes to talking to the press (at one point, he warned he would sue anyone connected with certain “abhorrent” behavior into “oblivion“).
The letter referenced a cease-and-desist Lively sent to Freedman last month. It claimed that Freedman had defamed and engaged in unlawful retaliation against the actress, pointing to his statements to the press in the wake of Lively filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department while leaking a copy of the document.
“Lawyers are not publicity agents,” the letter stated. “We are required to follow a different set of professional standards than publicists and crisis managers. One of those standards is the prohibition against knowingly making factual misrepresentations, even when doing so would help defend or promote our clients’ interests.”
Among the allegedly false statements referenced in the cease-and-desist is Freedman asserting that “there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise,” that the “representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity.”
The request for a gag order was filed on Tuesday, the same day that Baldoni’s team provided footage to the media, beginning with Daily Mail, which he says disproves one of Lively’s claims. He has gone on the record numerous times and told the public that he and his team have nothing to hide and that the footage substantiates his position. Baldoni’s team is also preparing to compile a website containing all correspondence, as well as relevant videos that they say will disprove Lively’s claims.
Michael Gottlieb, a lawyer for Lively, said that the leaking of that footage, among other moves amid his media blitz, violates various rules relating to professional conduct for lawyers. One example: Attorneys are barred from making extrajudicial statements that could impact court proceedings.
“His conduct threatens to, and will, materially prejudice both the Lively Case and the Wayfarer Case by tainting the jury pool,” the letter stated, referencing his “litigation-via-press-statements strategy.” One issue relates to sharing evidence with the press that could be inadmissible in court.
Lively’s legal team urged the court to schedule a hearing to consider a gag order against Freedman. She’s represented by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Willkie Farr & Gallagher, as is Reynolds.
This isn’t the first time Freedman’s statements to the press landed him in potential trouble. Last year, MediaLink fonder Michael Kassan sued him for defamation for allegedly trying to tarnish his reputation at the direction of UTA in a bid to prevent employees and clients from following him to his next venture. The allegedly defamatory statements concerned Freedman calling Kassan a “pathological liar.” The lawsuit was later dismissed.
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