Blake Lively Says She and Others Have Received ‘Sexist and Threatening’ Messages Over Justin Baldoni Suit
Blake Lively’s attorneys are looking to keep a lid on the release of sensitive personal and financial information in the course of litigation against Justin Baldoni, citing violent and sexist threats she and her supporters have received.
Noting that the case involves several “high-profile individuals,” Lively wants a court order to assure that certain information will remain confidential, and will not be posted to social media sites like Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. Such information would include compensation information, profitability reports, ownership of companies, creative ideas, film scripts, photos, videos, and health records.
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In a letter to the court on Thursday night, Lively’s lawyers stated that such an order is needed because she and others involved in the case have already been subject to “violent, profane, sexist, and threatening communications.”
Lively’s lawyers wrote that one witness who supports her got a message threatening to sexually assault and kill their family after their texts were included in Baldoni’s amended lawsuit. Lively has also been subject to “pornographic trolling on Instagram,” they wrote.
Lively and Baldoni, her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star, are suing each other in federal court in New York. Lively accuses Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set, and of retaliating against her by launching an online smear campaign. Baldoni accuses Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, of seeking to destroy his career with false allegations and of prompting his agency, WME, to drop him.
In the six weeks since the suits were filed, the two sides have waged a battle in public and in court over a range of issues, including the professional rules governing out-of-court statements, the proper scope of subpoenas, and now the protective order that will govern mutual discovery.
Judge Lewis Liman previously asked the parties to submit a proposed protective order by March 11. Baldoni’s team has agreed to use the court’s standard protective order, but Lively’s team wants to add greater specificity and an extra layer of confidentiality for certain information.
The standard order allows for certain information to be designated as “attorneys’ eyes only” in extraordinary circumstances. Lively’s proposed order would allow that designation more routinely, for any information “likely to cause a competitive, business, commercial, financial, or privacy injury to the producing party.”
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