A judge has issued a stern warning to the legal teams of actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, instructing them to refrain from making public statements about their ongoing legal battle.
The high-profile case, stemming from two competing lawsuits, has already attracted significant media attention. Lively and Baldoni, who co-starred in the 2024 film It Ends With Us, have accused each other of serious professional and personal misconduct. Lively initially sued Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment on set and claimed he orchestrated a campaign to damage her reputation.
In response, Baldoni countersued Lively and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of attempting to sabotage the film’s production and marketing while making false allegations to tarnish his image.
New York District Court Judge Lewis J. Liman has now scheduled a combined trial for March 2026, urging both sides to avoid making media statements that could influence the outcome of the case.
At a hearing on Monday, Lively’s attorney, Michael Gottlieb, accused Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, of violating professional ethics by publicly referring to Lively as a “bully” in an interview with People magazine.
Gottlieb argued that such remarks could unfairly sway public opinion and taint a potential jury. “It’s very hard to un-ring the bell,” he told the court, emphasizing that pre-trial publicity could severely impact the fairness of the proceedings.
However, Freedman pushed back against the accusations, arguing that his comments were simply a response to a New York Times article published on December 21, which, according to him, “completely devastated” Baldoni’s reputation.
He claimed that the media coverage had already cast Baldoni in an unfairly negative light and that his statements were necessary to counteract the damage. In light of these concerns, Judge Liman has now enforced a legal provision restricting most out-of-court comments that could affect the trial’s outcome.
However, an exception has been granted, allowing attorneys to issue statements if they are necessary to protect their clients from prejudicial media coverage. Neither legal team objected to the new restrictions.
Lively’s lawyers have previously accused Freedman of attempting to manipulate public perception by launching a website designed to selectively release documents and private communications between Lively and Baldoni.
They claim that this effort was a deliberate attempt to shape the narrative before the case goes to trial. In her December lawsuit, Lively named Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer Studios, and several other parties as defendants, alleging sexual harassment and defamation. She is seeking unspecified damages for what she describes as an orchestrated effort to damage her career and reputation.
Baldoni, in turn, filed his lawsuit in January, accusing Lively and Reynolds of defamation and extortion. He claims they engaged in a coordinated effort to discredit him and destabilize the film’s production, seeking a staggering $400 million in damages.
In addition to his claims against the Hollywood couple, Baldoni has also taken legal action against The New York Times, suing the newspaper for libel after it published allegations against him.
The legal battle has drawn widespread attention, as it pits two prominent figures in the entertainment industry against each other in a case that extends beyond Hollywood and into the realm of media ethics and public reputation.
Both actors have had successful careers in film and television, making this legal dispute even more high-profile. Lively, who gained fame for her role in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005), became a household name with the hit TV series Gossip Girl (2007–2012).
She has since starred in critically acclaimed films such as The Town and The Shallows. Baldoni, best known for his role in Jane the Virgin, has also made a name for himself as a director, helming projects like Five Feet Apart (2019).
Additionally, he is the author of Man Enough, a book that challenges traditional notions of masculinity. With their reputations on the line and millions of dollars at stake, this legal showdown is likely to remain a major Hollywood controversy in the years leading up to the trial.
