Cnn
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In the latest development of the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, the lawyers of Lively Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb confirmed that the actress intended to take a stand when the case was heading for the trial next year.
“This is a case on what happened to Blake Lively when she raised allegations of sexual harassment on the set and reprisals that followed. Of course, she will testify,” Hudson and Gottlieb said in a statement in CNN on Thursday.
Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and reprisals in a complaint filed for the first time with the California civil rights department in December, preceding a trial which followed about a week later. She also said that Baldoni, as well as her representatives of public relations, orchestrated a “social manipulation campaign” to harm her reputation in the media while they were promoting “IT ends with us”, their film in 2024 at the center of the dispute.
Reported by People for the first time, Gottlieb said Thursday that Lively planned to testify because “the ultimate moment for the story of an applicant is told is at the trial.”
“We expect this to be the case here (with Lively),” he added. “We therefore expect that she is witness to her trial.”
When he was contacted to comment on Thursday, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said: “Although obviously uncomfortable for the animated parties, the truth is not a distraction. The truth has been clearly demonstrated by non -edicts, documents and real images. ”
In a modified complaint filed in February, other alleged women in Lively also raised allegations concerning Baldoni’s behavior on the set.
Freedman previously denied allegations in a statement to CNN, saying: “These affirmations are completely false, scandalous and intentionally salaces with the intention of hurting publicly and removing a story in the media.”
Gottlieb has ceased to confirm if the husband of Lively, Ryan Reynolds, will testify to the trial, saying that it is his conviction that the allegations of Baldoni against Reynolds are “frivolous”.
With Lively, Reynolds is appointed defendant in the defamation trial of $ 400 million tabled in January.
Baldoni accused Reynolds of having helped Lively “divert” his film and withdraw his career. He said Reynolds, who had no official role in “he ends with us”, rewritten a scene and made “unauthorized modifications to the secret script”. Baldoni also accused Reynolds of having reprimanded him at the couple’s home in New York and Reynolds claimed that Reynolds made fun of him in “Deadpool & Wolverine”, reflecting the character of Nicepool after Baldoni in order to make fun of him.
In March, Gottlieb filed a request for abolition from Reynolds as a defendant of the pursuit of Baldoni, claiming that his argument against Reynolds has no legal limits and is equivalent to “harmful feelings”.
If Reynolds is abandoned as a defendant, he “may or may not be a de facto witness” at the trial, added Gottlieb.
There are other people who will testify to the trial to support Lively’s claims, said Gottlieb, adding that these people “were witnesses or misconducts who are relevant to the claims of Ms. Lively” and that he expects these witnesses to testify to “what happened on the set”.
Baldoni also accused Lively in his defamation pursuit of working to “destroy” him professionally by collaborating with the New York Times on an article on the complaint it filed with California Civil Rights Department in December.
Baldoni, who produced and played alongside Lively in “It ends with US”, also filed a defamation complaint against the New York Times in January, in which he said that the newspaper had published an article “Rife with inaccuracies, false statements and omissions”.
A New York Times spokesman told CNN at the time that the publication provided for “defending himself vigorously against the trial”.
Baldoni and Lively lawyers have already said that they did not intend to settle. The trial is currently scheduled for March 2026.
