Tag: asks

CNN
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Blake Lively’s lawyers are accusing Justin Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, of publicly making “misleading and selective” statements about Lively and her ongoing legal dispute with Baldoni, and are asking a court for a hearing “to address the appropriate conduct of counsel moving forward.”

Lively’s legal team filed a letter in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, the same day that Freedman released video footage from the set of “It Ends With Us,” the film at the center of the ongoing legal battle, claiming the footage “refutes” Lively’s characterization of Baldoni’s behavior. Freedman also said Tuesday that they have plans to set up a website containing more correspondence and video footage that they say will discredit Lively’s claims.

In the letter, filed after the video footage was released on Tuesday and obtained by CNN, Lively’s lawyers cite that they previously sent two cease-and-desist letters since she filed her initial complaint with the California Civil Rights Department on December 21. The first of those letters was issued to “The Wayfarer Parties,” which includes members of Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer Studios and members on Baldoni’s publicity team.

The second cease-and-desist was sent “directly to Mr. Freedman,” asking him to stop “making further defamatory, and retaliatory, statements relating to Ms. Lively” and saying that his public statements are “unprotected by the litigation privilege.” In this letter to Freedman, Lively’s legal team sought to issue a reminder that “lawyers are not publicity agents” and that lawyers are “required to follow a different set of professional standards than publicists and crisis managers.”

“Since the Wayfarer Parties and Mr. Freedman received the cease-and-desist letters, they have continued their harassing and retaliatory media campaign, with almost daily media statements or other releases to the press,” read part of the letter that Lively’s legal team filed with the court on Tuesday.

Lively’s lawyers argue that Freedman’s conduct “threatens to, and will, materially prejudice” both Lively’s sexual harassment case and Baldoni’s defamation case “by tainting the jury pool,” and are asking the court to schedule a hearing “to address the appropriate conduct of counsel moving forward in these two related matters.”

They intend to seek a “protective order to govern further proceedings in this case,” but say a hearing is necessary “given the imminent harm caused by Mr. Freedman’s misleading and selective statements and leaks,” according to the letter.

CNN has reached out to Freedman and Lively’s representatives, respectively, for comment.

Baldoni and Lively have been in a legal battle that began in December when Lively filed her initial complaint that preceded her civil sexual harassment lawsuit.

In her suit, Lively said that during the filming of “It Ends With Us,” a meeting was held with Baldoni, Lively and various production executives to address a “hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production.” After she raised concerns about “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior by Mr. Baldoni,” her suit claimed, Baldoni’s PR representatives orchestrated a “social manipulation” campaign intended to hurt her reputation in the media in retaliation.

Baldoni has denied Lively’s allegations. He filed a $250 million libel suit against The New York Times in December, where he claimed the newspaper – who first reported Lively’s CRD complaint – published an accompanying article that was “rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions” that relied on Lively’s “self-serving narrative.”

The New York Times told CNN in a statement at the time that they stand by their reporting, saying, in part, that their story “was meticulously and responsibly reported.”

Baldoni also filed a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicist Leslie Sloane earlier this month.

At the time, Lively’s lawyer’s told CNN in a statement that Baldoni’s suit “is another chapter in the abuser playbook. This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim.”