Featured Image Credit: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, New York, News, Celebrity
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, New York, News, Celebrity
A judge has set a trial date for Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively's legal battle.
In the days leading up to Christmas, Lively filed a bombshell complaint against her It Ends With Us co-star and director Baldoni.
In the legal complaint, she accused him of sexual harassment and claimed he and his team concocted a plan to 'destroy her reputation'.
She went on to hit Baldoni with a lawsuit in the new year for 'severe and serious emotional distress'.
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Baldoni's team proceeded to countersue Lively for an eye-watering $400 million for claims of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and more.
Now, as tensions continue to grow between the celebrity pair, a New York judge has set a date for their trial.
Firstly, federal judge Lewis J Liman moved the initial conference from mid-February to next week and told lawyers to be prepared to address complaints about pretrial publicity and lawyer conduct.
Liman took the actions after Lively’s lawyers claimed in a filing on Monday that a lawyer for Baldoni was trying to taint potential jurors over lawsuits the actors have filed against each other.
The lawyers said Baldoni’s lawyer was trying to wreck Lively’s career and turn potential New York jurors against her by creating a website to release selected documents and communications between Lively and Baldoni.
Lively's lawyers have alleged that Bryan Freedman, the lawyer representing Baldoni, has been 'engaging in this extrajudicial campaign to influence these proceedings and the public perception of legal filings to this Court, and there already is a serious risk that his misconduct is tainting the jury pool'.
In regards to the civil trial itself, the date has been set for March 9, 2026.
Things are growing increasingly more tense between Baldoni and Lively, with their lawyers continuously sharing bold allegations about each party, as well as leaking documents, voice notes and video footage.
In one voice note that was shared earlier this month, Baldoni alleged that he wasn't able to join his costars on the red carpet at an It Ends With Us premiere and was banished to the basement of the venue.
"In what could have been one of the most beautiful nights of my life career wise," the actor and director says in the leaked audio.
"I literally was sent to the basement with all my friends and family for over an hour because I wasn't allowed to be seen, she didn't want me anywhere near her or the rest of the cast."
While he doesn't name who 'she' is, it's presumed that he was referring to Lively.
Representatives for both Lively and Baldoni were approached for comment at the time.