As the countdown to Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's trial continues, another It Ends With Us star has now filed a motion of their own against the director.
The filing comes as Lively and Baldoni are set to go to trial in March 2026, after Lively accused her co-star of sexual harassment and Baldoni responded with a $400 million lawsuit of his own against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds.
In June, a federal judge tossed out Baldoni’s defamation and extortion suit against Lively, and now Baldoni has been hit with another blow as Isabela Ferrer, who played a young version of Lively's character in It Ends With Us, accused him of acting 'inappropriately' towards her after she was subpoenaed as part of the legal dispute.
Ferrer had received the subpoena from Lively's counsel and consequently reached out to Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios production company to request that her legal fees be covered, in line with her contract from the movie.
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However, according to Ferrer's lawyers, she then received a response asking her to 'relinquish control of her response to the Lively subpoena to Wayfarer' before she was granted compensation.
The motion, cited by E! News, claims: "From that point forward, Baldoni has tried to manipulate, threaten, control and otherwise act inappropriately towards Ms. Ferrer."
The filing claims Baldoni filed a motion against Ferrer to 'harass' her after she refused his legal team's request, describing it as 'yet another attempt to manipulate the press, to create havoc on a young, up-and-coming and talented actress and to violate this Court’s policies on the publishing of non-party personally identifying information'.
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The filing goes on to claim Ferrer has received 'personal threats and hateful statements' from social media users in the wake of Baldoni's motion, adding: "Ms. Ferrer has already had to resist Baldoni’s inappropriate conduct in connection with her response to the Lively Subpoena."
"Unfortunately, the Motion is just the latest in a broader pattern of conduct by Baldoni to bully Ms. Ferrer," it continues. "While Ms. Ferrer will faithfully comply with her legal obligations under any subpoena, summons or court order, she obviously will not be intimidated or extorted by any party to otherwise participate in the proceedings."
After Ferrer's filing, Baldoni's team filed a response describing her motion as an 'inappropriate attack upon Mr. Baldoni and his counsel'.
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They added: "The opposition alleges that in attempting personal service after her lawyer refused to accept service on her behalf, Mr. Baldoni is "harassing" Ms. Ferrer and attempting to "draw her deeper into litigation and disputes that she has done her best to avoid.".
"It was not the Wayfarer Parties who first subpoenaed Ms. Ferrer - it was Ms. Lively, and (again) Mr. Michelman appears to have accepted service of her Subpoena without objection."
Baldoni's team suggested that the case move forward with 'none of the parties [using] any communication to, from or concerning Ms. Ferrer'.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's legal case timeline
- May 2023: Filming for It Ends With Us starring Baldoni and Lively begins
- August 2024: It Ends With Us arrives in cinemas
- December 2024: Lively accuses Baldoni of sexual harassment and goes on to file federal lawsuit against him
- January 2025: Baldoni files a countersuit against Lively and Ryan Reynolds for defamation
- February 2025: Baldoni creates website with timeline of events and amended complaint
- May 2025: Taylor Swift subpoenaed by Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman, before the subpoena is dropped
- June 2025: Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit is thrown out by a federal judge
- July 2025: Lively gives her deposition for the case
- August 2025: Lively's deposition is struck from court record after a federal judge ruled it did not need to be made public in its entirety
- March 2026: Trial will begin
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Ryan Reynolds, Celebrity, Film and TV
Emily Brown