'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
On May 23, 2025, American blogger and columnist Perez Hilton shared insights on Justin Baldoni's lawyer's response to a legal motion filed by Blake Lively's team on May 19. In the motion, the Gossip Girl alum demanded records related to the investigation by Baldoni's team into her claims of sexual harassment and retaliation campaign by the It Ends With Us filmmakers.
Perez Hilton reflected on Baldoni's chief attorney, Bryan Freedman's response to Lively's legal motion in a video titled:
"Justin Baldoni Just Lied To The Judge! This Is Not Clickbait!"
Trending
For the unversed, Lively's motion claimed that the Wayfarer parties failed to provide them with legally required documents when Lively first raised the concern in May 2023, as reported by The Wrap on May 19.
Further in the video, Hilton reviewed Bryan Freedman's letter that noted:
"Lively first contends that the investigation is a disingenuous charade because the Wayfairer entities should have but failed to investigate Miss Lively's concerns when she first raised them in May 2023, distorts the record."
The legal letter further stated that Lively "fails to note" that her allegations first became public on December 20, 2024, when she filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and others with the California Civil Rights Department.
However, Perez Hilton showed skepticism towards this legal response and claimed that the Wayfarer parties were already aware of Lively's grievances, as she made a list of 30 workplace conduct demands to the director and co-star Justin Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us, which was discussed in a meeting held in January 2024, before Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni.
Perez claimed that Baldoni also filed a "side letter," claiming "they would not retaliate against her [Blake Lively] for bringing up her sexual harassment." Hilton further expressed that Freedman's letter seeking to deny their motion to compel the information is a "mistake so far."
More about Blake Lively's legal motion
As reported by The Wrap on May 19, 2025, Blake Lively filed a motion on Monday to sanction Justin Baldoni and his team. This came after Bryan Freedman filed a letter to Judge Lewis Liman on May 14, alleging that Lively's lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, threatened Taylor Swift, adding:
"They demanded that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively, intimating that, if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively's possession would be made public."
In a 30-page motion, Blake Lively's team stated that Freedman's claims have "no reasonable basis in law and clearly were brought for an improper purpose," adding that the claims were filed to "seed harassing media narratives against Ms. Lively."
"These public attacks, combined with the Rule 11 Plaintiffs filing numerous claims against Ms. Lively without any basis in law or fact, is willfully improper and warrants sanctions," Lively's legal team stated.
The outlet noted that later that day, Lively's team filed another motion to "compel" the Wayfarer parties, demanding documents related to the Wayfarer's "purported ‘neutral’ workplace investigation into Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation claims."
The letter stated that if the investigations had happened, it would have "substantiated the sexual harassment she [Blake Lively] suffered while on the set of the film It Ends With Us."
It further claimed that Justin Baldoni's team "waited years until late January 2025 to initiate this investigation," and by that time, Baldoni's team had "forcefully" denied the allegations against them and filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively.
"What’s more, by January, its counsel had repeatedly called Ms. Lively a liar in widely-circulated media interviews," they continued.
On December 20, 2025, the Another Simple Favor star filed a lawsuit against the It Ends With Us director and co-star, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign to "bury" her reputation, as reported by Deadline on May 23, 2025.
In response, Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit on January 16, 2025, against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for civil extortion and defamation.
Meanwhile, the trial is scheduled for March 9, 2026.
