It Ends With Us started out as one of the book-to-film adaptations that was released in theaters last year. However, before 2024 was over, it’s now become the focal point around which a lot of legal drama has revolved, most notably between lead actress Blake Lively and director/co-star Justin Baldoni. Yesterday, word came in that the $400 million lawsuit Baldoni filed against The New York Times could be tossed out, and now there’s an update about the text messages that are key to the Lively/Baldoni lawsuit. Specifically, the Gossip Girl alum is worried about if messages from major celebrities like Hugh Jackman and Taylor Swift can roped into the proceedings.
As reported by The New York Post, Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds are looking to keep these text messages out of the public eye in their looming court case with Justin Baldoni. Specifically, they want a “special layer of protection” put in place before divulging the conversations they had with “high profile” people about Lively’s time on It Ends With Us. Attorney Meryl Conant Governski didn’t mention any specific names while sharing this new information at a hearing in Manhattan federal court.
However, in addition to Jackman and Swift, the article notes that Lively and Reynolds are also close friends with model Gigi Hadid and Hollywood acting couple Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, among others. According to Governski, the “PR value” of these texts is high, regardless of if they’re utilized in this case or not. As he explained:
There is a significant chance of irreparable harm if marginal conversations with high profile individuals with no relevance to the case were to fall into wrong hands. There are 100 million reasons for these parties to leak information because the PR value is greater than complying with the court’s orders.
Governski has requested that the judge label these texts as “Attorney’s Eyes Only,” as well as information about “the parties’ mental health, and security measures they’ve taken amid the feud.” Per the attorney, Blake Lively’s co-defendants “include people whose businesses whose entire living is based on providing information to the press and content creators.” However, Justin Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman described these proposed precautionary measures as “unnecessary,” stating that it was “offensive that anyone would suggest that we would disregard a protective order.”
Whether or not this protective order moves through remains to be seen, but Freedman argued that this plan would unjustly treat “celebrity people” and “people who are powerful in the industry” as different as non-famous people. He argued that the already-submitted “model” protective order would be serviceable enough with keeping the text messages private. In any case, now there’s yet another development to keep track of in this legal drama that unfolded over the last several months.
This all stems from Blake Lively accusing Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment when they were working on It Ends With Us. After Lively filed her lawsuit, Baldoni countersued her for $400 million, and this has snowballed into legal drama that many are captivated by, including Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels. We’ll continue passing along notable updates as they come in.
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