Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Ask Court to Silence Justin Baldoni’s Lawyer After Releasing On-Set Video
The slow dance montage showcased footage that is widely debated in Lively and Baldoni’s respective lawsuits. In the video, Lively and Baldoni are seen discussing his nose (the moment where he claimed in court docs she told him to get a nose job) and talking about the smell of her spray tan.
When Baldoni nuzzled Lively on the neck and asked if he was “getting beard” on her, she replied with a laugh, “I’m probably getting spray tan on you,” to which he said, “It smells good.” Lively added, “Well, it’s not that. It’s my body makeup.” (Lively alleged in her filing that Baldoni’s comments were not “remotely in character.”)
After the video was released, Freedman said in a statement to Us: “Us received this video from legal counsel, Bryan Freedman who has gone on record numerous times and told the public that Justin Baldoni and team has nothing to hide and this video, once more proves this. Justin and team have the right to defend themselves with the truth and this is what we will be continuing to show with the upcoming website containing all correspondence as well as relevant videos that directly quash her claims.”
In response, Lively’s legal team slammed Baldoni and his team for choosing to publicly share the video.
“Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning. Every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what Ms. Lively described in Paragraph 48 of her Complaint,” Lively’s legal team said in a statement to Us on Tuesday. “The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character.”
The statement continued: “Every moment of this was improvised by Mr. Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance and no intimacy coordinator present. Mr. Baldoni was not only Ms. Lively’s costar, but the director, the head of [the] studio and Ms. Lively’s boss. The video shows Ms. Lively leaning away and repeatedly asking for the characters to just talk. Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort. They will recognize her attempts at levity to try to deflect the unwanted touching. No woman should have to take defensive measures to avoid being touched by their employer without their consent.”