Actress’s team positioned themselves after accusation of attempted extortion made by the representatives of Justin Baldoni
The lawyers of Blake Lively publicly denied an accusation made by representatives of Justin Baldoniwhich alleged an attempted extortion involving the name of Taylor Swift. The controversy came after the lawyer Bryan Freedmanwhich represents Baldoni, state in a letter sent to the court and the judge LEWIS J. LIMAN that a member of Lively’s legal team would have pressured the singer to release a statement of support for the actress.
According to Freedman’s letter, “Michael Gottliebfrom Willkie Farr and defendant lawyer Lively, contacted a Venable lawyer, representing Ms. Swift, and demanded that Ms. Swift publish a statement of support to Ms. Livelyimplying that if Ms. Swift refused, private text messages from personal in possession of Ms. Lively would be released. ”
The accusation, however, is based only on information provided by an anonymous source described as “highly likely to have reliable information.” No other evidence was presented in the process.
In response to the publication of Variety, Gottlieb He repudiated the accusation, calling it “categorically false” and criticizing the lack of verifiable sources:
“It is cowardly based on alleged anonymous sources and completely disconnected from reality. This is what we already expect from Wayfarer’s lawyers, who seem to love shooting first, without any evidence, and without worrying about the people who harm in the process,” said the lawyer.
“We will present motions to the court to hold these lawyers responsible for their misconduct.”
Still on Wednesday, the legal team of Lively protocolled a blunt letter to the judge Limanrequesting Freedman’s letter to be taken from the case file. The lawyer Esra Hudsonrepresentative of Lively, wrote:
“On behalf of our client, Blake Lively, we respectfully request that the letter signed by Mr. Bryan Freedman and filed today. This letter, which was not presented with any evident support, much less under oath, falsely accuses Ms. Lively and his lawyer of involvement in ‘manipulation of witnesses and destruction of evidence’ based on an anonymous and unveiled source. “
The document continued: “It should be unnecessary to respond to unfounded allegations and based on anonymous sources, made recklessly and without any evidence of support. However, it is important to note that each of the allegations of Freedman’s letter is unequivocally and demonstrably false. As a legal issue, the letter is inappropriate. It does not request any form of relief, it is irrelevant to any currently pending motion, and does not serve no purpose, and does not serve legitimate.
The judicial dispute originates in a request from the Taylor Swiftrepresented by Venable LLP, to nullify an subpoena of document presentation, filed on May 9. The subpoena is related to the defamation process powered by Baldoni in January, which includes text messages exchanged between him and Blake Lively, in which the actress would refer to Swift as “one of your dragons”.
After the repercussion of the subpoena, a representative of the singer released an official statement denying any involvement of the singer with the film It ends with uswhich motivated the dispute:
“Taylor Swift never stepped on the set of this moviedid not participate in cast or creative decisions, did not compose the soundtrack, did not watch any editions or made comments about the film, and did not even watch the It ends with us Until weeks after public launch. During 2023 and 2024, she was traveling the world with the largest tour in history. “
Source: Rollingstone
Emma Jack is a writer at Gossipify, covering fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and pop culture trends. She stays current on the latest trends and offers readers up-to-date information on what’s hot in the industry. With a background in fashion journalism from Parsons School of Design, she offers a unique perspective and analysis of current trends.
