Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds want a gag order against Justin Baldoni's lawyer claiming he's making false statements about the case

On Tuesday, January 21, Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, filed a legal complaint against Justin Baldoni and his legal team. The filing requests a protective order to stop Baldoni's lawyers from engaging in "improper conduct" against Blake and Ryan, involving indulging in an alleged "harassing and retaliatory media campaign", TMZ reports.

According to the outlet, Lively's legal team believes that Justin's lawyers - led by Bryan Freedman - are making statements to the press that are "irrelevant to a case and might prejudice the jury."

Blake Lively's legal filing comes after Justin Baldoni's legal team released footage from the sets of their 2024 romance, It Ends With Us, on the same day. Baldoni's lawyer also issued a statement before the footage's release, stating:

"The following videos captured on May 23, 2023, clearly refute Ms. Lively’s characterization of his behavior. The scene in question was designed to show the two characters falling in love and longing to be close to one another. Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism."

In the 10-minute long video, Blake and Justin - playing Lily Bloom and Ryle Kincaid respectively - are seen filming a slow dance scene on a busy set, where they're surrounded by extras.

Throughout the footage, the co-stars are head speaking about how to best portray the intimate parts of the scene. Blake Lively tells Baldoni she thinks it's "more romantic" for them to appear to be talking instead of kissing.

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Blake Lively's legal team calls the footage released by Baldoni's lawyer "damning"

The footage released by Justin Baldoni's lawyers is of the scene that Blake Lively has specifically cited in her lawsuit (filed on December 31) as one of the instances of what Blake characterized as inappropriate behavior by Baldoni.

Per Blake's lawsuit, during the filming of the montage "nothing needed to be said because, again, there was no sound". Her suit also accused Baldoni of "caressing Ms. Lively with his mouth in a way that had nothing to do with their roles."

At one point in the video, Justin is seen leaning into Livley, asking her, "Am I getting beard on you today?" Lively laughs and adds, "I'm probably getting spray-tan on you," to which Justin replies, "it smells good."

In her suit, Blake Lively described Baldoni's comment as "not remotely in character, or based on any dialogue in the script."

Unlike Justin's legal team - which claims the footage refutes Blake's allegation - the actress's legal team calls it "damning," adding:

"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."

Per TMZ, Bryan Freedman - Baldoni's attorney - has been "outspoken" since he started representing the actor on the case.

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The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni started in December 2024 - months after their film, It Ends With Us was released. Blake filed her first complaint against Baldoni on December 21, which was followed by a civil s*xual harassment lawsuit ten days later.

In the lawsuit, Lively claimed that Baldoni not only created a "hostile work environment" on the set of It Ends With Us but also orchestrated "a smear campaign" with his PR team to "destroy" her reputation. Baldoni retaliated on January 16, filing a $400 million lawsuit against Blake, Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist, Leslie Sloane.