As a courtroom showdown between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively approaches next month, lawyers for the former co-stars continued to hash out key pretrial issues Tuesday before a federal judge.
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The civil case centers on the actors’ 2024 film “It Ends With Us,” based on Colleen Hoover’s novel. The movie turned litigious when Lively sued Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment on set and alleging his production company, Wayfarer Studios, retaliated against her after she complained about the alleged misconduct. Baldoni, who was also the film’s director, and Wayfarer have denied all of her claims.
U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman tossed out 10 of Lively’s 13 claims against Baldoni this month, allowing three to move forward: breach of contract, retaliation and aiding and abetting in retaliation.
On Tuesday, neither of the actors attended what was expected to be the final pretrial conference before the May 18 trial.
During the roughly three-hour hearing, the actors’ legal teams debated expert witness testimony.
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Baldoni’s and Lively’s attorneys said they’d most likely need roughly three weeks to present their cases.
Liman, however, didn’t finalize timing, nor did he narrow the witness list. He instead asked both sides to look into the availability of some of the expert witnesses they plan to call at trial to participate in a pretrial hearing in a week.
He asked specifically about two of Lively’s witnesses: Aron Culotta, a computer science professor at Tulane University who has studied online harassment, and Dina Mayzlin, a University of Southern California marketing professor who has studied the manipulation of online reviews. He also asked about one of Baldoni’s witnesses: Nicole Alexander, a former marketing executive at Meta who has written a book about the ethical use of AI in marketing.
Lively’s lawyers argued that she missed out on the opportunity to make up to $35 million for a sequel to “It Ends With Us.”
“Baldoni had suggested at one point that Ms. Lively would direct the sequel, and the lead actress would be compensated more,” said Naeun Rim, an attorney for Lively.
But Baldoni’s attorneys called the payday surrounding a potential sequel speculative. They also pushed back against Lively’s claim that she lost $39 million to $143 million after the film was released, saying any losses can’t be pinned on Baldoni.
“Ms. Lively has a track record of brands that have not succeeded,” Amir Kaltgrad, an attorney for Baldoni, said Tuesday, adding that “she is seeking pie-in-the-sky damages here.”
Attorneys for Baldoni and Lively declined to comment further when asked.
The hearing didn’t touch on witnesses beyond the experts.
In a filing this month, Baldoni’s team asked to block evidence from several people involved with the film, including Hoover; producer Alex Saks; co-star Isabela Ferrer; scriptwriter Christy Hall; Liz Plank, a co-host of Baldoni and Jamey Heath’s podcast; and Claire Ayoub, a director who worked with Baldoni on a different film.
The case has also drawn in celebrities such as Ryan Reynolds, Lively’s husband, and pop star Taylor Swift, Lively’s friend.
