Justin Baldoni is doubling down on his authorized battle towards Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, now claiming he has strong proof that they’d been plotting towards him months earlier than Vigorous filed her bombshell Christmas lawsuit.
In response, Justin Baldoni has moved to replace his lawsuit towards the Hollywood energy couple.
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Justin Baldoni Claims He Has ‘Chilly Exhausting Proof’ Blake Vigorous And Ryan Reynolds Have been Concentrating on Him Months Earlier than Lawsuit
In keeping with new authorized paperwork obtained by TMZ, Baldoni alleges that the “malicious and reckless” defamation of his character started as early as October 31, 2024. Whereas the timing would possibly recommend a Halloween twist, Baldoni insists the importance of this date is tied to the metadata embedded in a New York Instances article about Vigorous’s lawsuit towards him.
His authorized staff factors to HTML supply code inside the article that allegedly references a “message-embed-generator” with a timestamp of October 31, 2024.
In easy phrases, Baldoni’s camp argues this proves the Instances had been engaged on the article, together with growing a instrument to show the controversial textual content messages on the coronary heart of the lawsuit, effectively earlier than Vigorous’s lawsuit was formally filed.
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After the information broke, a New York Instances spokesperson despatched the next assertion to The Blast:
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“The Baldoni/Wayfarer authorized filings are rife with inaccuracies about The New York Instances, together with, for instance, the bogus declare that The Instances had early entry to Ms. Vigorous’s state civil rights criticism. Mr. Baldoni’s legal professionals base their misguided declare on postings by newbie web sleuths, who, not surprisingly, are incorrect. The sleuths have famous {that a} model of the Vigorous state criticism printed by The Instances carries the date ‘December 10’ although the criticism wasn’t filed till greater than per week later. The issue: that date is generated by Google software program and is unrelated to the date when The Instances acquired it and posted it. A take a look at the metadata from the posted doc accurately reveals it was posted after Ms. Vigorous filed it with the California Civil Rights Division.”
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Why Baldoni Thinks This Is a Sport-Changer
Baldoni’s staff says this newly uncovered metadata is essential as a result of it “strips away the authorized shields” that Vigorous, the New York Instances, and different alleged collaborators might have been counting on to defend themselves. His legal professionals consider the knowledge proves a coordinated effort to smear his status lengthy earlier than the general public was even conscious of the lawsuit.
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Justin’s Legal professional Speaks Out
Baldoni’s legal professional, Bryan Freedman, instructed TMZ that amending the lawsuit was a pure subsequent step given the quantity of recent proof uncovered.
“This recent proof corroborates what we knew all alongside, that attributable to purely egotistical causes, Ms. Vigorous and her complete staff colluded for months to destroy reputations by a posh net of lies, false accusations, and the manipulation of illicitly acquired communications.”
“The continuing public curiosity on this case on-line has paradoxically make clear the plain info pertaining to The New York Instances and the way closely Ms. Vigorous and her representatives weren’t solely deeply concerned within the tried take down and smear marketing campaign of Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and their groups however that they themselves initiated it.”
The revised lawsuit consists of an intensive 150-plus-page timeline meticulously outlining the alleged steps in Blake’s marketing campaign towards Justin. Simply how detailed is it? The timeline traces occasions way back to January 1, 2019, when Justin first emailed “It Ends With Us” creator Colleen Hoover, and follows every growth step-by-step by to January 29, 2025.
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Blake Vigorous And Ryan Reynolds Transfer To Dismiss Justin Baldoni’s Lawsuit as Authorized Battle Escalates
In keeping with Variety, the couple’s legal professional, Michael Gottlieb, submitted a letter to Choose Lewis Liman, responding to the courtroom’s request for a one-sentence discover of intent.
“The Vigorous-Reynolds Events intend to maneuver to dismiss Plaintiffs’ criticism,” Gottlieb wrote within the letter.
Moreover, Vigorous’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, who can be named as a defendant in Baldoni’s lawsuit, filed an analogous discover on Wednesday, signaling a united entrance towards Baldoni’s claims.
Authorized Showdown Set For Monday
Attorneys for either side are making ready for an intense courtroom battle, with the primary listening to within the case scheduled for Monday throughout a pretrial convention. Initially set for February 12, the convention has been moved up, reflecting the urgency surrounding the case. The trial itself is currently scheduled to begin on March 9, 2026.
Choose Liman has additionally ordered each events to submit a trial plan, making certain the case stays on observe for its scheduled begin date.
The authorized battle between Baldoni, Vigorous, Reynolds, and the New York Instances is barely heating up. It stays to be seen how Vigorous and Reynolds will reply to those new allegations, or if the Instances will difficulty a press release concerning the metadata proof Baldoni is now presenting.
One factor is evident: this combat is much from over.
