After Blake Lively's legal team made amends to her legal complaint against Justin Baldoni, his lawyer has hit out at the "uncomfortable" situation. Speaking after Lively's team insisted they had further evidence to uphold her original sexual harassment and retaliation concerns against the actor, Baldoni's team has fired back.
Lively's team alleged other women had also told her how the It Ends With Us actor had made them uncomfortable on set. Baldoni has strongly denied all allegations and just last month, countersued Blake and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, 48, for £321 million ($400m) for an apparent attempt to destroy his reputation and career. Reynolds has also denied the allegations made against him.
Lively's amended claim saw her legal team call Baldoni's counter suit "utterly meritless". But Baldoni's team have responded with a message of their own. A statement shared with Mirror by Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, read: "Our clients have been transparent in providing receipts, real time documents and video showing a completely different story than what has been manipulated and cherry picked to the media. Our clients have taken this matter and these issues very seriously notwithstanding the jokes made publicly by the plaintiff and her husband.
"Her underwhelming amended complaint is filled with unsubstantial hearsay of unnamed persons who are clearly no longer willing to come forward or publicly support her claims. Since documents do not lie and people do, the upcoming depositions of those who initially supported Ms. Lively’s false claims and those who are witnesses to her own behaviour will be enlightening. What is truly uncomfortable here is Ms. Lively’s lack of actual evidence.".
Just a day earlier, Lively's lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb claimed to have further evidence for Lively's case. It's said to include previously undisclosed communications involving the actress, representatives of Sony and Wayfarer, and numerous other witnesses.
Lively's lawyers also said they will move to dismiss the "utterly meritless lawsuits" brought against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds over the next several weeks. The back and forth comes after Lively first filed a lawsuit against her co-star last year in which she accused him of sexual harassment which caused "severe emotional distress." Lively, 37, also alleges that Baldoni, 41, had attempted to "destroy" her reputation in what she has dubbed a smear campaign. As he strongly denied the allegations, he counter-sued and shared apparent text messages between the pair to show his stance.
