Days after a federal judge quickly shot down a Taylor Swift circus of sorts that seemed poised to take took over the multiple lawsuits battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, the Another Simple Favor actress is calling out her It Ends With Us co-star for using an investigation on her sexual harassment claims to gum up the legal works.
Lively lawyer Esra Hudson sent a letter to Judge Lewis J. Liman Monday seeking “documents and witness recordings concerning Wayfarer’s purported ‘neutral’ workplace investigation into Ms. Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation claims (the ‘Investigation’).” Telling the federal judge something he likely already knows, the Manett attorney added: “Wayfarer is withholding such documents and recordings, claiming (at least for now) attorney-client privilege and work product.”
Insisting the “so-called ‘Investigation’ is a disingenuous charade,” Hudson explained that “the Investigation Materials are highly relevant, are necessary for Ms. Lively and the Court to ensure that witness engagement has been proper, and have been put at issue by Wayfarer. They must be produced.”
With reference to the now tossed out Swift bullying accusations of May 14, Lively’s team are also seeking sanctions against Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios, his execs and PR teams for an amended complaint that supposedly has “no reasonable basis in law or fact and clearly were brought for an improper purpose.”
In a statement released Monday mere minutes after the probe mocking letter hit the federal court docket, a spokesperson for Lively took a further kick at Baldoni and Wayfarer’s credibility when it comes to looking clear-eyed into their own alleged actions.
Does anyone believe that Wayfarer is genuinely investigating a film set workplace that no longer exists? Since Wayfarer is now suddenly interested in conducting a workplace “investigation,” here’s a reminder of some of the things Ms. Lively raised years ago during the filming of the movie, all of which are alleged in her amended complaint:
· The boss, Mr. Baldoni, described his pornography addiction to his employee, Ms. Lively.
· The boss, Mr. Baldoni, described his sex life in detail to his employee, Ms. Lively, including instances where he had sex without asking for consent or ignored someone saying no.
· The boss, Mr. Baldoni, made degrading and sexual comments to his employee, Ms. Lively, including descriptions of his genitalia and remarks that she looked “sexy” and “hot.”
· The boss, Mr. Baldoni, asked his employee, Ms. Lively, about her sex life and her orgasms with her partner.
· The boss, Mr. Heath, showed his employee, Ms. Lively, a video of his naked wife in labor—without first asking for her consent.
· The boss, Mr. Baldoni—head of the studio, director of the film, and co-star—improvised intimate physical contact with his employee and co-star, Ms. Lively, without warning or consent. This included sucking and biting her lip, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, putting his thumb to her mouth and flicking her lower lip, and caressing her.
· The boss, Mr. Baldoni, cast his best friend to place his face between the legs of his employee, Ms. Lively, for an intimate birth scene.
· The boss, Mr. Heath, refused to turn around when asked to, while his employee, Ms. Lively, was having body makeup removed—and instead stared at her while she was topless.
What was going on during the production of the domestic violence themed IEWU and the alleged astroturfing campaign that followed last year has seen Lively claiming she was smeared to shut her up about Baldoni’s misbehavior on set and beyond.
Even as Baldoni’s publicists state they never had to do any smearing or anything else against the actress because the Internet unprompted hated Lively, the actress has said there were threats against her, husband Ryan Reynolds and their four children, and her hair product launch was financially disrupted, So, on December 20, Lively filed a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint with California’s Civil Rights Department against Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios, execs, and PR chiefs Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel with California’s Civil Rights Department.
(L-R) Justin Baldoni & Blake Lively in It Ends With Us (Sony)
Sony
Within just over a week, the lawsuits started flying — including evidence retention letters to Deadpool & Wolverine distributors Disney and $400 million defamation and extortion claims from Baldoni against Lively, Reynolds, the couple’s PR chief Leslie Sloane and the New York Times. As everyone has now filed for dismissal and the case has slightly stepped back from the headlines due to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ ongoing sex-trafficking trial, this case is set to start its own trial on May 9, 2026.
None of this needed to happen, and if Baldoni’s company had done its job, almost none of it would have happened. “If her complaints were promptly investigated, as the law requires, she may also have been spared the retaliatory smear campaign by Wayfarer and its Co-Defendants,” the four-page letter Hudson send to Judge Liman today declares. “Instead, Wayfarer waited years, until late January 2025, to initiate this Investigation. By that time, Wayfarer had already forcefully publicly denied Ms. Lively’s allegations and sued her and several others for $400 million for making the very same allegations that are now the subject of this “neutral” investigation (for a workplace that no longer exists, the Film set).1 What’s more, by January, its counsel had repeatedly called Ms. Lively a liar in widely-circulated media interviews.”
Hudson’s letter for Lively goes on to say: “Under the guise of the Investigation’s “neutrality,” Wayfarer is conducting one-sided interviews of unsuspecting third parties—potentially tainting the ongoing litigation while reserving for itself the option of whether it will release its findings or bury them behind a cloak of attorney-client privilege. Meanwhile, the Investigation has dragged on for nearly five months, conveniently providing a pretextual basis for Wayfarer to refuse to produce otherwise patently discoverable information.”
Reps for Baldoni and his Wayfarer inner circle did not respond to request for comment from Deadline on today’s filing and claims.
In terms of the now sought sanctions, Lively’s Manett and legal team say in that filing: “As to an improper purpose, that the FAC (First Amended Complaint) was filed principally as a vehicle to seed harassing media narratives against Ms. Lively is obvious. The examples are legion – from its legally meaningless 178-page ‘Exhibit A,’ to Counsel’s ghoulish taunt that Ms. Lively should testify about her degrading experience of sexual harassment at Madison Square Garden before 20,000 spectators and streamed for the world, to using the Court’s docket to level baseless allegations of extortion and spoliation of evidence against Ms. Lively and her counsel.”
So, with no one interesting in any mediation or settlement talks here , expect a lot more of this scorched docket approach in the months to come.