Blake Lively Wants to Protect Conversations With Their Famous Friends Amid Justin Baldoni Lawsuit

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds want to ensure that information about their celebrity friends who might inadvertently pop up in their ongoing litigation against Justin Baldoni will stay private amid the contentious and high-profile legal battle over the ill-fated It Ends with Us production.

During a heated hour-and-a-half long virtual court hearing on Thursday, the numerous parties that have been roped into the multi-pronged case — including The New York Times and two separate publicity firms — made their arguments over designating certain discovery material “attorney eyes only.” 

An attorney for Lively and Reynolds strongly advocated for the designation to be placed on sensitive information, including “speaking about children, profound mental health issues or locations of private residences or homes.” 

The couple’s lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, also voiced concern over high-profile, third-party figures who might be named in discovery material. “There is a significant chance of irreparable harm if marginal conversations with high profile individuals with no relevance to the case were to fall into wrong hands,” McCawley said at the hearing in front of Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan federal court. “There are 100 million reasons for these parties to leak information because the PR value is greater than complying with the court’s orders.” 

Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman shot back at the assertion, saying it was “offensive that anyone would suggest that we would disregard a protective order.” He argued that placing a bulk of the material under the “attorney eyes only” category would be laborious and “unnecessary,” adding that the burden of proof should be placed on the requesting party for why they would want the

material shielded. 

While Lively and Reynolds’ team did not name any particular celebrities they were worried about being unnecessarily brought into the case, Baldoni’s filings have already indicated that Lively’s close friend, superstar Taylor Swift, was privy to some relevant events in the feud.

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Baldoni claimed that during a meeting at Lively’s Tribeca penthouse to discuss a scene rewrite, a famous celebrity — later revealed to be Swift — happened to stop by and advocated for Lively’s writing. Later, according to a text message included in Baldoni’s lawsuit, Lively called Reynolds and Swift her “dragons.” 

“If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons,” the text purportedly from Lively reads. “For better or worse, but usually better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you.”

Judge Liman did not issue a ruling at the close of the hearing, noting he would review both sides’ arguments and make his decision at a later date. A trial is set for March 2026. 

The high-profile legal showdown kicked off in December when The New York Times published a report on Lively making a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni for his alleged behavior during the filming of the popular Colleen Hoover novel It Ends with Us. Lively also accused Baldoni of hiring a crisis communications firm to launch a smear campaign against her amid the film’s summer 2024 premiere. Lively later sued Baldoni. 

Baldoni adamantly denied her claims, filing a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper and a separate $400 million claim against Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist, alleging the couple defamed and extorted him.