Blake Lively is maneuvering to bring one of Hollywood’s most explosive courtroom battles into her own legal war with Justin Baldoni, court filings reveal.
The actress plans to invoke Johnny Depp’s blockbuster defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard in her upcoming trial, arguing she was subjected to a similar wave of online backlash.
Lively, 38, alleges that Baldoni enlisted the same crisis PR operative used by Depp which she says coincided with a sudden ‘torrent of online hatred’ directed at her during the release of their movie It Ends With Us in 2024.
The high stakes move will mean the court could hear about the six-week, sensational showdown between Depp and Heard in Virginia in 2022, that ended with a $15 million jury award in libel damages in Depp’s favor.
Heard argued that she was subjected to an online smear campaign organized by Depp’s team that shredded her reputation.
Lively made reference to it in legal filings in her case against Baldoni, her co-star and director on It Ends With Us, and his production company Wayfarer.
Blake Lively is set to invoke the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial in her escalating legal battle with Justin Baldoni, according to court filings
Lively’s legal team claims Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s high-profile case offers a blueprint for understanding her own claims
The Gossip Girl star claims that Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set and then smeared her, too: the case is set to go on trial in New York on May 18 and the judge has said it could last four weeks.
In the filing Lively states that Depp hired crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, the same woman Baldoni turned to in the summer of 2024 during the release of It Ends With Us amid unflattering headlines about a feud between them on set.
Nathan’s hiring became public in an August 2024 story in the Hollywood Reporter, the filing states.
Lively claims: ‘This revelation came at an important turning point in Wayfarer’s retaliation campaign against Lively, and Lively will testify about how Wayfarer’s retention of Johnny Depp’s crisis PR team influenced her understanding of Wayfarer’s conduct at that moment in time.’
The story in the celebrity publication shows how ‘Lively understood the torrent of online hatred that appeared virtually overnight on the heels of premiering a box office smash,’ her lawyers wrote in the document.
Baldoni’s lawyers fired back and claimed that Lively’s reputation could not have been ruined by anything Baldoni did because it was already in tatters.
The case will head to trial on May 18, focusing solely on the three remaining counts related to an alleged smear campaign by Baldoni’s team. Baldoni is seen departing the federal courthouse in Manhattan in February
The pair starred in 2024 movie It Ends With Us, which follows Lily Bloom, a florist played by Lively, who falls in love with a charming but abusive neurosurgeon played by Baldoni, who was also the film’s director
They are seeking to introduce news stories that resurfaced in the summer of 2024 to show she was already known as a ‘mean girl.’
Baldoni’s lawyers wrote: ‘Evidence of Lively’s preexisting reputation is not being offered for the truth that she is a “mean girl,” “bully,” difficult to work with or “tone deaf” but to establish Lively’s reputation prior to the alleged “smear campaign” to show that defendants’ alleged conduct did not cause further harm to her existing reputation.’
Lively does not specify how much detail she wants to go into about Depp vs Heard, where the jury heard graphic and lurid testimony about the physical fights between the former couple.
They included Depp claiming that Heard severed the end of his finger after throwing a vodka bottle at him.
The jury was shown messages sent by Depp in which said he wanted to see Heard’s ‘rotting corpse decomposing in the f****** trunk of a Honda Civic.’
The court filing alleges Justin Baldoni hired the same PR team as Johnny Depp – a move Blake Lively says coincided with a wave of online backlash
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s explosive defamation 2022 trial captivated millions and ended with a $15 million jury award in Depp’s favor
Depp’s trial, unlike Lively’s, which will be in federal court where cameras are banned, was televised and became a spectacle that was picked apart and posted on social media for millions of viewers each day.
In other legal filings, Lively argued that she should be allowed to use the testimony of seven other women who experienced or witnessed harassment by Baldoni and his team on the set of the movie.
They include the actress Jenny Slate, who starred as Lively’s best friend in the film, and Isabella Ferrer, who played a young version of Lively’s character.
Baldoni has sought to exclude this evidence because he claims it is not relevant.
The judge overseeing the case has already dismissed ten of Lively’s 13 claims, including all of her sexual harassment allegations.
Lively is still seeking to tell the jury about them as she claims they are central to understanding the alleged retaliation.
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