Blake Lively Asks Judge for Stronger PO After Receiving ‘Violent’ Messages

• Attorneys for Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds submitted a letter requesting “additional protections” from a judge in their ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni
• The letter alleges that Lively and others who “have spoken out publicly in support of” her “have received violent, profane, sexist, and threatening communications”
• Lively recently filed an amended complaint against her It Ends with Us director, which her lawyers said provides “additional evidence and corroboration of her original claims”

Blake Lively has requested “additional protections” in her ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni.

After both sides agreed to a protective order (PO), attorneys for the actress, 37, and her husband Ryan Reynolds submitted a letter to Judge Lewis J. Liman in the Southern District of New York on Thursday, Feb. 20, requesting a stronger PO than the court’s “model” one.

Among their requests for the proposed PO, which they also filed in a separate document, are “an Attorney’s Eyes Only (‘AEO’) category, which applies to ‘Confidential Discovery Material of such a highly confidential and personal, sensitive, or proprietary nature that the revelation of such is likely to cause a competitive, business, commercial, financial, personal or privacy injury,’ ” per the letter.

Lively and Reynolds’ attorneys went on to claim that “good cause exists for the Court to adopt the Proposed PO,” citing the actress’s recently filed amended complaint against Baldoni, 41.

“As detailed in Ms. Lively’s Amended Complaint, Ms. Lively, her family, other members of the cast, various fact witnesses, and individuals that have spoken out publicly in support of Ms. Lively have received violent, profane, sexist, and threatening communications,” the letter states.

Lively sued her It Ends With Us director/costar Baldoni, producer Heath, Wayfarer Studios and its co-founder Steve Sarowitz, Baldoni’s publicist Jennifer Abel, crisis PR expert Melissa Nathan and her agency, and Jed Wallace and his crisis-management firm, alleging sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign, which they deny.

In turn, Baldoni and others have sued Lively and her husband Reynolds, 48, as well their publicist Leslie Sloane and her agency plus The New York Times, alleging defamation and extortion. Lively’s lawyers have called that lawsuit “desperate” and “meritless.”

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Meanwhile, Sloane requested on Thursday to be removed from the legal battle that her attorney said she was “dragged” into as a “smoke and mirrors exercise to distract from” Lively’s accusation.

The actress’s 163-page amended complaint landed in New York federal court late on Tuesday, Feb. 18, as she updated her lawsuit (which was originally filed Dec. 31, 2024) against Baldoni.

According to her lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, the amended version “provides significant additional evidence and corroboration of her original claims” and “includes previously undisclosed communications” involving Lively, Sony, Wayfarer Studios and “numerous other witnesses.”

The amended complaint notably claims that two other It Ends with Us actors have agreed to testify to their own experiences with Baldoni’s alleged behavior on set.

On Wednesday, Feb. 19, Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman responded to Lively’s amended complaint in a statement in which he said her lawsuit has a “lack of actual evidence.”

“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,” Freedman said, adding that his 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.”

“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 behavior will be enlightening,” Freedman added. “What is truly uncomfortable here is Ms. Lively’s lack of actual evidence.