Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
Almost a year after the theatrical release of It Ends With Us, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are reportedly face-to-face as she delivers her deposition in her sexual-harassment lawsuit against him. On Thursday, Lively answered questions in her lawyer’s office about her experience making the Colleen Hoover adaptation, which included allegations that Baldoni had improvised a kissing scene without an intimacy coordinator, repeatedly tried to insert “gratuitous” sex scenes and nudity into the script, and walked in on her while she was topless, among other claims. And on the day of the deposition, TMZ reported that Baldoni opted to be present — which, as far as we know, is the first time the two have been in a room together in over a year.
While “Page Six” called Baldoni “a surprise guest,” his presence didn’t exactly come out of left field. According to the American Bar Association, both parties have the right to be present at an oral deposition. That being said, is it an amazing look for Baldoni to be staring down the woman recounting her experience of his allegedly sexually harassing her? Perhaps not.
Lively’s deposition has already been the source of much contention between her and Baldoni’s legal teams. The proceedings are reportedly taking place in Lively’s lawyer’s office — where Lively and Baldoni are joined by their lawyers, one court reporter, and a videographer — which wasn’t what Baldoni’s team had pushed for. Earlier this month, Lively claimed she would be swarmed by paparazzi if the deposition were to happen at the offices of Baldoni’s lawyers.
“Defendants have not denied that their intent is to manufacture a harassing publicity stunt by requiring Ms. Lively to parade through paparazzi, or by inviting unknown attendees to the deposition, including members of the media or social media influencers, or any other number of abusive tactics,” Lively’s team wrote in a letter submitted to the court.
Lawyers for Baldoni hit back, writing in a letter of their own that they would need space for tens of thousands of pages of discovery and that the resources necessary to properly conduct the deposition were available to them only at their office. “Although Lively’s foot-stomping and use of her celebrity status may have enabled her to seize control of the film, which is the crux of this dispute, her counsel’s tantrum has no place in this Court,” they wrote.
Ultimately, Lively won out — another victory in their ongoing legal battle after Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Baldoni’s $400 million defamation and extortion case against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and publicist Leslie Sloane in June. The judge stated that Baldoni’s team had failed to prove anything Lively & Co. had done was defamatory or extortionate. Now, Baldoni has to focus on being the defendant in Lively’s case against him, which is scheduled to go to trial in March 2026. In a rare win for the actor-director, he did get access to Lively’s texts with Taylor Swift last month. We can all expect everyone to be really normal about those come March.
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