The judge overseeing Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively‘s court case admitted he wasn’t familiar with either of them before their messy legal battle.
During an emergency hearing held Wednesday, July 16, Judge Lewis Liman stated that “celebrity is fleeting,” per a report published by the Daily Mail. According to the outlet, the judge said he didn’t recognize Lively, 37, or Baldoni, 41, before taking on their case.
Liman’s statements came after Baldoni’s lawyer Kevin Fritz argued that Lively was being given “special treatment simply because she’s a celebrity.”
The judge said Fritz’s “accusations” were a “serious issue,” adding, “There are problems that the court is trying to deal with and it’s helpful for me if you frame it in language and words that the court is accustomed to. It does not help me — and it’s not helped me in this case — to start throwing around accusations.”
Liman went on to acknowledge Baldoni and Lively’s relevance as public figures.
“I’m well aware that [Baldoni] is a person of high profile. So is [Lively],” he continued. “I have told you before, before I came into this case, I didn’t know who your client was, I did not know who the plaintiff was. Their names were unknown to me.”
In his response, Liman made it clear that Baldoni and Lively’s fame didn’t contribute to his rulings inside the courtroom.
“As far as I’m concerned, whether they have celebrity [status] at the moment or not is irrelevant. Celebrity, as you know, and everybody knows, can be fleeting. It’s also not relevant to the court,” he added. “So, your point is well taken that celebrity is irrelevant. Now let’s make it irrelevant. We don’t need to talk about it.”
Lively filed a lawsuit in December 2024 accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment, claiming he created a “hostile work environment” on the set of their movie It Ends With Us and caused her “severe emotional distress.”
Baldoni’s lawyer denied “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” accusations. Soon after, Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios also filed a lawsuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and Lively’s publicist seeking $400 million in damages. The lawsuit, which included accusations of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy and other claims, was dismissed in June.
Baldoni also launched a $250 million lawsuit with nine other plaintiffs against The New York Times for its coverage of Lively’s accusations. A spokesperson for the The New York Times told Us earlier this year that the outlet planned to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit,” which was also dismissed in June.
As the twosome prepare for trial, Lively recently asked to choose the location of her deposition. She was granted the request on Wednesday. The deposition was set to take place on Thursday, July 17, but was rescheduled for July 31.
