Unsurprisingly, Blake Lively covers this week’s issue of People Magazine. She filed her complaint with the California Civil Rights Department just before Christmas, and it’s more than likely that she will end up suing Justin Baldoni, his production company, his publicist and his crisis manager. It’s also quite likely that Baldoni will file a lawsuit against Blake and her team in the new year, at least that’s what they’re telegraphing. People’s cover story is mostly a recap of where we are now, including a comprehensive summary of Blake’s case, with Baldoni’s lawyer interjecting here and there. It also includes a summary of everyone lining up behind Blake. Including People Magazine, but they were always going to take her side. Here’s the part which came from Blake’s team:
The whole ordeal has been a nightmare for Lively, who shares children James, 10, Inez, 8, Betty, 5 and 22-month-old son Olin with Reynolds, 48. Behind closed doors, says the complaint, she has suffered “grief, fear, trauma, and extreme anxiety” in the alleged campaign’s aftermath.
She is seeking unspecified damages from Baldoni and Wayfarer for “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and “interference” in her other businesses, like her Blake Brown haircare company, which launched in early August and suffered a decline in sales by “56-78%” amid the bad press and negative social media comments, Lively’s lawyers claim. “The Baldoni-Wayfarer astroturfing campaign forced each of Ms. Lively’s businesses to go ‘dark’ on social media in August,” according to the complaint.
A Lively source says putting together the legal case has been painful but necessary work. “Blake along with her team have been working on this lawsuit for months. It’s truly been so ugly for her. And insanely stressful. She’s never dealt with anything like this before,” explains the source.
What happens next? Lively’s legal team is currently evaluating her options while awaiting a decision from the California Civil Rights Department, which has 60 days to notify her if they will investigate the matter.
“If they find some barrier to it, a lot of times they’ll step in and try to mediate a solution with the employer,” says legal expert Gregory Doll, a California attorney who is not involved in the case. “If not, they’ll give her what’s called the right to sue letter, which means that she can go to court now and submit her claim there.”
If she does sue and she and Baldoni don’t settle beforehand, they’d head to a trial. “The most likely cases that don’t settle are the ones like this where it gets intensely personal between two people,” he notes.
Baldoni could countersue as well, something Doll says is very likely due to the bitter back and forth between the two legal teams: “Based on what I have observed, it’s almost guaranteed that he will file a counterclaim,” he predicts.
But no matter what happens, Lively has a vast support system of family and friends who have her back — especially her husband.
“Ryan is always her rock,” says a Lively source, who adds that the actress has been focusing on her family after filing the complaint. ”For now, she’s said what needed to be said.”
I’m on Blake’s side about so much of this situation, but this caught my eye: “like her Blake Brown haircare company, which launched in early August and suffered a decline in sales by “56-78%” amid the bad press and negative social media comments, Lively’s lawyers claim.” If Blake Brown launched in August – which she did on purpose to promote her haircare line alongside It Ends With Us – then what metrics are they using to determine that sales of Blake Brown went down? Declined compared to what? You can believe Blake and be on her side and still think that there are some really interesting legal issues contained in this complaint.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.
