Law&Crime Sidebar - 30 New Bombshell Texts Exposed in Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni Lawsuit

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

Attorneys for “It Ends with Us” co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have consolidated their lawsuits, which resulted in new information being released in the amended complaint. This comes as Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s lawyer, released a timeline of events, which includes text messages and emails from all the parties involved. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber has the latest.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’ve lost loved ones, your home, business or property because of the Los Angeles Wildfires, you can visit https://forthepeople.com/lcfire. You may be entitled to significant compensation.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will

keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. On the cusp of the first official court hearing, Justin Baldoni's team has released new material, including apparent text messages from actor Ryan Reynolds. And the argument is, it put this whole story in a new context. You see, while Baldoni is accused of sexually harassing Reynolds' wife, Blake lively, he claims he was bullied and was ostracized with false allegations. So we're going to go through some of what was just posted on a new website launched by Baldoni's team. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

We knew this was coming. We knew this was going to happen. The timing of it is a different question. And the timing of this is something else because we knew from Justin Baldoni's lawyer, Brian Friedman, that they were planning on launching a website that would list more text messages and purported evidence in this ongoing legal feud between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. And this is, of course, after Lively filed her lawsuit against Baldoni and his production company and others, including a PR specialist and crisis management expert, Baldoni's attorney, Brian Friedman, said that they would release every single text message between Baldoni and lively and that they would launch a website, including all of the correspondence, and it appears they did just that. On Saturday, February 1st, a website was launched, www.

the lawsuit info.com, and it contains two giant PDF files. So one is an amended complaint in this case from Baldoni. It is 224 pages longer than the original 179-page complaint. It is now a consolidated action, meaning that Baldoni's lawsuit against Lively and Ryan Reynolds in the New York Times, and her suit against him will all be joined together as one. This was approved by the court. Freeman told CNN in a statement on Saturday, the decision to amend our lawsuit was a logical next step due to the overwhelming amount of new proof that has come to light.

And then there is the second PDF. on the website. And it is entitled Timeline of Relevant Events. Now, to be clear about this, this is Baldoni's version. This is Baldoni's side, right? These are his claims, his allegations of the series of events. However, these files provide a lot more purported material in this story that we need to go through. And to be clear, there are things in this timeline that are more specific or not laid out per se in the amended complaint, but they could very well be used at an upcoming trial, if this goes to trial. It's currently scheduled for March 2026. Now, before we get to all of this, I got to give you a little bit of a quick context and backstory to set up what we're

talking about here. So Blake lively sued Justin Baldoni, her former co-star and director of the movie it ends with us. This was first in the form of a CRD, a civil rights department complaint, before it matured into an actual federal lawsuit. She claims that Baldoni and others engaged in misconduct on set, including sexual harassment, whether that be allegedly improvising intimate scenes, allegedly fat shaming her, allegedly inappropriately discussing sex and pornography, allegedly violating protocols in place for nude seeds, and there's a lot more. And then she claims when she voiced these concerns, she alleges that Baldoni and his team devised a smear campaign against her, using the press and digital manipulation to turn public

sentiment against her, both online and in the media. So she sued him, his production company, Wayfair Studios, as I mentioned, his PR rep, a crisis management specialist, expert, Wayfarer executives, and others. Hey, everybody, this is a law and crime legal alert. So the Los Angeles wildfires are still making a tremendous impact. It's estimated that the wildfires cause more than $250 billion worth of damage. The loss of life immeasurable. And there are reports that insurance companies canceled thousands of homeowners fire policies in the months before the wildfires. Were those cancellations even legal? Will insurance companies be able to help people recover all that they lost? Well, I'll tell you what, Morgan and Morgan, America's largest

injury law firm is here to help because they were there for the Northern California wildfires. They were there in Maui, and now they're here for you and the families affected by these horrific fires. So if you've lost loved ones, your home, your business, your property, because of the Los Angeles wildfires, you can visit for the people.com. L.C. Fire, and you may be entitled to significant compensation. Now, Baldoni countersuit, claiming that all this are false allegations, and these were false allegations, according to him, that were weaponized by Lively, as well as her husband, Ryan Reynolds, to take control over the film from him, that he is the victim of being bullied

by Lively and Reynolds, including on one occasion where he claims he felt pressure to accept Lively's rewrites of a key scene because Reynolds and mega superstar Taylor Swift praised Lively's work in front of him. He also claims that Reynolds tried to get his talent agency to drop him. I want to keep that one in mind. We're going to revisit that one a little bit later. But Baldoni has also sued the New York Times too because he alleges that they illegally coordinated or colluded with Lively to release a bombshell article the day after she filed her initial complaint. And it was entitled, we can bury anyone inside a Hollywood smear machine. And he says this was filled with sloppy reporting.

It was one-sided. It was filled with false allegations against him. So now what happens? Baldoni and his team launched this website over the weekend. And I said the timing. The timing of this is something else. Why? Because what is actually happening on Monday?

Well, I will tell you, at the time of this recording, it's happening about two hours from now. But the first court hearing in this case is happening in New York federal court. And what is being discussed at this initial court hearing? That Lively and Reynolds have been trying to stop Brian Friedman from what they claim is essentially litigating this case in the media and the public. They have opposed all of his public comments and the release of information in this case because they claim not only has he been doing interviews and podcasts and speaking negatively about Lively, but he is also released

information and alleged evidence in this case, and that includes the now infamous behind-the-scenes footage of Baldoni and Lively filming that montage dance sequence for the film. Whereas Lively had claimed that Baldoni, during the scene, was creepily smelling her and improvising this intimate scene by caressing his lips on her body and so forth, a form of sexual harassment. Baldoni claims this footage helps to show that she was the one who broke character and made inappropriate remarks about him. And she actually was, laughing and she wasn't uncomfortable. So at a time when Lively and Reynolds filed papers with the court saying that Friedman is stepping over the line that he may be violating the rules of professional

conduct regarding out of court statements that may materially prejudice a case, namely improperly tainting a future jury pool, his team, Baldoni and his team launched this website two days before the hearing. I mean, you could argue that they did this to get all of that out there for the public to see before, let's say, the judge imposes a protective order preventing the parties from further publicly commenting on the case. It's all out there now. And remember, this fight between these two stars is just as important in the public as it is in the courtroom. Each has tried to reverse the bad press, the allegations that they face to win back public opinion. Lively has been categorized as mean and tone deaf when it comes to the promotion of a film.

regarding domestic violence, whereas he, Justin Baldoni, has been categorized as someone harassing a major celebrity during a film about a man abusing a woman. So they have been fighting this in the court of public opinion as well. And by the way, we're going to focus on that hearing that's happening in two hours. We're going to focus that in other sidebars. But right now, we want to talk about this website that was launched and these two new PDFs. So first and foremost, we got to talk about the major bombshell here, the Ryan Reynolds text messages. So these are apparently from February 28, 2023. And let me just provide you a bit of context to these, as laid out by the timeline from Baldoni. So, Baldoni options the rights to the book. It ends with us from Colleen

Hoover, the author. He and his production company, Wayfair, partner with Sony to distribute the film. Lively agrees to play the part of Lily Bloom and Lively and Baldoni are allegedly texting and allegedly joking around leading up to the production of this film. And she even introduced him to her trainer. In fact, I'll give you an example of this with respect to some of the texts. There are texts from February 9th, 23, where lively texts Baldoni, your friendship support helped me with that also, so thank you. And she even appeared to suggest she only has 20 pounds to go for her goal weight. And again, weight is really important here because there are two conflicting narratives about whether Baldoni was fat shaming Blake lively at one point, or whether

he had real concerns about her wait for a scene in which he had to lift her. So her bringing it up, that might be something that helps his case. But anyway, big point is they are building rapport at this point, or they're seemingly building rapport at this point. And by the way, this exchange is actually interesting because on February 14th, where Baldoni claims that he had been writing the script and sending revisions to lively, he writes her, been deep into writing, really fun with you in mind, fun, not. right word and puts an emoji and then an exciting emoji face and then lively responded,

you're safe here with a smiling face emoji and prayer hands emoji. That is significant, in my opinion, her saying you're safe here because he could make the argument that that signal to him that he didn't have to worry about his choice of words, that he could speak freely. That's an important consideration as we move forward into claims that he crossed the line into sexual harassment on set. There was another text exchange between the two where when talking about a scene, she writes Baldoni, quote, if you knew me in person longer, you'd have a sense of how flirty and yummy the ball busting would play. It's my love language, spicy and playfully bold, never with teeth. So look, at the very least, he could make the argument that she was the one who had no

issue talking provocatively and speaking like this, and she was the one who crossed the line. That's an argument he could potentially make. So let's go back to Ryan Reynolds. So Baldoni says that by February 17th, Lively was expressing concerns about her body and the sex scenes, and he's allegedly reassuring her not to worry about it that they will figure this out creatively. So again, this is all at the very beginning. And then we get to February 28, 2023. So Baldoni sends a long text message to actor Ryan Reynolds.

Again, Lively's husband. He is an A-list star. And it says in part, quote, hey Ryan, Justin Baldoni here, the guy who brought his, and I think it says internal baggage to his meeting with your wife, I asked Blake for your number well over a month ago and have wanted to text you for a while now, but he says his nerves got the best of him. And he goes on to say how he and his wife Emily have a small circle and they hang out with each other and he doesn't really have any close female friends, let alone married ones.

So he writes Reynolds, and so I guess this is just an awkward text to say I'd like to be friends. I'm happy there's no check yes or no box. And now he indicates that Lively wrote a similar message to his wife, Emily, and he says that made him respect her and her union with Ryan Reynolds even more. He writes, Reynolds, I've been a supporter and admirer from afar of both of yours for years. You are in a class of your own. So now we have Ryan Reynolds' apparent text message, his response. And it reads, hey Justin, sorry for the delay.

I've been in a writing cave and the girls are sick. again. I'm told they have an immune system, but it's in beta testing. It's kind of funny seeing his humor that we've come to know from him from the movies and interviews actually coming out in this message. But he continues, what a loving and generous message. Thank you. We're both looking forward to getting to know you and your family better. We're also big fans over here since before we met and more so after. You've been a wonderful collaborator with B, meaning Blake lively. And that means a great deal to both of us. Being a stand-up person is everything. And you've been just that since day one. Thank you. You've hit the jackpot with B. She literally passes on

every film and every filmmaker all the time. But one thing I know, and I speak from a deep wellspring of experience here, having her in your court behind the scenes as a creative is invaluable. I'm certain, and then something is redacted, would say the same. Some of the greatest creative decisions I've made are, in fact, Blake. The same goes for, redacted. The acting is a small piece of a pretty astounding patchwork quilt of creativity. More than anything, I rely on her taste. Far beyond movies, really on her taste for all aspects of my businesses. That multi-dimensional creative output is something I can see in both of you.

I'm excited for you to work together. I'm excited for Blake to crack open her creative piggy bank with someone as dynamic as you. This is going to be incredible. Now, before I move on to the rest of the message, one argument could be this was all well, intention, right? Ryan Reynolds speaking lovingly of his wife, hyping her up, trying to do the right thing, that it was Baldoni, who broke their trust in the end by harassing Blake Lively. The argument could be that this is already Reynolds allegedly putting the pressure on Baldoni to accept Lively's direction and suggestions. Just something to keep in mind. All right, let's move on.

So Reynolds continues, and thank you for understanding what it means to me personally to have my family reunited as soon as possible. Nothing means more to her either. I can promise you. We're hardwired for keeping our family together. It's how to win us and also how to kill us when we can't. We never split up, ever. It was a huge thing for us on this film.

I tried to push our start date but Marvel Book Studios last July. This is in regards to his film Marvel Studios, Deadpool and Wolverine, which released last summer. He goes on to say, I've been frantically smashing out my third pass of the script to address structural changes, but mostly to get our budget down and shorten the shoot so I can fly. back with the girls when school starts. We see and appreciate that you already move significantly to make it work with her schedule because of the film she's already committed to, which thankfully she was able to gracefully, and I can't read that word. And then he writes this, all this to say I'd have your line producer face tattooed to my perineum. If he, she, they can figure out how to start

two weeks earlier. Now, I'm not going to tell you what a perineum is, but look it up and you'll see. Very Deadpool-esque kind of humor. And then Reynolds continues. you completely understand how big of an ass that is, but the perineum is one of the most nervy parts of the human body to expose to trauma. So, looking forward to seeing you, and thank you again for all you're doing. I happen to adore you, Justin. XO. By the way, that XO could actually be in reference to Gossip Girl, the end tagline at the end of each episode, which of course lively starred in. But Baldoni ended up responding, this is the sweetest. Now, let's be clear about something. These messages were way before all the alleged drama, right? It's not like this came

out in the middle of the conflict or the production. So it's not like they're saying, oh, you know, there were all these problems, but look what Ryan Reynolds is texting Justin Baldoni. No, no, no, no. This was before all of this. So why is it relevant to the conversation? Because you could make the argument. It's more like, look how all of this started. Look how Baldoni was behaving. Look how much they adored Justin Baldoni or seemingly adored him. Do you believe that what they're saying about him? Do you believe that given all this that Baldoni is the kind of person who just all of a sudden sexually harassed Blake lively on set and invaded her personal space and devised a devious smear campaign against her? Now, I will say he's the director and the co-star

if this was a repeated pattern of inappropriate comments, even if he felt that Lively was being personal and that he had the best intentions and that he developed this rapport with her, legally that might not cut it. A court could say, or a jury could say, that is sexual harassment. That's a hostile work environment. A set may not quite be an accounting office, but the workplace rules and regulations regarding hostile work environments, they apply. And let's not forget what lively alleges in her complaint. Despite how this relationship seemed to start between Reynolds and Baldoni, she claimed it devolved into Baldoni trying to turn the public against Ryan Reynolds. So as good as this looked, maybe she can make the argument, is Baldoni

really who he claims to be? Because what did her complaint say? Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Sarowitz, along with Mr. Heath, so Steve Sarowitz has been described as a co-founder, co-chairman, and financier of Baldoni's production company Wayfarer. Heath is the company CEO. She alleges that all three, quote, not only encouraged efforts to target Ms. Lively and her family, but they went as far as to provide input and ideas on ways to negatively influence the narrative against Ms. Lively and her family. And one of the ways that she tries to prove that is by presenting a text message exchange from Baldoni with his PR and crisis management team. And Baldoni apparently texts, quote, my partner Steve asked about flipping the narrative

from this leak this AM about Ryan, presuming that to be Ryan Reynolds, saying the script was a disaster and he saved the movie to something about Ryan claiming the female hired was feminist writer, didn't know how to tackle a female film, etc., using their own words against them. The allegation being that here Baldoni tried to manipulate this to look like Ryan Reynolds was anti-feminist. Again, tracking that back to the messages he had with Ryan Reynolds at the beginning, very, very different.

Now remember, Baldoni would argue that he was only. trying to do damage control here, that he didn't want to really go after Ryan Reynolds or Blake Lively, but he's on the defensive posture. They came out against him, that he was being falsely accused of engaging in misconduct on set. That's why he hired these PR and crisis management professionals and was trying to engage in a defensive media campaign. Now, Lively insists that this was him proactively going after her and her family and turning the press and community against her and her family because she came forward with her allegations against him. So again, two competing narratives.

But talking Ryan Reynolds, though, and talking Deadpool and Wolverine, by the way, there was some commentary out there that a specific character in that movie may have actually been based on Justin Baldoni as a way to make fun of him after the falling out between Baldoni and Lively and Reynolds. Well, I'll tell you what, for Baldoni's part, that allegation has now been confirmed in this new amended complaint. So this is new. It reads. Throughout this period, Reynolds and Lively continued to leave breadcrumbs in their campaign for mocking and bullying Baldoni. On July 26, 2024, the film Deadpool and Wolverine premiered, starring Reynolds. The film contained a new

character named Nicepool, also portrayed by Reynolds. Reynolds portrayed Nicepool as a vicious caricature of a woke feminist before concluding the character's arc, with his violent shooting death at the hands of Ladypool, a character voiced by Blake Lively. Upon information and belief, the Nice Pool scenes were added to the movie and filmed in January 2024 after the January 4th confrontation

in Reynolds and Lively's apartment and were intended to be a transparent and mocking portrayal Reynolds' warped perception of Baldoni. Nice Pull commented inappropriately on a female character's attractive body after childbirth and excused the remark by claiming he identified as a feminist. Nicepool also made reference to an intimacy coordinator and even used a hairstyle

that mirrored Baldoni's previously longer hair. This is further borne out by the fact that in the credits for it ends with us, lively expressly thanked Gordon Reynolds, the false name that Reynolds used for his credit for portraying Nice Pool. So not only do you see the connection, but a lot of the characteristics and a lot of the topics brought up by Nice Pool are things that came out during the course of it ends with us, right? The whole thing about whether or not there was an intimacy coordinator, the whole conversation about the childbirth scene, the whole conversation of Blake Lively's weight. So you can see why they're saying that Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively were making fun of

Justin Baldoni here. And just to give you a little bit more context here, if the allegation is true that he's acting like a feminist warrior when he's not, the reason that's important and significant is because remember, Justin Baldoni had co-hosted a podcast called Man Enough that was described on its website as the Man Enough podcast explores what it means to be a man today and how rigid gender roles have affected all people. The show creates a safe environment for a range of perspectives to meet and stay at the table, exploring how the messages of masculinity show up in relationships, body image, privilege, fatherhood, sex, success, mental health, and so much more.

Instead of polarizing and demonizing men and masculinity, and invites all humans to participate and thrive in the world. He has also written books such as Boys Will Be Human, a Get Real gut-check guide to becoming the strongest, kindest, bravest person you can be. But again, as lively explains in her complaint, quote, on information and belief, Mr. Baldoni was desperate to suppress any suggestion that he engaged in inappropriate conduct, much less sexually harassing conduct, because it would entirely undermine his carefully curated public image as a feminist ally. So, with that in mind, was the character of Nice Pool, now based on Justin Baldoni? I'm sure that will be argued and talked about to come.

Now, talking Ryan Reynolds for a minute, there's something else that came out from these documents, these PDF files on the new website. So Baldoni has made the argument that essentially Blake Lively hijacked the movie, that she boxed him out of all marketing and promotional efforts of the film, that he didn't agree to the marketing plan for the movie.

And she claims she and the cast agreed to market the film as more inspirational and hopeful and focus on positivity, not the darker elements of domestic violence, which is what Baldoni claims he wanted the film and the press and the promotion to be about, what he talked about when discussing the film. Keeping that in mind,

now we come to the part of the timeline where Baldoni and his team talk about Reynolds and his production company Maximum effort. June 20th to 24, 2024. Abel, this is Baldoni's publicist, email Sony's marketing team to inquire about a content shoot that lively seemingly coordinated

with maximum effort, Ryan Reynolds production company. Sony at the time of the initial outreach by Abel was not aware of the plans for the shoot, which were planned for June 27th, 28. Later, Sony attested to the fact that lively and maximum effort were, quote, running the show. Abel was understandably concerned at the optics of the entire cast doing a content shoot without the director and co-lead being present. This would later be something that the public would take notice of as well

and heightened the rumors and negative press that lively would take issue with. June 28th, 2024. Lively and Reynolds Company, Maximum Effort, organized a content shoot for the film's promotional campaign with the entire cast and author of the book, minus Baldoni, of course. The content shoot included the cast making flower arrangements, baking cookies, playing pictonery, collage making, and other concepts developed by the maximum effort team in support of the film's promotion. They later posed for seemingly staged paparazzi photos before having dinner together. July 2nd, 2024. On a Zoom video conference between Wayfair and Sony marketing, Wayfair learned that Sony had been dealing with extensive notes and revisions to the

marketing plan as a result of the content shoot. Because Sony ended up hiring Reynolds company maximum effort to produce the promotional content for the film, the cost for the shoot significantly increased due to their fee being higher than what Sony had originally budgeted. Notably, the charge was despite Lively's claim in a January 2020, text to Baldoni that Maxim effort would work free for the family as shown below. Now, this is interesting because Baldoni produces that conversation, that conversation between him and Lively from January 26, 2023, and Lively does appear to text Baldoni, quote, Max effort is on board to help as much or as little as you want.

Let me know. To which Baldoni responds, I'm going to push to hire Max effort. Lively reportedly responds, but all is led by me, Ryan. and then the next name is redacted. So we'll make sure to weed out any lame ideas. They don't need to hire, and we work for free for the family. It's mafia style on this. Now, moving forward, the timeline does something else.

The timeline document does provide a bit more details about Baldoni's claim from his complaint that Reynolds allegedly told Baldoni's talent agency, WME, that they're working with a sexual predator and subsequently told them to drop him. So in the timeline, it reads, this is a big allegation, quote, July 15, 2024. Wayfarers informed that Reynolds contacted Baldoni's personal agent at WME. During the call, Reynolds escalates his attack on Baldoni's character, calling him a, quote, deranged predator. Baldoni's agent relays to Wayfarer that he did his best to reason with Reynolds and challenged the absurd claims, but Reynolds was unwilling to consider any counter-narrative.

Reynolds reiterated that Baldoni should not attend the premiere on August 6th, stating, no one wants him there. When Baldoni's agent shares this conversation with Baldoni and Heath, both are disturbed by Reynolds' continued efforts to damage Baldoni's reputation within the agency. So yeah, quite the allegation. We'll see you how that one develops. But there are other details that came out through this timeline and the amended complaint. We won't be able to go through everything, but you've got to call out something else. This one is something. So you know the whole drama surrounding the birthing scene? More specifically, Lively's claims? that Baldoni and Heath pressured her to simulate full nudity, despite her claim that there is no

previous agreement for her to do that. She said there was no prior choreography with an intimacy coordinator on this. The set was chaotic. The set wasn't closed. They didn't follow the industry protocols for these types of scenes. But she also said in her complaint, to add insult to injury, Mr. Heath approached Ms. Lively and her assistant on set and started playing a video of a fully nude woman with her legs spread apart. Ms. Lively thought he was showing her pornography and stopped him. Mr. Heath explained that the video was his wife giving birth, and she actually demanded in a January 2024 meeting, and there was something that Baldoni and Wayfair apparently

agreed to, this 30-point list of conditions and demands that would need to be insured and met before production resumed on the movie. And that included no more showing nude videos or images of women, including producer's wife, to Blake Lively and her employees. Now, Baldoni counters that and asserts that Lively's claim that she was shown pornography or naked images of Heath's wife on set, and this is from his complaint, quote, knowingly and maliciously misrepresents what happened. And in this timeline PDF and embedded in this document is a still image from what Baldoni

and his team claimed to be was the video of this real life birth, actually, including that image. As described in the timeline document, quote, Heath appeared to share this deeply personal video and approached Lively with the video in hand. He proceeded to show her one second of it before Lively asked if Heath had permission to share the video, to which Heath confirmed that he did. Lively stated she would like to see the video but asked to watch it after finishing her lunch. By the way, she could make the argument. I was just saying whatever I needed to say. I didn't want to look at this video, but I just tried to get away from it in a kind of a polite way, but I was very uncomfortable. That's an argument that she can make.

The timeline document continues. Heath did not press the matter and moved on. No, Lively never did see the video beyond the one second clip shown to her. The video in question showed Heath and his wife cradling their newborn daughter post-birth. Notably, his wife was not in labor in the video. In fact, the video begins with the cries of the baby while she's resting on her mother's chest. A still image of this moment is included below. Heath's wife remains covered with a towel for the duration of the video submerged in water and holding her newborn.

This entire interaction between Heath and Lively lasted less than 30 seconds. Lively later likened this one second clip to pornography and stated that Heath showed her a video of a fully nude woman with her legs spread apart. The attempt to transform this benign event into an act of sexual misconduct is intentionally offensive, and to characterize a photo with a newborn baby as pornography is perverse. Now, I've always felt from a legal point of view, that could be problematic for Justin Baldoni. The counter argument could be, you know, him showing this. this video, no matter how long, no matter how well-intentioned it may be, could be a violation of workplace rules. Now, one more thing that came out during the course of this timeline

document that I wanted to address is the allegations of what happened after Lively filed her complaint. For instance, to arguably demonstrate Lively's alleged bad faith, Baldoni alleges that on January 7, 2025, Lively had attempted to physically serve Baldoni and his team the lawsuit, quote, during the Los Angeles wildfires going as far as to serve a member of Baldoni's team while they attempted to evacuate with their small child. But there's something more. Baldoni and his team seem to claim that we have evidence to prove that the New York Times improperly coordinated, conspired, colluded with Blake lively and her team on the release of that bombshell article that I mentioned before, before it was

published. And remember, Baldoni says that this article was rife with false allegations and the Times didn't do their due diligence, that they relied on cherry-picked out-of-context communications to advance a certain narrative. So Baldoni claims that Lively had worked for months with the New York Times to, quote, prepare a false and damaging narrative. And the timeline document says that on January 24th, 2025, Baldoni and his team claim that is when they learned that the main imagery that was used in this article, namely the photos of Baldoni and Lively that were used in this article. It has, according to him, metadata creation timestamps days before the article was published on December 21st, 2024. So in other words, the New York Time was preparing to release

this, that the main Baldoni image that headlines the article was finalized on December 16th, 2024, that, quote, additional Smeer Baldoni imagery existing within the article on December 18th, 2024. So the timeline document continues that on January 26, 2025, quote, it is determined that the promotional video for the lively smear campaign article was finalized on December 12th, 2024. The video preload static imagery for promotion inside the article itself was created on December 17th, 2024. By the way, all these dates are important because he will make the argument that when the New York Times reporter came forward, they didn't even give them enough time

to properly respond to this. And the New York Times seemingly has been working on this for quite some time. There's also this, January 27, 2025. Valdoni writes, the Wayfair parties found 41 instances of an October 31st, 2024 timestamp related to text message storage

and styling into BirdKit, which are believed to be the content management system for the Times. So that is two months before the article's publication. Again, these are all their allegations. We don't know if all this digital evidence is true, but this is what's being put forward by Baldoni. January 28th, 2024.

It is confirmed that the PDF version of the CRD, that's the, again, the initial complaint that was filed by Lively, was indexed on New York Times domain on December 10th, 20th. Lively filed her complaint, by the way, on December 20th. So, in other words, the New York Times had her complaint even before she filed it. Now, Beldoni and his team advised, quote, this does not necessarily represent the first time that the file was indexed by Google, just that it was indexed on this date. In order to accurately determine the first indexation data would be required from the New York

Times Google Search console account. But then, they say how on January 29th, 2025, so just a few days ago, after performing a deeper analysis, the following was found. The JSON schema exposes the smear promo imagery was set for consumption at the end webpage level on December 18, 2024. In the highlighted images, there is a reference to smear promo Google, which means that objects imagery was intended to be consumed most likely as either Google News Direct feed or as a Google AdWords ad unit. There are also multiple versions of these images. The V2 and V3 suggest they went through multiple iterations before arriving at what could be used on December 18th.

In other words, the allegation was the New York Times, and Lively were planning this for quite some time. Now, the New York Times responded to this. They released a statement yesterday on Sunday. A spokesperson told the following to us weekly, quote, The Baldoni Wayfair illegal filings are rife with inaccuracies about the New York Times, including, for example, the bogus claim that the Times had early access to Ms. Lively's state civil rights complaint.

Mr. Baldoni's lawyers based their erroneous claim on postings by amateur internet sleuths, who not surprisingly are wrong. The slews have noted that a version of the lively state complaint published by the Times carries the date December 10th, even though the complaint wasn't filed until more than a week later. The problem? That date is generated by Google software and is unrelated to the date when the Times received it and posted it. So, there you go. Some of the main points that we wanted to hit in these new documents.

And my gosh, there is no telling where this case is going to go next. But I tell you what, we will follow it with you every step of the way. we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. or Spotify.