Why Blake Lively Is Now Desperate To Get Out Of Justin Baldoni’s Lawsuit

If you’ve been paying attention to the ongoing legal battle between actress Blake Lively and her “It Ends With Us” costar and director, Justin Baldoni, you’ve probably learned that Lively’s lawyers filed a motion this week in order to get out of the lawsuit filed against her.

Although no one wants to have a lawsuit filed against them, especially not to the tune of $400 million, the “Gossip Girl” alum has been accused of “abusing the system” and her behavior has been described as “abhorrent” by Baldoni’s legal team.

On Thursday, March 20, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman issued a statement after Blake Lively tried to remove herself from the lawsuit Baldoni brought against her, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and their respective teams.

“Ms. Lively’s recent motion to dismiss herself from the self-concocted disaster she initiated is one of the most abhorrent examples of abusing our legal system,” he said in the statement, as previously reported by The Blast.

“Stringent rules are put into place to protect the innocent and allow individuals to rightfully defend themselves,” he continued. “Laws are not meant to be twisted and curated by privileged elites to fit their own personal agenda.”

He went on to say, “As we said yesterday in response to Mr. Reynolds’ same cowardly measures, we will continue to hold Ms. Lively accountable for her actions of pure malice which include falsely accusing my clients of harassment and retaliation.”

Her fantastical claims will be swiftly debunked as discovery moves forward, easily disproved with actual, evidentiary proof,” he added.

Lively’s team was quick to fire back, claiming that Freedman has “no legal arguments remotely capable of dismissing our complaint,” adding, “They have instead accepted that Ms. Lively’s complaint states valid legal claims that they could not muster a single reason to dismiss.”

At this point, it is unlikely that any judge is going to let Lively – or her husband, for that matter – off the hook. Instead, it is more likely that they are going to meet in the courtroom and duke things out face-to-face in a trial that is currently scheduled to begin next year. Although it is possible that the two could reach a settlement before that date, Freedman says that Baldoni is eager to clear his name in the courtroom.

“Justin has been destroyed by this,” Freedman said during a March 12 episode of the podcast The Town. “This is a really serious thing and in this day and age, the only way that you can truly get back is to prove your innocence… That’s what we’re actively working [towards]. So that may only be able to be done in a courtroom.”

While Baldoni is eager to clear his name from Blake Lively’s sexual harassment charges, it looks like many are starting to turn their backs on the “A Simple Favor” actress. Lively’s “It Ends With Us” costar Jenny Slate had nothing to say when asked about the case in a recent interview, despite publicly supporting Lively in the past.

Another “It Ends With Us” costar, Brandon Sklenar, appeared to have worn the same pin to an Oscars party that Justin Baldoni wore to an “It Ends With Us” premiere. More famously, pop star Taylor Swift reportedly “wasn’t happy” being drawn into their legal battle. There are conflicting reports on the state of their relationship, but one source told TMZ that the singer "resents" Lively for "calling her one of her dragons."

The insider said that Swift was "baffled" by Lively calling her a "dragon," noting: "It's weird to say that about a friend." The source went on to say that Lively has been "inappropriately leveraging her name for a long time, like telling a young actress that Taylor 'cast her,' which simply did not happen."

Judging by the evidence that has been revealed so far, Lively is desperate to get out of this lawsuit and avoid her name being dragged through the mud even further. She’s already faced a considerable amount of backlash after she claimed that she has a “secret plan” to take over any movie she’s cast in, which has led at least one commentator to call her a “serial fraudster.”

Add in the fact that she may not have told the truth about a lift scene being present in the film, and her credibility starts to fall apart. In a sexual harassment case, credibility is the most important thing a survivor has. But with the way Ryan Reynolds has been joking about the case and her own attorney bringing up alleged “profound mental issues” that she may or may not have, it’s starting to seem like she filed the lawsuit out of vengeance than distress.

Baldoni is desperate to clear his name and restore his reputation, while Lively seems to keep digging further down the rabbit hole. The real question is: how far will she go?