Blake Lively’s motion to strike a letter and an affidavit from Justin Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, was granted yesterday in New York. The letter and the affidavit became one of the most explosive twists in this crazy case, with Bryan Freedman alleging in both the letter and affidavit that he heard from an anonymous source with ties to Taylor Swift that Blake’s lawyer was extorting Taylor, pushing for her to publicly support Blake and threatening to release personal text messages if she didn’t comply.
Judge Lewis J Liman not only struck the letter and the affidavit, he had sharp words for Justin Baldoni and his legal team in the decision. Judge Liman called the letter and the affidavit “improper” and “irrelevant” and says that the letter’s only purpose is to “promote public scandal by advancing inflammatory accusations” and “transparently invites a press uproar”.
This is a small win for Blake Lively although it doesn’t really feel like one. Because there’s been very little attention paid to the judge striking the letter and the affidavit, not much attention paid to the wording in his decision – which reads like a rebuke and also a warning as it ends on this note:
“Counsel is advised that future misuse of the Court’s docket may be met with sanctions.” Future misuse suggests that there was misuse in the present and should the Baldoni team try it again, there could be consequences.
But even though the judge has called these claims unserious, and will not be considered in the court case in New York, the claims themselves have been shared widely. There are fewer people on the internet who are aware that they’ve been stricken than there are people talking about the details. In the court of public opinion, there are a lot of people who consider what Bryan Freedman has alleged to be the truth, especially since he signed the affidavit under oath. So while the court granting Blake’s motion technically represents a small legal win for her, in the court of public opinion, it’s a bigger loss because now there’s the speculation that she actually threatened Taylor Swift and even more speculation about whether or not this is one of the reasons they’re not friends anymore, supposedly. Which then adds to the obsession over the status of their relationship. The title bout now is no longer Lively v Baldoni, it’s Lively v Swift. It’s not a woman accusing a man of sexual harassment, it’s two women pitted against each other – the kind of gossip that’s like crack for a gossip junkie.
Justin Baldoni’s legal team understands this, clearly specialises in this kind of “flooding the zone” media strategy. It’s their job to protect their client and advance his position – by this measure, they’re doing a great job. They have succeeded relentlessly, for months, in vilifying Blake to the benefit of Justin, at least in the minds of the public. Which must be part of the strategy, even in situations like this one where the play doesn’t necessarily work in court. Because, again, nobody is talking about sexual harassment which is what Blake’s complaint against Justin is actually about. We’re talking about two famous women beefing, we’re talking about text messages, we’re talking about dragons and song titles but we are definitely not talking about sexual harassment. This, by the way, is how DARVO works. And one of the consequences of that is that the woman who makes the claim of sexual harassment is increasingly isolated.
So on that note, shortly after Judge Liman struck the letter an affidavit, before that news could even take hold, it was pushed off the front page by a PEOPLE exclusive about how Blake and Taylor’s friendship has “halted”. One source tells PEOPLE that “Taylor wants no part in this drama”. Another source says that while the two are “indeed taking some space” they are “not no longer friends”.
And Gigi Hadid has entered that chat as other sources tell PEOPLE that it’s not just Taylor but also Gigi Hadid who’s distancing herself from Blake.
Since it’s PEOPLE, and PEOPLE is super pro-celebrity, this report sounds way more legit than if it had come from the Daily Mail or some sh-t. Many are convinced that Taylor’s rep Tree Paine signed off on placing the story there, even though Entertainment Tonight is usually where the most reliable Taylor stories get reported.
Assuming that Taylor and Tree really did leak to PEOPLE, though, after just releasing an on-the-record statement a few days ago in response to the subpoena about wanting to be excluded from this whole mess, what would be the point of then letting everyone know that she’s not f-cking with Blake right now? If this is indeed true that Taylor – and Gigi – are no longer tight with Blake, it’s a confusing strategic move from Team Swift. Because that’s the big ass headline right now. She is still the main character in this story, in fact she has further entrenched herself as the main character in this story. Is this a rare Tree Paine fumble? Or are PEOPLE’s sources sus?
It almost doesn’t matter, and certainly not to Justin Baldoni advocates. The women here taking all the heat while he chills in the background, content for once to be in a supporting role.
