Blake Lively stepped out last night with her niece, Kate, at a Chanel event in New York just hours after news broke that the presiding judge in the legal dispute between her and Justin Baldoni had dismissed Justin’s countersuit against her.
He was suing her for $400 million defamation and extortion and the New York Times for $250 million and his case against the NYT has now gone away. The core issues of his case against Blake are now dismissed. He has two remaining potential claims should he choose to amend for breach of implied covenant and tortious interference with contract. As I said yesterday, it was a win for Blake but the relief is only temporary. Because, of course, she is suing Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and retaliation and she and her legal team will have to prove that in court next year, obviously she’s not guaranteed to win. But the relief is also temporary because, naturally, Justin Baldoni and his lawyers have been playing the PR game this whole time and aren’t about to stop now.
So, the latest this morning, a statement from Justin’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman with the spin, as expected:
“Ms. Lively and her team’s predictable declaration of victory is false, so let us be clear about the latest ruling. While the court dismissed the defamation related claims, the court has invited us to amend four out of the seven claims against Ms. Lively, which will showcase additional evidence and refined allegations. This case is about false accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation and a nonexistent smear campaign, which Ms. Lively’s own team conveniently describes as ‘untraceable’ because they cannot prove what never happened.”
“The court has invited us” seems like a stretch to me after reading the 132-page opinion by the judge but, whatever, I’m not a legal expert, I study media and public relations and this take by Bryan Freedman is all about turning a loss into a pivot and reframing the setback into a call to arms to reengage and rile up Justin’s supporters. This is made clear in the next part of the statement – particular emphasis on the last sentence:
“Most importantly, Ms. Lively’s own claims are no truer today than they were yesterday, and with the facts on our side, we march forward with the same confidence that we had when Ms. Lively and her cohorts initiated this battle and look forward to her forthcoming deposition, which I will be taking. We are grateful for the organic show of support from the public and for the dedication of the Internet sleuth community who continue to cover the case with discernment and integrity.”
It's a craven appeal to an online mob that has never operated with “discernment” or integrity, LOL. And to stress that the support is “organic” is a joke. But, whatever, if the legal tactic is to appeal to the internet for help, I guess you could make the argument that that’s his job as a lawyer to assist his client by any means necessary. It’s not like it hasn’t been working for him. Because as I keep repeating, it was good news for Blake in real court yesterday but she’s probably already lost in the court of public opinion. And the Baldoni side will continue to mobilise the public against her and inflame those who’ve made it a personal crusade to take her down. This strategy has been working for months and you can see the impact below – video of Jake Tapper’s interview with Blake’s lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, on CNN yesterday.
It isn’t until more than halfway through the interview, in fact it only comes up in the final third, like practically at the end (!!!) that Jake says to Michael Gottlieb, “Remind us again, what is that, what is [Blake] suing [for]…”
Remind us again!
Because what no one seems to be talking about is sexual harassment and retaliation, that’s the basis of her lawsuit – and you will note, as of now, HER LAWSUIT is pretty much the only one that’s in effect. His lawsuit has been dismissed. Her lawsuit is active, not dismissed, very much in play, in which she is accusing him of sexual harassment and retaliation. Even though Taylor Swift comes up in the conversation before those issues do!
But if we have to talk about the Taylor Swift of it all, Taylor Swift and dragons and Khaleesi etc etc etc only came up in the first place because Justin and his lawyers included those details in his countersuit. What countersuit? You mean the one that was just dismissed? Yes, that one! The now-dismissed countersuit is the reason why we know about dragon texts and the rest of it. Putting it in a countersuit that is NOT getting its day in real court was the way to get it into the court of public opinion.
Now that Justin’s lawyers are saying that they will “showcase additional evidence and refined allegations”, presumably they’ll be continuing to lead the conversation away from sexual harassment and retaliation and keep the public obsessed with Taylor and Blake’s friendship and drama and not wondering why, if his case was so strong with the “facts on our side”, they wouldn’t have already had their evidence and “refined” their allegations in the first place?
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