
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are asking the court to silence Justin Baldoni’s lawyer after the attorney released footage from the It Ends With Us set.
Us Weekly confirmed Lively, 37, and Reynolds, 48, filed a letter in court on Tuesday, January 21. According to docs obtained by Us, Lively and Reynolds want a protective order to stop Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, from engaging in “improper conduct” such as an alleged “harassing and retaliatory media campaign” against the couple.
Lively and Reynolds claimed that Freedman is violating court rules that stop a lawyer from addressing the press with statements that are not related to the case and might prejudice the jury.
Us reached out to reps for Lively and Baldoni, 40, for comment.
Blake Lively Breaks Silence on Justin Baldoni ‘It Ends With Us’ Footage
After Lively and Reynolds’ filing, sources close to Baldoni told Us it’s “grossly unfair to impose a gag order after Justin has been defamed by the New York Times in an article that they say has cost him three jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars.” (After Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment in a December 2024 lawsuit, which he denied, Baldoni and other plaintiffs fired back by suing The New York Times, who broke the news.)
The insider adds that Baldoni wants to “release videos and text messages to prove the allegations are false” and notes that it’s “unbelievable” that Lively “would go on a takedown campaign against Justin and then immediately turn around and say she wants a gag order so that Justin can’t defend himself.”

The filing came one day after Baldoni’s lawyer released the video in an attempt to disprove Lively’s side of the story. The footage obtained by Us on Tuesday began with a statement that read, “Ms. Lively’s complaint alleges that during a scene Mr. Baldoni and Ms. Lively were filming for a slow dance montage, Mr. Baldoni was behaving inappropriately. The following videos captured on May 23, 2023, clearly refute Ms. Lively’s characterization of his behavior. The scene in question was designed to show the two characters falling in love and longing to be close to one another. Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism. These are all three takes filmed of the sequence.”
The slow dance montage showcased footage that is widely debated in Lively and Baldoni’s respective lawsuits. In the video, Lively and Baldoni are seen discussing his nose (the moment where he claimed in court docs she told him to get a nose job) and talking about the smell of her spray tan.
Justin Baldoni Lawyer Releases On-Set Video to Try to Disprove Blake Lively: Watch
When Baldoni nuzzled Lively on the neck and asked if he was “getting beard” on her, she replied with a laugh, “I’m probably getting spray tan on you,” to which he said, “It smells good.” Lively added, “Well, it’s not that. It’s my body makeup.” (Lively alleged in her filing that Baldoni’s comments were not “remotely in character.”)
After the video was released, Freedman said in a statement to Us: “Us received this video from legal counsel, Bryan Freedman who has gone on record numerous times and told the public that Justin Baldoni and team has nothing to hide and this video, once more proves this. Justin and team have the right to defend themselves with the truth and this is what we will be continuing to show with the upcoming website containing all correspondence as well as relevant videos that directly quash her claims.”
In response, Lively’s legal team slammed Baldoni and his team for choosing to publicly share the video.
“Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning. Every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what Ms. Lively described in Paragraph 48 of her Complaint,” Lively’s legal team said in a statement to Us on Tuesday. “The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character.”
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The statement continued: “Every moment of this was improvised by Mr. Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance and no intimacy coordinator present. Mr. Baldoni was not only Ms. Lively’s costar, but the director, the head of [the] studio and Ms. Lively’s boss. The video shows Ms. Lively leaning away and repeatedly asking for the characters to just talk. Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort. They will recognize her attempts at levity to try to deflect the unwanted touching. No woman should have to take defensive measures to avoid being touched by their employer without their consent.”
The message concluded, “This matter is in active litigation in federal court. Releasing this video to the media, rather than presenting it as evidence in court, is another example of an unethical attempt to manipulate the public. It is also a continuation of their harassment and retaliatory campaign. While they are focused on misleading media narratives, we are focused on the legal process. We are continuing our efforts to require Mr. Baldoni and his associates to answer in court, under oath, rather than through manufactured media stunts.”