Blake Lively‘s publicist has asked to be removed from Justin Baldoni‘s lawsuit!
In a motion to dismiss filed on Thursday in New York federal court obtained by People, Blake and Ryan Reynolds‘ publicist Leslie Sloane asked the court to remove her and her firm Vision PR from Justin’s countersuit and to cover their legal fees.
Her attorney Sigrid McCawley said in the filing that they were “dragged” into the legal fight as a “smoke and mirrors exercise to distract from” the Gossip Girl star’s allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation — despite there being no “basis” for accusing Leslie of planting “malicious stories” or launching a “smear campaign.”
Related: Blake Claims THIS Justin Clip Supports Her Claims He’s A Predator!
Leslie was also accused of extortion, which her lawyers claim isn’t proved in the suit. They argued Justin’s attorneys didn’t “identify where or how the alleged extortion occurred” or how she “received anything of value because of that extortion.”
Elsewhere in the filing, Leslie defended Blake against the director — and she had a BRUTAL take on his lawsuit, which has framed the case to be about a creative struggle over the Colleen Hoover film as opposed to Blake’s serious accusations. Her lawyers wrote:
“Baldoni’s allegations about the creative issues are irrelevant and tellingly sexist. Because Ms. Lively — an executive producer on the film — dared to offer input on the script, wardrobe and editing, Baldoni blasts her as ‘tyrannical’ and ‘aggressive,’ among other coded terms.”
Oof!
The docs stated elsewhere:
“The Wayfarer Parties’ allegations about Blake Lively boil down to: she was too ambitious, too outspoken, and she should have accepted Baldoni’s bizarre and abusive practices without complaint no matter how uncomfortable they made her and other women on set.”
Leslie’s legal team even claimed Justin doesn’t “deny the lion’s share of misconduct for which he is accused” but has just been trying to “contextualize his behavior and suggest that Ms. Lively asked for it.” The lawyer also argued that despite “profiting off the feminist and #MeToo movements” for years, the Jane the Virgin star is the one “continuing with his ongoing campaign to discredit and blame his victims and punish anyone who speaks out against him.” Jeez.
Referencing texts his crisis expert was caught sending, they continued:
“When Ms. Lively bravely spoke up about Baldoni’s predatory behavior, he and his team used every weapon in their arsenal to blame, embarrass and silence her, going so far as to hire a crisis PR manager who promised to ‘bury’ Ms. Lively and ‘destroy’ her life.”
In Justin’s amended countersuit, he claims Leslie “went so far as to propagate malicious stories portraying Baldoni as a sexual predator,” something Blake “knew” would be “a career death sentence.” Justin’s legal team called Leslie a “master practitioner of the dark arts of public relations” who led an “intricately planned character assassination plot.” As evidence, they included a text, in which Leslie hit back at claims made about her client and her embattled co-star, noting:
“I am not paid to take people down. I’m honest.”
Despite what Justin thinks this proves, she claims she did not start a smear campaign against him — and that it was his team that started a smear campaign against Blake first! It’ll be inneresting to see if a judge lets her off the hook…
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[Image via Patricia Schlein/WENN/MEGA]
