Blake Lively- Jason Baldoni and NYT - False Light claims

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Motion to Quash isn't mooted yet somehow, i thought freedman said that was a'coming.

Let’s say it doesn’t come. And?

That means Venable is still fighting the subpoena and isn't working with Freedman as he claimed. It means both that he's lying and that Taylor's camp knows it.

Why does it mean he’s lying? About the reasons he’s seeking a subpoena?

If he’s lying, why isn’t TS making a statement?

He’s not lying. Gottlieb all but confirmed it with that coded statement he made to People that the conversation didn’t happen “as described”.

This is code for "I talked to Baldridge but it didn't happen that way." There's nothing wrong with him talking to Baldridge (Taylor's lawyer). I'm sure they were in touch over a variety of matters, including the PO Lively sought (and got) to protect people like Taylor in the event she was drawn into discovery. Gottlieb may have asked if Taylor would be willing to put out a statement. But Gottlieb has firmly denied that he tried to extort anyone, and it would honestly be psychotic for him to try to extort TS through Baldridge (also at all but especially bad to do it to another lawyer who could, of course, report the ethics violation).

It's a preposterous story.

Ok so let’s see the communication that was exchanged. FYI these communications are not privileged unless there was a joint defense or similar.

[Anonymous]

I truly don’t understand how someone could be saying that Blake is winning from the industry side. Where are her wins there? Is it because she hasn’t been dropped from her agency? Because she was photographed with Salma Hayek, who I love, but come on if you are trying to show industry strength she’s not your top choice.

She is nine months past the biggest box office success of her career and she has no projects lined up. This is a time when actors would capitalize on that success and start booking things. IMDB shows three projects, the only one you can find any information on is a movie that was last referenced in a Variety article from five years ago. Clearly by the time that movie comes out, if it ever comes out at all, and most movies that are announced don’t actually end up ever being made, it will be recast as all the actors will have aged out of whatever part they were envisioned for.

After the SNL special, there was a video of Blake all over TikTok, standing by herself in the audience as everyone, including her husband was on stage. By the way, he left his alone so he could chat with Chevy Chase lol. Not exactly a big Hollywood player at this point but anyway, Blake was standing there alone, looking awkward. To be fair, that was a special event and almost everyone in the audience had a reason to be there and so many people rushed the stage and were catching up and congratulating their colleagues and friends, but it we still a sign that Blake and Ryan should not have come.

There’s been no industry support from Blake since Justin’s side came out except for Ari, who is ancient and growing more irrelevant by the day. Of course he wants to milk Blake and Ryan for every penny.

Her businesses have largely dried up. We will hear about the shuttering of Blake Brown in the coming months. To be fair now that was a longshot to begin with, as celebrity beauty brands notoriously fail. So lets chock that up as failing anyway regardless of this mess. But I haven’t seen any of her celeb friends using it and celebrities cross post their friends brands all the time. Or make deals - you send me your product and I’ll show on my stories that I’m thrilled about it. You show on my stories that you are using my cookbook or whatever - there’s been none of that.

The only thing that I see is some of the legacy media being friendly to her, but both Us Weekly and People gave her unflattering headlines and articles this week so even that appears to be falling. And those don’t matter nearly as much now that we are flooded with influencers and that is where younger people go for entertainment news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What Livrly supporters don’t quite get is that Blake’s reputation is toast. Yesterday was devastating for her and her case. Even if she wins down the road, all trust in her has disappeared. So many red flags were there from the beginning.

Baldoni will actually be okay, or better than okay. Everyone sees exactly who Blake is and will give him another shot, more projects and work going forward. If he loses the case, I wouldn’t blame it on him having a weak case, but instead point to power and influence winning the day, as it often does.

Lively doesn’t have real supporters. Nobody has cared about her since she was Harvey’s girl and he had her linked up with the top fashion houses. But that was like 15 years ago. She’s a D list actress who only still has a career because of her husband.

Go on believing that.

Lively managed to get enough people to go see IEWU that it well outpaced expectations in terms of box office. She continues to get major Hollywood support from Ari Emanuel, Sony, Paul Feig, people like Hugh Jackman, Emily Blunt, Sean Levy, and Stanley Tucci. These are not D-listers. Salma Hayek shows her support by doing a pap walk with Lively earlier this week after what was obviously a planned lunch -- Salma's husband is a billionaire who owns CAA, a very influential agency. She continues to be dressed by top designers and get her picture in Vogue, WWD, and other top magazines. She and RR continue to be considered A-list in the industry (meaning they can open a movie) even if right now that comes with an asterisk because of the lawsuits. But they are FAR from abandoned.

And there are authentic, real people who believe Blake and support her lawsuit. She has both committed supporters on threads like this or on Reddit (the r/BaldoniFiles sub has a little over 4.5k members) as well as passive supporters who aren't paying close attention but generally take her side (see the Taylor Swift subs that have leaned toward Lively throughout all of this, as well as the big pop culture subs like r/fauxmois and r/popculturechat, where the majority of commenters take her side, even if more casually than you see on the dedicated thread). And then you have the rest of the public. Some no doubt think she sucks and assume she's lying. But many still don't even know who Baldoni is. They might not sit around thinking about her allegations or investing in believing her, but they are passive and don't care enough to find out exactly what this story is about or to hate her. Why does that matter? Because Lively is massively more famous than Baldoni, and at the end of the day, if people are oblivious to the lawsuit story but generally have a good impression of Lively for other reasons, they will continue to have a good impression of her unless something happens to change that.

Whereas Baldoni's entire reputation is based on this one issue. It's the only thing most people know him for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What Livrly supporters don’t quite get is that Blake’s reputation is toast. Yesterday was devastating for her and her case. Even if she wins down the road, all trust in her has disappeared. So many red flags were there from the beginning.

Baldoni will actually be okay, or better than okay. Everyone sees exactly who Blake is and will give him another shot, more projects and work going forward. If he loses the case, I wouldn’t blame it on him having a weak case, but instead point to power and influence winning the day, as it often does.

Lively doesn’t have real supporters. Nobody has cared about her since she was Harvey’s girl and he had her linked up with the top fashion houses. But that was like 15 years ago. She’s a D list actress who only still has a career because of her husband.

Go on believing that.

Lively managed to get enough people to go see IEWU that it well outpaced expectations in terms of box office. She continues to get major Hollywood support from Ari Emanuel, Sony, Paul Feig, people like Hugh Jackman, Emily Blunt, Sean Levy, and Stanley Tucci. These are not D-listers. Salma Hayek shows her support by doing a pap walk with Lively earlier this week after what was obviously a planned lunch -- Salma's husband is a billionaire who owns CAA, a very influential agency. She continues to be dressed by top designers and get her picture in Vogue, WWD, and other top magazines. She and RR continue to be considered A-list in the industry (meaning they can open a movie) even if right now that comes with an asterisk because of the lawsuits. But they are FAR from abandoned.

And there are authentic, real people who believe Blake and support her lawsuit. She has both committed supporters on threads like this or on Reddit (the r/BaldoniFiles sub has a little over 4.5k members) as well as passive supporters who aren't paying close attention but generally take her side (see the Taylor Swift subs that have leaned toward Lively throughout all of this, as well as the big pop culture subs like r/fauxmois and r/popculturechat, where the majority of commenters take her side, even if more casually than you see on the dedicated thread). And then you have the rest of the public. Some no doubt think she sucks and assume she's lying. But many still don't even know who Baldoni is. They might not sit around thinking about her allegations or investing in believing her, but they are passive and don't care enough to find out exactly what this story is about or to hate her. Why does that matter? Because Lively is massively more famous than Baldoni, and at the end of the day, if people are oblivious to the lawsuit story but generally have a good impression of Lively for other reasons, they will continue to have a good impression of her unless something happens to change that.

Whereas Baldoni's entire reputation is based on this one issue. It's the only thing most people know him for.

There are tons of real Blake fans!

*vomits another 500 words for the literal thousandth time in this thread*

I think you’re her only fan, sweetie. Bless your heart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What Livrly supporters don’t quite get is that Blake’s reputation is toast. Yesterday was devastating for her and her case. Even if she wins down the road, all trust in her has disappeared. So many red flags were there from the beginning.

Baldoni will actually be okay, or better than okay. Everyone sees exactly who Blake is and will give him another shot, more projects and work going forward. If he loses the case, I wouldn’t blame it on him having a weak case, but instead point to power and influence winning the day, as it often does.

Lively doesn’t have real supporters. Nobody has cared about her since she was Harvey’s girl and he had her linked up with the top fashion houses. But that was like 15 years ago. She’s a D list actress who only still has a career because of her husband.

Go on believing that.

Lively managed to get enough people to go see IEWU that it well outpaced expectations in terms of box office. She continues to get major Hollywood support from Ari Emanuel, Sony, Paul Feig, people like Hugh Jackman, Emily Blunt, Sean Levy, and Stanley Tucci. These are not D-listers. Salma Hayek shows her support by doing a pap walk with Lively earlier this week after what was obviously a planned lunch -- Salma's husband is a billionaire who owns CAA, a very influential agency. She continues to be dressed by top designers and get her picture in Vogue, WWD, and other top magazines. She and RR continue to be considered A-list in the industry (meaning they can open a movie) even if right now that comes with an asterisk because of the lawsuits. But they are FAR from abandoned.

And there are authentic, real people who believe Blake and support her lawsuit. She has both committed supporters on threads like this or on Reddit (the r/BaldoniFiles sub has a little over 4.5k members) as well as passive supporters who aren't paying close attention but generally take her side (see the Taylor Swift subs that have leaned toward Lively throughout all of this, as well as the big pop culture subs like r/fauxmois and r/popculturechat, where the majority of commenters take her side, even if more casually than you see on the dedicated thread). And then you have the rest of the public. Some no doubt think she sucks and assume she's lying. But many still don't even know who Baldoni is. They might not sit around thinking about her allegations or investing in believing her, but they are passive and don't care enough to find out exactly what this story is about or to hate her. Why does that matter? Because Lively is massively more famous than Baldoni, and at the end of the day, if people are oblivious to the lawsuit story but generally have a good impression of Lively for other reasons, they will continue to have a good impression of her unless something happens to change that.

Whereas Baldoni's entire reputation is based on this one issue. It's the only thing most people know him for.[/quote

Oh my. How much are they paying you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What Livrly supporters don’t quite get is that Blake’s reputation is toast. Yesterday was devastating for her and her case. Even if she wins down the road, all trust in her has disappeared. So many red flags were there from the beginning.

Baldoni will actually be okay, or better than okay. Everyone sees exactly who Blake is and will give him another shot, more projects and work going forward. If he loses the case, I wouldn’t blame it on him having a weak case, but instead point to power and influence winning the day, as it often does.

Lively doesn’t have real supporters. Nobody has cared about her since she was Harvey’s girl and he had her linked up with the top fashion houses. But that was like 15 years ago. She’s a D list actress who only still has a career because of her husband.

Go on believing that.

Lively managed to get enough people to go see IEWU that it well outpaced expectations in terms of box office. She continues to get major Hollywood support from Ari Emanuel, Sony, Paul Feig, people like Hugh Jackman, Emily Blunt, Sean Levy, and Stanley Tucci. These are not D-listers. Salma Hayek shows her support by doing a pap walk with Lively earlier this week after what was obviously a planned lunch -- Salma's husband is a billionaire who owns CAA, a very influential agency. She continues to be dressed by top designers and get her picture in Vogue, WWD, and other top magazines. She and RR continue to be considered A-list in the industry (meaning they can open a movie) even if right now that comes with an asterisk because of the lawsuits. But they are FAR from abandoned.

And there are authentic, real people who believe Blake and support her lawsuit. She has both committed supporters on threads like this or on Reddit (the r/BaldoniFiles sub has a little over 4.5k members) as well as passive supporters who aren't paying close attention but generally take her side (see the Taylor Swift subs that have leaned toward Lively throughout all of this, as well as the big pop culture subs like r/fauxmois and r/popculturechat, where the majority of commenters take her side, even if more casually than you see on the dedicated thread). And then you have the rest of the public. Some no doubt think she sucks and assume she's lying. But many still don't even know who Baldoni is. They might not sit around thinking about her allegations or investing in believing her, but they are passive and don't care enough to find out exactly what this story is about or to hate her. Why does that matter? Because Lively is massively more famous than Baldoni, and at the end of the day, if people are oblivious to the lawsuit story but generally have a good impression of Lively for other reasons, they will continue to have a good impression of her unless something happens to change that.

Whereas Baldoni's entire reputation is based on this one issue. It's the only thing most people know him for.

There are tons of real Blake fans!

*vomits another 500 words for the literal thousandth time in this thread*

I think you’re her only fan, sweetie. Bless your heart.

Dp. Honestly a lot of her ‘supporters’ on the taylor sub looked suspicious to me. And to others on that sub

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What Livrly supporters don’t quite get is that Blake’s reputation is toast. Yesterday was devastating for her and her case. Even if she wins down the road, all trust in her has disappeared. So many red flags were there from the beginning.

Baldoni will actually be okay, or better than okay. Everyone sees exactly who Blake is and will give him another shot, more projects and work going forward. If he loses the case, I wouldn’t blame it on him having a weak case, but instead point to power and influence winning the day, as it often does.

Lively doesn’t have real supporters. Nobody has cared about her since she was Harvey’s girl and he had her linked up with the top fashion houses. But that was like 15 years ago. She’s a D list actress who only still has a career because of her husband.

Go on believing that.

Lively managed to get enough people to go see IEWU that it well outpaced expectations in terms of box office. She continues to get major Hollywood support from Ari Emanuel, Sony, Paul Feig, people like Hugh Jackman, Emily Blunt, Sean Levy, and Stanley Tucci. These are not D-listers. Salma Hayek shows her support by doing a pap walk with Lively earlier this week after what was obviously a planned lunch -- Salma's husband is a billionaire who owns CAA, a very influential agency. She continues to be dressed by top designers and get her picture in Vogue, WWD, and other top magazines. She and RR continue to be considered A-list in the industry (meaning they can open a movie) even if right now that comes with an asterisk because of the lawsuits. But they are FAR from abandoned.

And there are authentic, real people who believe Blake and support her lawsuit. She has both committed supporters on threads like this or on Reddit (the r/BaldoniFiles sub has a little over 4.5k members) as well as passive supporters who aren't paying close attention but generally take her side (see the Taylor Swift subs that have leaned toward Lively throughout all of this, as well as the big pop culture subs like r/fauxmois and r/popculturechat, where the majority of commenters take her side, even if more casually than you see on the dedicated thread). And then you have the rest of the public. Some no doubt think she sucks and assume she's lying. But many still don't even know who Baldoni is. They might not sit around thinking about her allegations or investing in believing her, but they are passive and don't care enough to find out exactly what this story is about or to hate her. Why does that matter? Because Lively is massively more famous than Baldoni, and at the end of the day, if people are oblivious to the lawsuit story but generally have a good impression of Lively for other reasons, they will continue to have a good impression of her unless something happens to change that.

Whereas Baldoni's entire reputation is based on this one issue. It's the only thing most people know him for.

There are tons of real Blake fans!

*vomits another 500 words for the literal thousandth time in this thread*

I think you’re her only fan, sweetie. Bless your heart.

+ 1 million.
The best laugh yet from this thread!

[Anonymous]

lol yeah the Baldoni supporters are all totally “organic”

Baldoni people keep talking about how much money Lively is spending, but I suspect Sarowitz is spending a comparable amount. They have all these MTDs to defend and they seem behind on discovery. True, Freedman seems to have fewer lawyers, so maybe they will bill fewer hours over the same period of time. I guess that’s why they’re clearly unable to keep up the pace of Lively’s and are turning in such crappy work product. I wonder how much Freedman billed Baldoni for yesterday? I’m sure it was thousands of dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol yeah the Baldoni supporters are all totally “organic”

Baldoni people keep talking about how much money Lively is spending, but I suspect Sarowitz is spending a comparable amount. They have all these MTDs to defend and they seem behind on discovery. True, Freedman seems to have fewer lawyers, so maybe they will bill fewer hours over the same period of time. I guess that’s why they’re clearly unable to keep up the pace of Lively’s and are turning in such crappy work product. I wonder how much Freedman billed Baldoni for yesterday? I’m sure it was thousands of dollars.

I don’t think you’re taking into consideration how much wealthier SS is than BL and RR. He’s pledged to donate 36M to the Wayfarer foundation this year alone, which is more than Lively’s entire net worth (independent from Ryan).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What Livrly supporters don’t quite get is that Blake’s reputation is toast. Yesterday was devastating for her and her case. Even if she wins down the road, all trust in her has disappeared. So many red flags were there from the beginning.

Baldoni will actually be okay, or better than okay. Everyone sees exactly who Blake is and will give him another shot, more projects and work going forward. If he loses the case, I wouldn’t blame it on him having a weak case, but instead point to power and influence winning the day, as it often does.

Lively doesn’t have real supporters. Nobody has cared about her since she was Harvey’s girl and he had her linked up with the top fashion houses. But that was like 15 years ago. She’s a D list actress who only still has a career because of her husband.

Go on believing that.

Lively managed to get enough people to go see IEWU that it well outpaced expectations in terms of box office. She continues to get major Hollywood support from Ari Emanuel, Sony, Paul Feig, people like Hugh Jackman, Emily Blunt, Sean Levy, and Stanley Tucci. These are not D-listers. Salma Hayek shows her support by doing a pap walk with Lively earlier this week after what was obviously a planned lunch -- Salma's husband is a billionaire who owns CAA, a very influential agency. She continues to be dressed by top designers and get her picture in Vogue, WWD, and other top magazines. She and RR continue to be considered A-list in the industry (meaning they can open a movie) even if right now that comes with an asterisk because of the lawsuits. But they are FAR from abandoned.

And there are authentic, real people who believe Blake and support her lawsuit. She has both committed supporters on threads like this or on Reddit (the r/BaldoniFiles sub has a little over 4.5k members) as well as passive supporters who aren't paying close attention but generally take her side (see the Taylor Swift subs that have leaned toward Lively throughout all of this, as well as the big pop culture subs like r/fauxmois and r/popculturechat, where the majority of commenters take her side, even if more casually than you see on the dedicated thread). And then you have the rest of the public. Some no doubt think she sucks and assume she's lying. But many still don't even know who Baldoni is. They might not sit around thinking about her allegations or investing in believing her, but they are passive and don't care enough to find out exactly what this story is about or to hate her. Why does that matter? Because Lively is massively more famous than Baldoni, and at the end of the day, if people are oblivious to the lawsuit story but generally have a good impression of Lively for other reasons, they will continue to have a good impression of her unless something happens to change that.

Whereas Baldoni's entire reputation is based on this one issue. It's the only thing most people know him for.

There are tons of real Blake fans!

*vomits another 500 words for the literal thousandth time in this thread*

I think you’re her only fan, sweetie. Bless your heart.

Dp. Honestly a lot of her ‘supporters’ on the taylor sub looked suspicious to me. And to others on that sub

I though the idea of untraceable reddit campaigns was preposterous and fantastical?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol yeah the Baldoni supporters are all totally “organic”

Baldoni people keep talking about how much money Lively is spending, but I suspect Sarowitz is spending a comparable amount. They have all these MTDs to defend and they seem behind on discovery. True, Freedman seems to have fewer lawyers, so maybe they will bill fewer hours over the same period of time. I guess that’s why they’re clearly unable to keep up the pace of Lively’s and are turning in such crappy work product. I wonder how much Freedman billed Baldoni for yesterday? I’m sure it was thousands of dollars.

From a financial perspective, I actually think Lively made good lawyer choices. Both Manatt and Wilkie are mid-tier firms and they won't bill out at as high a rate as the tippy top litigation firms. However, those firms actually are involved on the Lively side, just repping the defendants who have far less to do -- NYT, Sloane, and then Stephanie Jones over on her lawsuits.

However, Lively got a top notch litigator in Michael Gottlieb, a Boies Schiller alum with a stellar rep. I'm sure his fee is super high. But the team supporting him is not going to bill out quite so high as Boies or Quinn Emanuel or some of these other firms, which means Lively should save some money on discovery compared to going with a bigger name firm. But she also benefits from the work of lawyers from those firms -- for instance, in the MTDs, Lively filed last and was able to incorporate the arguments made in all the other MTDs into hers, giving her more room to make arguments unique to her situation. It's a well coordinated collaboration and likely to be pretty financially efficient as these things go (don't get me wrong, this is an expensive case, but all the more reason to save money without sacrificing quality where you can).

The Wayfarer defendants are also getting a lot of bang for their buck by all staying consolidated under Freedman. However, it seems unlikely that will last, and also Freedman's firm does seem to be struggling to keep up with the pace of discovery. In any case, it is very likely that Abel and TAG/Nathan will have to break off at some point, I don't know how they stay together, especially in the Jones v. Abel action where Wayfarer and Abel have obvious conflicts of interest. Abel is most exposed there -- she is the one with the shallowest pockets and it's a question who she will get to represent her. She has major exposure. Wayfarer/Heath/Baldoni should be able to stay together all the way through, with Freedman, but Abel might get left out in the cold eventually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What Livrly supporters don’t quite get is that Blake’s reputation is toast. Yesterday was devastating for her and her case. Even if she wins down the road, all trust in her has disappeared. So many red flags were there from the beginning.

Baldoni will actually be okay, or better than okay. Everyone sees exactly who Blake is and will give him another shot, more projects and work going forward. If he loses the case, I wouldn’t blame it on him having a weak case, but instead point to power and influence winning the day, as it often does.

Lively doesn’t have real supporters. Nobody has cared about her since she was Harvey’s girl and he had her linked up with the top fashion houses. But that was like 15 years ago. She’s a D list actress who only still has a career because of her husband.

Go on believing that.

Lively managed to get enough people to go see IEWU that it well outpaced expectations in terms of box office. She continues to get major Hollywood support from Ari Emanuel, Sony, Paul Feig, people like Hugh Jackman, Emily Blunt, Sean Levy, and Stanley Tucci. These are not D-listers. Salma Hayek shows her support by doing a pap walk with Lively earlier this week after what was obviously a planned lunch -- Salma's husband is a billionaire who owns CAA, a very influential agency. She continues to be dressed by top designers and get her picture in Vogue, WWD, and other top magazines. She and RR continue to be considered A-list in the industry (meaning they can open a movie) even if right now that comes with an asterisk because of the lawsuits. But they are FAR from abandoned.

And there are authentic, real people who believe Blake and support her lawsuit. She has both committed supporters on threads like this or on Reddit (the r/BaldoniFiles sub has a little over 4.5k members) as well as passive supporters who aren't paying close attention but generally take her side (see the Taylor Swift subs that have leaned toward Lively throughout all of this, as well as the big pop culture subs like r/fauxmois and r/popculturechat, where the majority of commenters take her side, even if more casually than you see on the dedicated thread). And then you have the rest of the public. Some no doubt think she sucks and assume she's lying. But many still don't even know who Baldoni is. They might not sit around thinking about her allegations or investing in believing her, but they are passive and don't care enough to find out exactly what this story is about or to hate her. Why does that matter? Because Lively is massively more famous than Baldoni, and at the end of the day, if people are oblivious to the lawsuit story but generally have a good impression of Lively for other reasons, they will continue to have a good impression of her unless something happens to change that.

Whereas Baldoni's entire reputation is based on this one issue. It's the only thing most people know him for.[/quote

Oh my. How much are they paying you?

Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt were literally willing to stand next to Blake at a premier. I do not think that means they unequivocally support her.

This is beyond a stretch. Show me anyone hiring her. Show me anyone thinking she could sell a movie. Show me anyone thinking she could direct or produce, which is seems to be what she dreams of doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lol yeah the Baldoni supporters are all totally “organic”

Baldoni people keep talking about how much money Lively is spending, but I suspect Sarowitz is spending a comparable amount. They have all these MTDs to defend and they seem behind on discovery. True, Freedman seems to have fewer lawyers, so maybe they will bill fewer hours over the same period of time. I guess that’s why they’re clearly unable to keep up the pace of Lively’s and are turning in such crappy work product. I wonder how much Freedman billed Baldoni for yesterday? I’m sure it was thousands of dollars.

From a financial perspective, I actually think Lively made good lawyer choices. Both Manatt and Wilkie are mid-tier firms and they won't bill out at as high a rate as the tippy top litigation firms. However, those firms actually are involved on the Lively side, just repping the defendants who have far less to do -- NYT, Sloane, and then Stephanie Jones over on her lawsuits.

However, Lively got a top notch litigator in Michael Gottlieb, a Boies Schiller alum with a stellar rep. I'm sure his fee is super high. But the team supporting him is not going to bill out quite so high as Boies or Quinn Emanuel or some of these other firms, which means Lively should save some money on discovery compared to going with a bigger name firm. But she also benefits from the work of lawyers from those firms -- for instance, in the MTDs, Lively filed last and was able to incorporate the arguments made in all the other MTDs into hers, giving her more room to make arguments unique to her situation. It's a well coordinated collaboration and likely to be pretty financially efficient as these things go (don't get me wrong, this is an expensive case, but all the more reason to save money without sacrificing quality where you can).

The Wayfarer defendants are also getting a lot of bang for their buck by all staying consolidated under Freedman. However, it seems unlikely that will last, and also Freedman's firm does seem to be struggling to keep up with the pace of discovery. In any case, it is very likely that Abel and TAG/Nathan will have to break off at some point, I don't know how they stay together, especially in the Jones v. Abel action where Wayfarer and Abel have obvious conflicts of interest. Abel is most exposed there -- she is the one with the shallowest pockets and it's a question who she will get to represent her. She has major exposure. Wayfarer/Heath/Baldoni should be able to stay together all the way through, with Freedman, but Abel might get left out in the cold eventually.

I think your rationale for Abel and Nathan to break off makes sense, but I’m guessing they will stay with WF for financial reasons. Those two are regular people and probably really can’t afford this kind of expensive litigation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What Livrly supporters don’t quite get is that Blake’s reputation is toast. Yesterday was devastating for her and her case. Even if she wins down the road, all trust in her has disappeared. So many red flags were there from the beginning.

Baldoni will actually be okay, or better than okay. Everyone sees exactly who Blake is and will give him another shot, more projects and work going forward. If he loses the case, I wouldn’t blame it on him having a weak case, but instead point to power and influence winning the day, as it often does.

Lively doesn’t have real supporters. Nobody has cared about her since she was Harvey’s girl and he had her linked up with the top fashion houses. But that was like 15 years ago. She’s a D list actress who only still has a career because of her husband.

Go on believing that.

Lively managed to get enough people to go see IEWU that it well outpaced expectations in terms of box office. She continues to get major Hollywood support from Ari Emanuel, Sony, Paul Feig, people like Hugh Jackman, Emily Blunt, Sean Levy, and Stanley Tucci. These are not D-listers. Salma Hayek shows her support by doing a pap walk with Lively earlier this week after what was obviously a planned lunch -- Salma's husband is a billionaire who owns CAA, a very influential agency. She continues to be dressed by top designers and get her picture in Vogue, WWD, and other top magazines. She and RR continue to be considered A-list in the industry (meaning they can open a movie) even if right now that comes with an asterisk because of the lawsuits. But they are FAR from abandoned.

And there are authentic, real people who believe Blake and support her lawsuit. She has both committed supporters on threads like this or on Reddit (the r/BaldoniFiles sub has a little over 4.5k members) as well as passive supporters who aren't paying close attention but generally take her side (see the Taylor Swift subs that have leaned toward Lively throughout all of this, as well as the big pop culture subs like r/fauxmois and r/popculturechat, where the majority of commenters take her side, even if more casually than you see on the dedicated thread). And then you have the rest of the public. Some no doubt think she sucks and assume she's lying. But many still don't even know who Baldoni is. They might not sit around thinking about her allegations or investing in believing her, but they are passive and don't care enough to find out exactly what this story is about or to hate her. Why does that matter? Because Lively is massively more famous than Baldoni, and at the end of the day, if people are oblivious to the lawsuit story but generally have a good impression of Lively for other reasons, they will continue to have a good impression of her unless something happens to change that.

Whereas Baldoni's entire reputation is based on this one issue. It's the only thing most people know him for.

Pap walks and standing next to celebrities do not mean there is a public appetite for Blake Lively films. If you ask people about her now, they are as likely to know her for this lawsuit as for acting. I

[Anonymous]

The National Research Group, a very reputable polling company, looked at which top stars can actually bring people to the movie theaters. As in, they didn't merely ask respondents which celebs they liked. They asked who would actually convince them to go to see a movie. Blake Lively was in the top 25 last year and fell to 101, lol.

https://puck.news/newsletter_content/what-im-hearing-movie-star-rankings-zazs-admission-lourds-lunch-3/