Blake Lively- Jason Baldoni and NYT - False Light claims

[Anonymous]

This case was such a massive misstep for Blake. Most people are not following the case as closely as we are on this thread and the headlines make it seem like she is dropping the case or backing down - the comments from the People story and other outlets that are usually friendly to her are absolutely brutal.

I cannot fathom what she thought was going to happen in bringing this case forward. She has lost her biggest asset, which is her relationship with Taylor Swift. It’s one thing not to be seen with her anymore, that would’ve done some damage, but knowing that they actually aren’t friends anymore, it’s just going to be hard to recover from that.

Blake Brown is on clearance shelves at target and doesn’t look like it’s going to be restocked. She’s trying to spin that as it selling out but that’s simply not the case.

This is a masterclass in how to dismantle a career.

[Anonymous]

lol. Freedman hasn’t even moved to dismiss anything! Let’s see where things stand after half of Baldoni’s claims are gone. Meanwhile, Baldoni the male feminist is arguing a law passed to protect women should be struck so that he, the big man, can bring his completely excessive $400M defamation suit, and is also saying that women’s voices *shouldn’t even be heard* on this issue.

Total hypocrite. Male feminist joke.

[Anonymous]

Reports out that Ellyn Garofalo who used to work with Taylor at Venable has joined freedman’s team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reports out that Ellyn Garofalo who used to work with Taylor at Venable has joined freedman’s team.

I knew about Garofalo’s move back to Freedman’s firm a week ago at least (she is the person who responded to the Safe Harbor letters for Freedman) and raised her Venable ties then, but didn’t know she worked directly with Swift. This raises a good point I hadn’t considered — is Garofalo potentially the source of the Swift leak, at least re the conversation between the two lawyers? She may know a paralegal/assistant who can view the files online or pass rumors. If so, extremely shady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Justin Baldoni slogans for 2025:

Justin Baldoni: Man Enough to Silence Women's Rights Organizations
Justin Baldoni: If You Force Them, They Will Simulate C*mming for You On Screen (to satisfy your own weird sex hangups)
Justin Baldoni: MFA to MRA in Just Two Years?
Justin Baldoni: Candace Owens Is Right About A Lot of Stuff!
Justin Baldoni: Harassers and Retaliators Can Be Defamed, Too!
Justin Baldoni: Women Should Know Their Place When Male Feminists Speak

Justin Baldoni: I Will Just Hide in Hawaii While You Try to Defend Me!
Justin Baldoni: Is It Bad that My Wife Told Me to Reread My Book About Supporting Women?
Justin Baldoni: I Will Only Smear You If I Really, Really, Really Need to!
Justin Baldoni: Your Dead Father Talks to Me, So Why Won't You?
Justin Baldoni: My ADHD Made Me Say Those Harassing Things to You!
Justin Baldoni: NORMAL WOMEN, Let Me Mansplain You to Yourselves!
Justin Baldoni: My Proposal Video to You Was All About Myself, STARRING ME!!!

This is solid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://deadline.com/2025/06/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-claim-drop-dispute-1236421032/

Blake Lively Insists Not Dropping Emotional Distress Claims Against Justin Baldoni, Despite What His Lawyers Say & Her Lawyers Seem To Have Said

She is so dumb.

She’s a lawyers dream. Although I think it’s borderline unethical when lawyers take cases like hers

Agree. She has the world's worst attorneys. Didn't they explain ANYTHING to her on how this whole case would go down.

As comments have echoed for hundreds of pages: Blake and Ryan are very stupid and they’re being scammed and milked by all these “experts” and attorneys around them. Leeches feasting on two has-beens.

I used to work at Willkie. I’m not saying they have a good case here, but they handle RR’s commercial work/investments and I assume took this case (1) to preserve that relationship and (2) obviously because it’s lucrative. But I think they are deferring to them to the point that they’re doing some dumb stuff because of (1).

What do you make of the Gottlieb extortion rumor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reports out that Ellyn Garofalo who used to work with Taylor at Venable has joined freedman’s team.

I knew about Garofalo’s move back to Freedman’s firm a week ago at least (she is the person who responded to the Safe Harbor letters for Freedman) and raised her Venable ties then, but didn’t know she worked directly with Swift. This raises a good point I hadn’t considered — is Garofalo potentially the source of the Swift leak, at least re the conversation between the two lawyers? She may know a paralegal/assistant who can view the files online or pass rumors. If so, extremely shady.

DP. I don’t think there’s any evidence garafalo worked with swift. It’s a very large firm with many offices. Nor is she the leak. It’s pretty much confirmed it was Taylor’s dad. Law firms like venable are far too buttoned down (and the lawyers and staff far too busy) to engage in gossip, especially gossip that breaches client confidentiality. And again, I doubt anyone even knew each other well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reports out that Ellyn Garofalo who used to work with Taylor at Venable has joined freedman’s team.

I knew about Garofalo’s move back to Freedman’s firm a week ago at least (she is the person who responded to the Safe Harbor letters for Freedman) and raised her Venable ties then, but didn’t know she worked directly with Swift. This raises a good point I hadn’t considered — is Garofalo potentially the source of the Swift leak, at least re the conversation between the two lawyers? She may know a paralegal/assistant who can view the files online or pass rumors. If so, extremely shady.

DP. I don’t think there’s any evidence garafalo worked with swift. It’s a very large firm with many offices. Nor is she the leak. It’s pretty much confirmed it was Taylor’s dad. Law firms like venable are far too buttoned down (and the lawyers and staff far too busy) to engage in gossip, especially gossip that breaches client confidentiality. And again, I doubt anyone even knew each other well.

I was curious so looked into Garofalo's CV, because I was wondering if she'd been on the trial team for Taylor's sexual harassment case against David Mueller. But no. Garofalo was with Liner LLP (Freedman's current partner at Liner Freedman) for 15 years until it was acquired by DLA in 2017. She joined Venable in late 2018, in the LA office, but left in 2021 for Carlton Fields. She was at CF until 2024, where she was named managing partner of the LA office but then left a few months later to re-join Liner at Liner Freedman.

Taylor's trial against David Mueller was in 2017, so prior to Garofalo's time at Venable. Also no real evidence she worked on Baldridge's team during her short stint at Venable, or had anything to do with Swift's legal representation. Whereas she's spent the bulk of her career working with Liner, so it is unsurprising that she is at Liner Freedman now or that she'd be brought into this case as a trial specialist as the case is looking less and less likely to settle.

I think this story is fake news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This case was such a massive misstep for Blake. Most people are not following the case as closely as we are on this thread and the headlines make it seem like she is dropping the case or backing down - the comments from the People story and other outlets that are usually friendly to her are absolutely brutal.

I cannot fathom what she thought was going to happen in bringing this case forward. She has lost her biggest asset, which is her relationship with Taylor Swift. It’s one thing not to be seen with her anymore, that would’ve done some damage, but knowing that they actually aren’t friends anymore, it’s just going to be hard to recover from that.

Blake Brown is on clearance shelves at target and doesn’t look like it’s going to be restocked. She’s trying to spin that as it selling out but that’s simply not the case.

This is a masterclass in how to dismantle a career.

+1. And it was all self induced. Crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reports out that Ellyn Garofalo who used to work with Taylor at Venable has joined freedman’s team.

I knew about Garofalo’s move back to Freedman’s firm a week ago at least (she is the person who responded to the Safe Harbor letters for Freedman) and raised her Venable ties then, but didn’t know she worked directly with Swift. This raises a good point I hadn’t considered — is Garofalo potentially the source of the Swift leak, at least re the conversation between the two lawyers? She may know a paralegal/assistant who can view the files online or pass rumors. If so, extremely shady.

DP. I don’t think there’s any evidence garafalo worked with swift. It’s a very large firm with many offices. Nor is she the leak. It’s pretty much confirmed it was Taylor’s dad. Law firms like venable are far too buttoned down (and the lawyers and staff far too busy) to engage in gossip, especially gossip that breaches client confidentiality. And again, I doubt anyone even knew each other well.

I was curious so looked into Garofalo's CV, because I was wondering if she'd been on the trial team for Taylor's sexual harassment case against David Mueller. But no. Garofalo was with Liner LLP (Freedman's current partner at Liner Freedman) for 15 years until it was acquired by DLA in 2017. She joined Venable in late 2018, in the LA office, but left in 2021 for Carlton Fields. She was at CF until 2024, where she was named managing partner of the LA office but then left a few months later to re-join Liner at Liner Freedman.

Taylor's trial against David Mueller was in 2017, so prior to Garofalo's time at Venable. Also no real evidence she worked on Baldridge's team during her short stint at Venable, or had anything to do with Swift's legal representation. Whereas she's spent the bulk of her career working with Liner, so it is unsurprising that she is at Liner Freedman now or that she'd be brought into this case as a trial specialist as the case is looking less and less likely to settle.

I think this story is fake news.

I believe Garofalo and Baldridge passed each other at Venable like ships in the night, and never overlapped.

That said, Garifalo would obviously still know people at Venable doing entertainment law that could have passed her rumors about Swift, and it’s not crazy to think that’s part of why Freedman enticed her back to his firm. The stuff about firms being locked down is nonsense. This sort of thing would be unusual, but people talk, and it’s Freedman’s MO. I’ve worked at a few different firms and I keep in touch with people. And paralegals, assistants, and for that matter, associates have access to docs and sometimes have the best gossip. They may not know precisely what happened but often they will have heard rumors.

The view above that “it’s settled” that Swift’s father was the source of the leak is not true afaik. I have not seen confirmation from any reliable source.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://deadline.com/2025/06/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-claim-drop-dispute-1236421032/

Blake Lively Insists Not Dropping Emotional Distress Claims Against Justin Baldoni, Despite What His Lawyers Say & Her Lawyers Seem To Have Said

She is so dumb.

She’s a lawyers dream. Although I think it’s borderline unethical when lawyers take cases like hers

Agree. She has the world's worst attorneys. Didn't they explain ANYTHING to her on how this whole case would go down.

As comments have echoed for hundreds of pages: Blake and Ryan are very stupid and they’re being scammed and milked by all these “experts” and attorneys around them. Leeches feasting on two has-beens.

I used to work at Willkie. I’m not saying they have a good case here, but they handle RR’s commercial work/investments and I assume took this case (1) to preserve that relationship and (2) obviously because it’s lucrative. But I think they are deferring to them to the point that they’re doing some dumb stuff because of (1).

Agree, but will say that I have not been impressed with Gottlieb’s work here at all. A big part of a litigation partner’s job is convincing a client to do the right thing. His litigation strategy appears to be entirely client driven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reports out that Ellyn Garofalo who used to work with Taylor at Venable has joined freedman’s team.

I knew about Garofalo’s move back to Freedman’s firm a week ago at least (she is the person who responded to the Safe Harbor letters for Freedman) and raised her Venable ties then, but didn’t know she worked directly with Swift. This raises a good point I hadn’t considered — is Garofalo potentially the source of the Swift leak, at least re the conversation between the two lawyers? She may know a paralegal/assistant who can view the files online or pass rumors. If so, extremely shady.

DP. I don’t think there’s any evidence garafalo worked with swift. It’s a very large firm with many offices. Nor is she the leak. It’s pretty much confirmed it was Taylor’s dad. Law firms like venable are far too buttoned down (and the lawyers and staff far too busy) to engage in gossip, especially gossip that breaches client confidentiality. And again, I doubt anyone even knew each other well.

I was curious so looked into Garofalo's CV, because I was wondering if she'd been on the trial team for Taylor's sexual harassment case against David Mueller. But no. Garofalo was with Liner LLP (Freedman's current partner at Liner Freedman) for 15 years until it was acquired by DLA in 2017. She joined Venable in late 2018, in the LA office, but left in 2021 for Carlton Fields. She was at CF until 2024, where she was named managing partner of the LA office but then left a few months later to re-join Liner at Liner Freedman.

Taylor's trial against David Mueller was in 2017, so prior to Garofalo's time at Venable. Also no real evidence she worked on Baldridge's team during her short stint at Venable, or had anything to do with Swift's legal representation. Whereas she's spent the bulk of her career working with Liner, so it is unsurprising that she is at Liner Freedman now or that she'd be brought into this case as a trial specialist as the case is looking less and less likely to settle.

I think this story is fake news.

I believe Garofalo and Baldridge passed each other at Venable like ships in the night, and never overlapped.

That said, Garifalo would obviously still know people at Venable doing entertainment law that could have passed her rumors about Swift, and it’s not crazy to think that’s part of why Freedman enticed her back to his firm. The stuff about firms being locked down is nonsense. This sort of thing would be unusual, but people talk, and it’s Freedman’s MO. I’ve worked at a few different firms and I keep in touch with people. And paralegals, assistants, and for that matter, associates have access to docs and sometimes have the best gossip. They may not know precisely what happened but often they will have heard rumors.

The view above that “it’s settled” that Swift’s father was the source of the leak is not true afaik. I have not seen confirmation from any reliable source.

Again, her connection to Freedman's firm is not Freedman, but Liner. She worked with Liner for 15 years before he sold his firm to DLA.

Garofalo would have to be pretty stupid to work any contacts at Venable for info about Swift, sorry. First of course you have the ethics issues. But even beyond that, these are all entertainment lawyers working for big stars (Garofalo has repped Minnie Driver and Alissa Milano). Celebs are extra sensitive to leaks and gossip among their professional staff and any suspicion that you have loose lips could be very damaging to an entertainment career. Even Freedman, who obviously likes to work his angles, likely goes to great lengths to never cross that line because it could hurt his ability to bring in new clients.

I agree it is not settled that Scott Swift was the source of the leak, in fact that story has always struck me as bizarre because of the way Freedman describes the informant in his letter/affidavit. I think it's more likely to be a PR person working in Swift's orbit, the best guess I've heard is a one of Travis's PR people who has connections to Baldoni's PR team from their previous PR firm. That makes much more sense to me because I buy that the PR people would all be pumping each other for info behind the scenes a lot more than lawyers at these buttoned up firms or Scott Swift being supremely messy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://deadline.com/2025/06/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-claim-drop-dispute-1236421032/

Blake Lively Insists Not Dropping Emotional Distress Claims Against Justin Baldoni, Despite What His Lawyers Say & Her Lawyers Seem To Have Said

She is so dumb.

She’s a lawyers dream. Although I think it’s borderline unethical when lawyers take cases like hers

Agree. She has the world's worst attorneys. Didn't they explain ANYTHING to her on how this whole case would go down.

As comments have echoed for hundreds of pages: Blake and Ryan are very stupid and they’re being scammed and milked by all these “experts” and attorneys around them. Leeches feasting on two has-beens.

I used to work at Willkie. I’m not saying they have a good case here, but they handle RR’s commercial work/investments and I assume took this case (1) to preserve that relationship and (2) obviously because it’s lucrative. But I think they are deferring to them to the point that they’re doing some dumb stuff because of (1).

Agree, but will say that I have not been impressed with Gottlieb’s work here at all. A big part of a litigation partner’s job is convincing a client to do the right thing. His litigation strategy appears to be entirely client driven.

Disagree, as someone very familiar with his other work. I think the problem is that he's laser focused on some of the underlying issues that are among his pet projects, and this has left the team flatfooted on the PR front and not really understanding the particular celeb landscape here. They've had to be so reactive on the PR side because Freedman is so much better at it, and I think it's because Gottlieb is focused on some specific legal issues and building a case around those. They've been moderately better since Lively brought on the crisis specialist but the advantage Freedman has is that he is, on his own, very smart at the PR game -- he's not relying on Balodni's PR team, he's just doing his thing and it's very effective. Gottlieb has handled high profile cases but to my knowledge never had to participate in this kind of tabloid volley. He's been outmatched on that front.

I link Lively's team is betting on gaining more of the upper hand as they get deeper into discovery and pre-trial motions. IMO, their motions have been much better written and argued and I think Freedman has likely annoyed Liman with his affidavit and refusal to address the group pleading issue prior to the MTDs being decided. Liman's order striking Freedman's affidavit was... testy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reports out that Ellyn Garofalo who used to work with Taylor at Venable has joined freedman’s team.

I knew about Garofalo’s move back to Freedman’s firm a week ago at least (she is the person who responded to the Safe Harbor letters for Freedman) and raised her Venable ties then, but didn’t know she worked directly with Swift. This raises a good point I hadn’t considered — is Garofalo potentially the source of the Swift leak, at least re the conversation between the two lawyers? She may know a paralegal/assistant who can view the files online or pass rumors. If so, extremely shady.

DP. I don’t think there’s any evidence garafalo worked with swift. It’s a very large firm with many offices. Nor is she the leak. It’s pretty much confirmed it was Taylor’s dad. Law firms like venable are far too buttoned down (and the lawyers and staff far too busy) to engage in gossip, especially gossip that breaches client confidentiality. And again, I doubt anyone even knew each other well.

I was curious so looked into Garofalo's CV, because I was wondering if she'd been on the trial team for Taylor's sexual harassment case against David Mueller. But no. Garofalo was with Liner LLP (Freedman's current partner at Liner Freedman) for 15 years until it was acquired by DLA in 2017. She joined Venable in late 2018, in the LA office, but left in 2021 for Carlton Fields. She was at CF until 2024, where she was named managing partner of the LA office but then left a few months later to re-join Liner at Liner Freedman.

Taylor's trial against David Mueller was in 2017, so prior to Garofalo's time at Venable. Also no real evidence she worked on Baldridge's team during her short stint at Venable, or had anything to do with Swift's legal representation. Whereas she's spent the bulk of her career working with Liner, so it is unsurprising that she is at Liner Freedman now or that she'd be brought into this case as a trial specialist as the case is looking less and less likely to settle.

I think this story is fake news.

I believe Garofalo and Baldridge passed each other at Venable like ships in the night, and never overlapped.

That said, Garifalo would obviously still know people at Venable doing entertainment law that could have passed her rumors about Swift, and it’s not crazy to think that’s part of why Freedman enticed her back to his firm. The stuff about firms being locked down is nonsense. This sort of thing would be unusual, but people talk, and it’s Freedman’s MO. I’ve worked at a few different firms and I keep in touch with people. And paralegals, assistants, and for that matter, associates have access to docs and sometimes have the best gossip. They may not know precisely what happened but often they will have heard rumors.

The view above that “it’s settled” that Swift’s father was the source of the leak is not true afaik. I have not seen confirmation from any reliable source.

No way. Fake news. No one breached client confidentiality and risked disbarment, sorry. Try harder troll

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://deadline.com/2025/06/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-claim-drop-dispute-1236421032/

Blake Lively Insists Not Dropping Emotional Distress Claims Against Justin Baldoni, Despite What His Lawyers Say & Her Lawyers Seem To Have Said

She is so dumb.

She’s a lawyers dream. Although I think it’s borderline unethical when lawyers take cases like hers

Agree. She has the world's worst attorneys. Didn't they explain ANYTHING to her on how this whole case would go down.

As comments have echoed for hundreds of pages: Blake and Ryan are very stupid and they’re being scammed and milked by all these “experts” and attorneys around them. Leeches feasting on two has-beens.

I used to work at Willkie. I’m not saying they have a good case here, but they handle RR’s commercial work/investments and I assume took this case (1) to preserve that relationship and (2) obviously because it’s lucrative. But I think they are deferring to them to the point that they’re doing some dumb stuff because of (1).

Agree, but will say that I have not been impressed with Gottlieb’s work here at all. A big part of a litigation partner’s job is convincing a client to do the right thing. His litigation strategy appears to be entirely client driven.

Disagree, as someone very familiar with his other work. I think the problem is that he's laser focused on some of the underlying issues that are among his pet projects, and this has left the team flatfooted on the PR front and not really understanding the particular celeb landscape here. They've had to be so reactive on the PR side because Freedman is so much better at it, and I think it's because Gottlieb is focused on some specific legal issues and building a case around those. They've been moderately better since Lively brought on the crisis specialist but the advantage Freedman has is that he is, on his own, very smart at the PR game -- he's not relying on Balodni's PR team, he's just doing his thing and it's very effective. Gottlieb has handled high profile cases but to my knowledge never had to participate in this kind of tabloid volley. He's been outmatched on that front.

I link Lively's team is betting on gaining more of the upper hand as they get deeper into discovery and pre-trial motions. IMO, their motions have been much better written and argued and I think Freedman has likely annoyed Liman with his affidavit and refusal to address the group pleading issue prior to the MTDs being decided. Liman's order striking Freedman's affidavit was... testy.

DP. I think you are confusing technical aptitude with good lawyering. I don’t doubt that Gottlieb is (book) smart and writes well and has all sorts of support to help him put out technically well crafted briefs. But he seems to have completely missed the forest through the trees here and led his client into an extremely expensive and damaging lawsuit. This sort of myopia is not uncommon with certain lawyers, but I would have assumed he’d be wiser. The pessimistic side of me thinks he saw the risks but didn’t advise Blake like he should have because he knew this case would be a cash cow.