DP. And as to relevance, I think Swift is mainly relevant to the extortion claims, and I personally think those will be dismissed. To start with, there's choice of law issues that may mean the extortion cause of action isn't in play at all. But even if it is, they haven't pled that there was any threat of force or that anything of value was obtained or sought by the defendants. Even if the claims are dismissed without prejudice, I doubt they can find the facts to properly plead because I just don't think that's what happened. Lively leveraged her star power and connections to get credentials and opportunities she didn't earn, which is shitty of her. That's not extortion though, and it's still not extortion if he's worried she might reveal the things that she claimed happened during the first part of filming while she says vague things like "all good will between us would be lost." It's still really all just a defamation claim where he's claiming she lied and he was worried she would continue to lie and publicize her lies about SH, and he caved in to her demands on that basis. I don't see the connection between Swift and his claims that Lively defamed him or breached her contract. |
I think BC is using Taylor to discredit Blake’s credibility. I think Taylor had little to no involvement in the movie, but may be able to offer insight into Blake’s frame of mind or what went on in the penthouse meeting. |
Yeah, I agree with this. Even if the extortion claims stay in, I think they'll be narrowed to focus on the thing if actual value Lively allegedly got (the p.g.a. credit). I think it would be hard to link Taylor to that decision, except in ways that actually work against Baldoni (part of Lively's argument for getting the credit was her involvement in post production, in luding getting Taylor to let them use her song in the movie and trailer, which works against the idea that Lively used threats to get it). I think it's very unlikely that Taylor will feature in the trial in any way. |
Exactly. |
Blake and Taylor have two very different opinions about the events then. Blake's cross examination is going to be a circus. |
Realized something today that made me giggle. Not including the side characters and taking the Wayfarer parties as a unit (they’ve acted as a united front so far so that’s probably fair) Blake and Ryan are the brokest parties in the case (which is crazy given they are worth hundreds of millions). We have WF backed by Sorowitz who’s a billionaire, Taylor who’s a billionaire and of course Disney, which is a billionaire dollar company. The lawyers must be making so much money off of this case. |
Really?? Can you say more re Barbie brand? |
Aren't they wealthier than Sloane? |
Yeah I said minus the side characters or shall we call them “the normies”. Blake and Ryan are the brokest of the celebrities. |
Hi! I am just enjoying this comment and wondering whether you are a lawyer and roughly your age range? |
Not a lawyer but I think it’s safe to say the lawyers will make more off of this case than anyone did on it ends with us lol |
Very true |
I’m confused as to why people are saying there’s no monetary value to the PGA credential. Producers get huge backend on movies. It’s actually why it’s really rare for a producer not to have been involved in fundraising and development and they often use a little bit of their own money to have skin in the game.
Blake missed that part of the requirement for the pga credit as she was not brought on until the movie was well developed and getting ready to shoot so she tried to make up for it in the other two phases of the requirements. But I’m pretty sure being a producer means she got backend and that is money out of Wayfair’s pocket so there is monetary value to it. Also, if the rumors are true that Colleen Hoover had a sexual harassment clause for Justin to develop the sequel, it certainly seems Blake was trying to get chummy with Colleen Hoover, it can certainly be argued that she was trying to get the rights to the second movie which clearly has monetary value. People waiving off Taylor’s involvement are either being naïve or deliberately obtuse. Blake threatened to not use the my tears ricochet song in the marketing of the film, which clearly has a lot of relevance to how much money the film is going to make - a Taylor Swift song in your previews is going to get people interested and watching. |
Margot Robbie‘s Barbie movie was being developed in Hollywood for several years and there were several leads attached to it in different iterations. Blake was campaigning to do her version, a more family friendly version and obviously she wanted to play Barbie. She and her team started a campaign, styled herself in Barbie core at every event, and had social media either bots or paid people to churn up a lot of talk on social media about how she should play Barbie. Pretty standard in the industry, but ultimately Margot Robbie’s team who developed the version that we saw in theaters won out. After the film was made, Blake couldn’t quite let it go and tried to launch a lifestyle brand based on Barbie called Dreamhouse. Mattel put a stop to it as they didn’t like competing versions out there and didn’t think that she had rights to the term dreamhouse for a life style brand. Is any of that relevant to this case? No not at all but it certainly is an example of Blake’s fading popularity. She wasn’t ever considered for Barbie, she didn’t get her second lifestyle brand launched, not everybody is just running to work with Blake. Her celebrity has been waning, it was propped up by Taylor Swift, but that seems to be gone now. I do not think people will run Ryan and Blake out of Hollywood with a pitchfork. I think they’re always going to have a lot of money, but this entire 2 year saga by the time it ends is hurting their brand that they were trying to cultivate which is this laid-back, very down to earth, happy couple who just want be with their kids and do some Hollywood stuff on the side. No one’s really buying that anymore. |
It will be interesting to see if the lawyers get into the weeds on thing of value. I would argue the PGA credit is not. I would support a petition to look into rescinding her credit but I do not believe the credit is a thing of value for the purpose of extortion. Thinking along the line of this definition https://definitions.uslegal.com/a/anything-of-value/ The credit is not really something you can exchange for money. My understanding is it's a matter of prestige. AFAIK it doesn't effect the backend. If it did, then I would reconsider. I thought Blake already had a credit. If Wayfarer and Justin lost money because of it they need to make that argument explicitly. They are suing for extortion so they are the ones who must show they meet the elements. I would also point out they technically didn't give her the credit. They wrote a letter of support. The movie rights I believe are a thing of value. It's a contract that can be sold to someone else for money. They would need to make a clear argument about what threats were made and to whom. The idea that they might have done this or that is too speculative. A more classic example of extortion would be "sign over the rights or ill break your legs." IMO they have to argue there was explicitly something done by Lively and co that was like "sign over the rights or we go to the press" whereas the argument I see being made in his complaint is just generally that she was pushing for more power and there was this looming threat in Justin‘s mind that she might go to the press and lie about SH. His complaint would need to be significantly reworked IMO. |