But what about at least her a half dozen threats in writing from her lawyers that she would walk if they didn’t do something that she wanted? Those are all documented emails from her legal team clearly stating that she would not return to set. And After shooting was done that she would not participate in marketing. I do not understand how that is not monetary value if they shoot half the movie and Blake doesn’t return - that is a huge cost. |
I don’t see how Taylor gets out of this. Either Blake is lying or Taylor is lying. But someone is lying because these stories don’t match.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJdI_tJKUvT/?igsh=MWdhdHJ1ejFvZzUzaA== |
Depends on what was the "something." The one where she claims the set was unsafe and she wouldn't return unless issues were addressed sounds like a legitimate grievance. But if she said she won't return to set or do promotion unless they sign over the film rights, that could be extortion (depends - some jurisdictions require it to be a threat of force or dont recognize civil extortion at all). They need to articulate very clearly what the argument is. That said, even if this legal claim fails, I think team Justin would be satisfied they changed the narrative from SH to movie stealing. I think that was their real goal. |
But it's not something of monetary value that Blake received. Yes, had she walked, it would have cost Wayfarer a ton of money and potentially tanked the movie for good. But that's not extortion, it's a contract breach, which they could turn sue her for. But there's nothing of value she gets there. And before anyone says "well they couldn't sue her for breach of contract because she didn't sign her contract," this probably isn't true. Once she has substantially performed enough of the contract that Wayfarer was relying on her to finish the movie, she would be beholden to their agreement to make the movie whether she signed or not. So a legal remedy existed for them if she walked away from the film, but it's not an extortion claims. IMO, in order to make the extortion claims, they need to rely on her threats to go public with the SH claims only, not her threats to walk away from filming or not to market the movie, both of which would have opened her up to breach of contract claims as well as other legal claims based on the money lost to both Wayfarer and Sony. But then they still run into the "thing of value" issue. I am not sure if the p.g.a. credit would count. It seems like a stretch to me, both because it doesn't carry monetary value and because Wayfarer didn't give it to her, they just gave her an endorsement. I don't think the thing of value could be the rights to the sequel even if she explicitly made threats to try and get them. She didn't get them, and there's no "attempted extortion" claim -- you can't bring the claim unless the defendant successfully extorted you. |
I get what you’re saying - that makes total sense about the extortion, but if Justin can show all this doesn’t he have a pretty compelling case that he wasn’t retaliating against her, that he knew what she was capable of, and he feared for his career? She took over his movie, then was bashing him in the press. I’m pretty sure Wayfarer didn’t start the fat shaming rumor which is the first thing I heard about the cast unfollowing him before the premiere. And then Ryan walking around calling him a sexual predator. I get that they don’t have a case for extortion, but it certainly seems they have a compelling case for why he hired the PR firm and just painting to the jury exactly what he was up against here. Add to that Leslie Sloan running around and telling the press Blake is not the problem. Justin is. The whole cast hates him. And so on. Legally, I have no idea if any of this matters, but it certainly highlights a very interesting power dynamic – mainly that she had all the power and Justin had very little. |
I'm not the PP you're replying to but am the other one arguing the pga credit is not extortion, and I agree with this... this is relevant insofar as it shows his motivations for the crisis PR and her motivations to defame him. It's just very unlikely to meet the legal definition of extortion. This is why some of us say Justin has good facts and bad legal arguments. The facts are terrible for Blake, but will look good for him at trial. I generally don't expect her to win at trial but I expect the Lively parties will get some good results on their MTDs. |
The Vansham lawsuit has now been raised to Judge Liman in multiple court documents in both the lively and Jones cases. I think it’s safe to say BF is going to take every opportunity for the rest of the case to remind the judge about the “misconduct” that took place. He first raised it in Jen Abel’s amended complaint against Jones. He then used it to deny BL’s lawyer’s request for interrogatories: they had asked for information about JB’s neurodivergence, JB’s lawyers asked “what’s the relevance of my client’s private health information” and Blake’s lawyers accidentally said “it’s in the discovery (referring to the vansham discovery)”. JB’s lawyers said why don’t you explain to the court how you obtained my clients private health information through a sham subpoena (I’m abbreviating they actually described the subpoena and why it was improper) and now this exchange is in BL’s motion to compel. Finally, they cite it in their response to Jones’s motion to quash a subpoena to the security company that took Jen Abel’s phone, extracted the texts and gave them to jones who gave them to BL. They seem to be alleging multiple crimes. |
Ohh, that's juicy. Which docket is that on? |
Not sure, most are posted on Reddit and there’s also a youtuber “court of random opinion” who reads them live. |
DP. Whether the ‘thing of value’ in an extortion case is tied to money does not matter. A thing of value doesn’t have to be $. |
Thanks. I found it on ItEndswithLawsuits and they said it's not on the docket yet. Hoping to read in full. There are some screenshots there. |
Court of random opinion has a video reading it. She pays to get early access I think. |
Found the link for those interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvYXMn1It8Y |
I agree and I think people are also overlooking the marketing opportunities Justin lost because of Blake. She kicked him out of the book bonanza promo that he had organized, took his film by credit and took his face off the poster. These were clearly things of value because she used these opportunities to promote herself, her hair care and her alcohol. Similarly, these things would’ve helped Justin promote wayfarer as a studio, his personal books (book bonanza would’ve been the perfect opportunity) and his podcast. |
With regards to refusing the request for interrogatories, BF (or whichever lawyer wrote it) seems to be saying, you shouldn’t have this information and therefore you haven’t established a basis for the question/discovery. It’s an interesting play and may be a forcing function for BL’s team to have to get the text messages the “right way” before they can go deeper into discovery, which if nothing else will slow them down. Will be interesting to see what the judge says. |