Reply to Lively/Baldoni Lawsuit Part 2

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If no money changed hands (and that includes attorneys fees and donations to causes), then I agree that this is essentially a win for Baldoni. The statement leans slightly in Blake's favor, but not $50 m in attorneys' fees worth. She probably could have gotten something similar out of him on Day 1.

If money changed hands, then I would feel differently.[/quote]

We'll never know. This settlement will have an airtight NDA specifically because knowing exactly how much or if money changed hands would heavily influence how people view it.

I do tend to think Blake got something (attorneys fees + some amount, no idea how much) because of a few hints. Blake and Ryan have not made any major public divestitures recently (sell off of real estate or shares in one of their companies). Ryan has also been kind of hemorrhaging money on Wrexham. And while they are wealthy people, they also have an expensive lifestyle and four kids. Plus they just bought a new house in the UK. I think if they were truly out the attorneys fees on this case (two large law firms, multiple engagements, some of which are still going on), they would have had to sell something. Or they would have to do something kind of tacky for money, like an unpleasant endorsement or a movie or TV show most would consider below their fame level. Maybe that will change in coming months, which would change my opinion, but right now, they are not behaving like litigants who just flushed millions of dollars down the toilet on a lawsuit that settled for zero dollars. In my experiences, there are usually ripple effects of a case like this if someone truly walks away with nothing.

There is also a wild card in all this that no one is talking about, which is Wayfarer's insurance. I know there has been some fighting between Wayfarer and their insurers over whether they would cover their legal fees due to whether Wayfarer had properly notified them of the workplace complaints on the movie. I don't know where that litigation is, but it would not surprise me if this settlement was driven at least in part by a deal with the insurers. Like maybe the insurers say fine, we'll cover existing attorneys fees under your policy to end our ongoing litigation (which is also costing the insurers money), but only if you settle before trial. The insurance company will not look at any of this in terms of blame or likability or even what is fair. They will run the numbers and probabilities and if they deem a trial too potentially expensive, they can exert a lot of pressure on a company to settle out of court. This is one of the reasons that so many lawsuits settle -- many settlements are essentially deals between insurance companies.

The public statement was air tight. TMZ can claim they know but they don't. If I don't see Blake and Ryan doing anything to indicate they are hard up for cash in the next year or so, my guess is Blake got some kind of cash settlement to, at minimum, cover her attorneys fees. Minimum.[/quote]

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