Blake Lively has decided to bring out the big guns in her ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni. The Gossip Girl star has hired Nick Shapiro, the CIA’s former deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to former CIA director John Brennan, as her PR crisis manager. Lively and Baldoni, her It Ends With Us director and co-star, have been tangled up in messy lawsuits against each other since December. “The litigation team for Ms. Lively retained Mr. Shapiro to advise on the legal communications strategy for the ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit occurring in the Southern District of New York,” a member of Lively’s legal team at Willkie Farr & Gallagher told Variety. In December, Lively submitted a letter to the California Civil Rights Department accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment during filming the previous year. The letter, which also detailed allegations of Baldoni orchestrating a smear campaign against the actress in 2024, was the main source of The New York Times article that sparked a legal dispute that now involves more than a dozen individuals and companies. On December 31, 2024, Baldoni and nine other individuals sued The New York Times for $250 million for libel. Lively then filed her own lawsuit against the same group claiming they were “retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns.” Baldoni responded by next suing Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million, accusing them of defamation and civil extortion. On Friday, a federal judge ruled against some of Lively’s requests, including call and text logs between Baldoni, his PR team, and other employees at the movie’s production company. The judge claimed these were “overly intrusive and disproportionate to the needs of the case.” She was, however, granted a subpoena for phone records.
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