Justin Baldoni alleges Blake Lively’s intentions in filing a civil rights complaint instead of a lawsuit “were deliberate.”
Lively, 37, initially filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department Dec. 21, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment while working on “It Ends With Us.” She also claimed that after raising concerns, he, along with a crisis PR team, orchestrated a retaliation campaign aimed at ruining her career.
Baldoni, 41, launched a website that included an amended version of his $400 million defamation lawsuit against his co-star and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, which included an updated suit and timeline of events to counter claims she was sexually harassed on set of the drama for which he served as director.
BLAKE LIVELY VS. JUSTIN BALDONI: EVERYTHING TO KNOW
In his amended lawsuit, Baldoni claimed, “Lively never intended to file a civil lawsuit, which would have triggered the Wayfarer Parties’ right to discovery, including obtaining evidence and deposing Lively under oath. By the time Lively actually filed a lawsuit against the Wayfarer Parties, the damage to the Wayfarer Parties was done by virtue of Lively’s months of colluding with the New York Times on a false and malicious narrative unshielded by any privilege. Make no mistake: these actions were deliberate.”
Celebrity attorney Christopher C. Melcher exclusively told Fox News Digital Baldoni had “a very good reason” to make the claim that Lively’s actions were intentional.
“Because it was just a request for the government to investigate and not a lawsuit against Baldoni, he had no right to subpoena witnesses or force Blake or Ryan to sit for a deposition,” Melcher said. “The suspicion is that she leaked this request for investigation to the media with all of these text messages on there so that she could garner public sympathy but not be exposed to any scrutiny for her allegations.”
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Months after speculation of on-set issues between Baldoni and Lively, the “Gossip Girl” actress filed a complaint Dec. 21, making allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional affliction of emotional distress, negligence and more.
Melcher specified the importance of Baldoni stating Lively “never intended to file a civil lawsuit” in his amended lawsuit shared online.
“Ordinarily, if somebody makes a false statement against somebody, it’s defamation, and you can get sued,” Melcher said. “But if the statement is made in a lawsuit or in contemplation of an immediate suit being filed, it is protected under the litigation privilege – that’s Civil Code, Section 47.
“So, California Civil Code, Section 47 says statements made by a party in the course of a lawsuit are not defamatory, they’re not actionable. You can’t sue for defamation. And that’s been interpreted to mean, ‘OK, well, literally, if you’re filing tomorrow, and you’re maybe given a press release or demand letter, you can be covered under that umbrella that has to be immediately contemplated.’
“So, this ‘never intended’ is the code word for him saying that the leaks to the press are not covered by this litigation privilege because they were not made in the context of a lawsuit, and so that’s what gives him the right to sue. Otherwise, he would be blocked.”
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Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, gave more insight into filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department.
“Before you file a sexual harassment lawsuit in California, you have to file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) and obtain a right to sue letter,” Rahmani told Fox News Digital. “This is the state’s equivalent of the EEOC, except they enforce California state law instead of federal law. Just because you file a complaint with the CRD doesn’t mean you have to file a lawsuit. You can use the CRD’s internal investigation process instead.
“There is the possibility that Lively never intended to file a lawsuit and just wanted to file a complaint with the CRD and have the New York Times run the story to ruin Baldoni’s reputation.”
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On Dec. 31, Lively filed a federal suit shortly after Baldoni filed his own $250 million defamation suit against The New York Times, which he claimed published an article “rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions.”
“Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today,” Lively’s representatives told Fox News Digital at the time.
The “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” actress alleged in her federal filing that Baldoni, the Wayfarer Studios film production company and a handful of associates were involved in a “carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out.”
“This case is obviously as much about the court of public opinion as it is the courtroom,” Rahmani added. “Lively may have been trying to scare Baldoni with the CRD complaint or send him a message. The communications between Lively and her publicists will be very revealing. Was this just a PR move that backfired, or was it really the precursor to filing a lawsuit?”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Lively’s representatives for comment.
