Lock in, Lively vs. Baldoni has a trial date

Mark your calendars: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are officially going to trial in 2026.

As their feud persists, a New York federal judge set a trial date for March 9, 2026. The judge, Lewis J. Liman, also moved a pre-trial to next week to discuss Lively’s complaints of attorney conduct and publicity. Attorneys for Lively claim that the attorney for Baldoni, Bryan Freedman, took great measures to taint Lively’s public image.

In doing so, Lively’s attorneys say in a recent filing, he is attempting to ruin the public’s and possible jurors’ perception of her before the trial. They accused Freedman of “engaging in this extrajudicial campaign to influence these proceedings and the public perception of legal filings to this Court, and there already is a serious risk that his misconduct is tainting the jury pool,” adding, “The endless stream of defamatory and extrajudicial media statements must end.”

Unsurprisingly, Freedman refuted these claims in a statement: “We will always respect the court; however, we will never be bullied by those suggesting we cannot defend our clients with pure, unedited facts. All we want is for people to see the actual text messages that directly contradict her allegations, video footage that clearly shows there was no sexual harassment and all the other powerful evidence that directly contradicts any false allegations.” Earlier this month, Baldoni’s team revealed plans to launch a website containing “all correspondence as well as relevant videos that quash her claims.”

Baldoni continues to dig himself deeper

This week, TMZ posted a seven-minute audio clip sent by Baldoni to Lively. It is not dated. In it, Baldoni apologizes for sending a 2 AM voice note while referencing the rewrite for the rooftop scene in It Ends With Us done by Lively and Ryan Reynolds. This has been a long-reported event, which Lively admitted was true. However, in Baldoni’s suit, he alleges that the edits Lively made were “dramatic.” After she reacted negatively to his response to her edits, she confirmed that Reynolds and longtime friend Taylor Swift felt the same way.

Baldoni’s suit goes on to say that the pressure of two of the world’s most influential celebrities felt targeted toward him. “The message could not have been clearer,” the filing states. “Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing Lively’s ‘dragons,’ two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him.”

However, further on in his voice note, he apologizes to Lively for his reaction to her edits, going on to praise her, Lively, and Swift, calling himself a “flawed man.” Not surprising, really, with people like Baldoni. They are quick to beg for sympathy, even when they know they’re wrong and they are the ones who instigated it.

“If that’s how you felt and they knew that, and fuck, we should all have friends like that, aside from the fact that they’re two of the most creative people on the planet,” Baldoni continues in his voice note. “The three of you guys together is unbelievable. Talk about energy and just to force, all three of you. But I just wanted you to know that I didn’t need that, because it’s really good and it’s gonna make the movie sing, like you said, and I’m excited to go through the whole movie with you. I’m just excited to spend time with you.”

Lively has also filed a deposition against a Texas man for online defamation during the promotion and subsequent release of It Ends With Us. The man, identified as Jed Wallace, is a crisis management specialist. Baldoni hired his Texas-based firm, Street Relations, as a contractor alongside himself and his studio, Wayfarer.