Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively arrived at a New York City courthouse in near-matching outfits on Wednesday for their blockbuster It Ends With Us showdown.
Wearing a khaki double-breasted suit, a tan vest over a pink button-up shirt, a green suede purse and a five-leaf clover pin for good luck, Blake, 38, walked in alongside her lawyers to face her co-star for the first time since their legal battle began in December 2024.
Smiling Baldoni, 42, similarly wore an olive teddy coat with a pink scarf as he entered the courthouse alongside his lawyer, Bryan Freedman.
Ryan Reynolds was conspicuously absent when Lively arrived at court this morning, but Baldoni had his wife, Emily, 41, firmly by his side for support.
More than a year after filing a complaint accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation on the film’s set, the parties will make a last-ditch attempt to resolve the dispute at a court-ordered settlement conference at US District Court in Manhattan – their final chance to avoid a May 18 trial.
The hearing, overseen by Judge Sarah L Cave, will be closed to the media and public as she presses both sides toward a potential settlement.
Lively was the first to sue Baldoni and claimed sexual harassment onset of the film that they both starred in and he directed.
She is demanding $161million for personal and financial losses due to the alleged retaliation and smear campaign against her.
Baldoni responded with a $400million defamation suit against Lively, her husband Reynolds and the New York Times, which reported on the actress’s claims, but a judge dismissed it.
The Daily Mail understands that the settlement talks are taking place in two adjoining courtrooms on the same floor of the courthouse.
It is unclear if Baldoni and Lively are even in the same room as lawyers for each side are able to walk between the courtrooms.
At 12.30pm a cart full of chicken sandwiches and salads was seen being wheeled into one of the courtrooms, suggesting that both sides are going to keep working though lunch.
Neither actor attended their previous settlement conference on January 22, just days after a trove of legal filings spilled Lively’s private, and often explosive, text messages with A-list friends.
The messages included one she sent the day after filing her complaint, in which Lively celebrated Baldoni being dropped by his powerhouse agency, WME, with Taylor Swift by her side.
The victory lap texts, exchanged on December 21, 2024, according to court papers, began with Swift telling Lively: ‘You won. You did it.’
‘You f***ing helped so many people who won’t have to go through this ever again,’ Swift later added.
After all the negative publicity Blake had received about her ‘insensitivity’ to the domestic abuse theme of the film during its promotion, Swift said: ‘Never has a cancellation been reversed so fast.
‘You guys don’t understand how rare this is. To have proof and to take the perfect steps to bring that truth to light.
Lively replied: ‘Like. My. God.’
Then: ‘I love you so much. I would not be ok through any of this if it weren’t for you.’
The texts were revealed in a lengthy court document filed in the federal court in New York in which Lively responded to dozens of claims made by Baldoni.
In the file, Baldoni’s lawyers wrote: ‘On April 12, 2023, Lively asked her friend, the world-famous musician Taylor Swift, for help.
‘Referring to Baldoni as “this doofus director of my movie”, she went on to describe him as “a clown” who “thinks he’s a writer now”.
‘She asked Swift to endorse the revised script she was proposing even without having read it.’
One text to the singer from Lively read: ‘You don’t have to read of course.’
In another part, the court document states: ‘Swift agreed to do Lively’s bidding, texting Lively: “I’ll do anything for you !!”‘
Lively’s side disputed that she asked Swift to endorse the script without reading it, only that she ‘hoped she would’.
Lively has alleged that the erosion of her public image is due, in part, to a coordinated smear campaign orchestrated by Baldoni’s team after she spoke out about sexual harassment – claims his attorneys have vehemently denied.
The actor’s legal team previously sought to have Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment thrown out before their May trial at the last settlement hearing.
However, the judge did not rule on Baldoni’s motion for dismissal and said he would do so later.
