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Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds seek gag order for Justin Baldoni's lawyer

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are accusing Justin Baldoni’s attorney Brian Freedman of “improper conduct” over his public statements regarding lawsuits and have requested a gag order

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Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are facing off in several legal battles. The “Gossip Girl” alum filed a lawsuit against her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director in December, accusing him of an alleged smear campaign and allegedly sexually harassing her.

Originally appeared on E! Online

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are seeking further legal protection.

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The same day Justin Baldoni’s legal team, headed by attorney Bryan Freedman, released behind-the-scenes footage of Lively and Baldoni dancing on the "It Ends With Us" set, the couple’s own lawyers issued a letter to judge Lewis J. Liman Jan. 21 seeking a gag order for Freedman.

In the documents obtained by E! News, Lively’s legal team alleges that “virtually every day” since Lively filed her Civil Rights Complaint Dec. 21, “Mr. Freedman has given television interviews, appeared on podcasts, issued inflammatory written statements, and leaked information (including, remarkably, documents as banal as document preservation demands to third parties) to the Hollywood press and tabloid media.”

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Further, Lively and Reynolds’ attorneys — who reiterated that Lively issued a cease and desist to Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios to stop their alleged online harassment campaign prior to filing her Dec. 21 civil complaint — allege that many of Freedman’s public statements, “not only continue the campaign of retaliation that was the subject of Ms. Lively’s First Cease and Desist, but they contain numerous new false statements about Ms. Lively and others.”

The request includes several examples of Freedman’s communication to various media outlets—with Lively’s lawyers alleging the list of 10 lengthy statements is “surely incomplete”—in which he calls Lively’s own statements and legal proceedings “unethical,” “shameful” and “false.”

Elsewhere in the letter, the attorneys note that Lively submitted a cease and desist letter directly to Freedman, who is an attorney for Baldoni as well as his Wayfarer associates, Dec. 23 for his continued statements to the press. The document further highlighted Baldoni’s legal team releasing footage from "It Ends With Us" to various media outlets—including E! News—as well as their recent statement, made to multiple outlets, of their plans to launch a website detailing “all correspondence and videos” to “quash” Lively’s claims.

Lively’s counsel argues that Freedman’s ongoing public comments violate New York State’s Rules of Professional Conduct regarding trial publicity.

“As Ms. Lively’s counsel have attempted, repeatedly, to caution Mr. Freedman, federal litigation must be conducted in court and according to the relevant rules of professional conduct,” the letter writes. “His conduct threatens to, and will, materially prejudice both the Lively Case and the Wayfarer Case by tainting the jury pool, because his statements are deliberately aimed at undermining the “character, credibility, [and] reputation” of numerous relevant parties.”

E! News has reached out to Freedman regarding Lively and Reynolds’ gag order request but has not yet heard back.

Lively and Reynolds’ latest legal request comes amid their ongoing battle with Baldoni. After filing her civil complaint, Lively officially filed a lawsuit against Baldoni and his associates Dec. 31 for mental pain, anguish and lost wages, which also alleges he sexually harassed her while filming It Ends With Us.

Baldoni, for his part, has countersued Lively, Reynolds and the couple’s publicist for $400 million citing defamation, contract violations and civil extortion, and also sued The New York Times for $250 million, citing defamation in the newspaper’s reporting on Lively’s initial civil complaint. (The Times previously indicated in a statement that it will defend itself against the suit.)

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