Justin Baldoni's lawyer takes a shot at Ryan Reynold's 'SNL' joke while fighting to keep his client's phone records out of court
In an "SNL" appearance, Ryan Reynolds nodded to the drama surrounding him and Blake Lively.
Baldoni's attorney, speaking on a podcast, took a shot at Reynolds over the apparent reference.
Lively sued Baldoni, alleging sexual harassment, and he countersued her and Reynolds.
An attorney for "It Ends With Us" director and star Justin Baldoni ridiculed Ryan Reynolds over his veiled reference on "Saturday Night Live" to his and his wife Blake Lively's ongoing legal drama.
Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, took the shot at Reynolds during a Monday appearance on Billy Bush's "Hot Mics" show.
"I'm unaware of anybody, frankly, whose wife has been sexually harassed and has made jokes about that type of situation," Freedman told Bush, adding, "I can't think of anyone who's done anything like that, and so it surprised me."
Freedman was reacting to the joke Reynolds made during "SNL's" star-studded 50th anniversary show on Sunday.
During a question-and-answer bit hosted by "SNL" veterans Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the "Deadpool" star, who was seated in the audience next to Lively, stood up to ask a question as a part of the skit.
"Ryan Reynolds! How's it going?" Fey said from the stage to which Reynolds replied, "Great, why, what have you heard?" prompting laughter from the audience.
Reynolds and Lively — who starred opposite Baldoni in the summer box-office hit — have been embroiled in a contentious legal fight with Baldoni since December.
Lively initially sued Baldoni in Manhattan federal court, accusing him of sexual harassment on the "It Ends With Us" set and of engaging in a retaliatory online smear campaign against her. Defendants in Lively's lawsuit include Baldoni's production company, Wayfarer Studios, his fellow producers, and his publicists.
Baldoni, who has denied the allegations, then countersued Lively and Reynolds in a defamation complaint seeking $400 million in damages. The two cases have since been consolidated into one.
Freedman, while speaking on Bush's podcast, called Reynolds' "SNL" joke "the latest move" in the legal feud. Representatives for Reynolds and Lively did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on Freedman's podcast appearance.
Meanwhile, this comes as Baldoni's attorneys are trying to block Lively and Reynolds' lawyers from subpoenas for years worth of phone records from Baldoni and his associates.
In a February 14 letter to the judge overseeing the case, attorneys for Baldoni called the subpoenas issued by Lively and Reynold's lawyers to cellular providers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile "flagrantly overbroad."
The subpoenas seek "all documents concerning ingoing and ongoing calls or text messages" related to certain numbers "over a period of multiple years, in most cases spanning from December 1, 2022 to the present," the letter says.
"It is hard to overstate how broad, invasive, and atypical these Subpoenas truly are. This is civil litigation, not a criminal prosecution, and the Lively Parties are not the FBI," the letter continues. "Yet the Subpoenas seek not only the complete call and text history of each of the targets over a period of several years (no matter the sender, recipient, or subject matter) but also, over the same period, real-time location information and data logs reflecting, among other things, web browsing history."
Attorneys for Lively and Reynolds said in a letter to the judge the next day that Baldoni sued the couple for a "preposterous sum" of $400 million for claiming that a "retaliatory campaign existed, yet now appear to fear having third parties turn over the actual evidence that would document the who, what, when, where, and why of that campaign."
"The Lively-Reynolds parties have not sought (and do not seek here) anything other than non-content records as permitted by law," the letter says.
A spokesperson for Lively told BI on Tuesday, "If they have so many receipts why are they so afraid to produce them."
"Now they want to block the very discovery that would expose them. If they didn't do it, they would have nothing to hide," the spokesperson said of Baldoni's team.
Attorneys for Baldoni did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Absolutely. I think, now more than ever, she needs support. She's a new mom, and she still has this very complicated relationship with [her mother] Donna. Them coming together and connecting in the labor episode [last season]? That wasn't really this reconciliation. She's still like, 'Fuck this' when her mom calls her. I think she knows she needs support now. And Pete is a huge part of that. He's the antithesis of how she grew up, and you see her being grateful for him. In the wedding episode, she's reassuring him that she wasn't in love with Francie; it's always been Pete. I love those moments with him, and I love the moments in bed where Nat and him are being affectionate. I think they're so important for Nat's character, to see her not just being walked on and giving too much of herself to Carmy and the restaurant. Chris Storer and I have been having conversations about this since season 2, when the concept of Francie first gets introduced. We were like, 'Who is she?' 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That episode felt so much like My Best Friend's Wedding and The Wedding Singer and all of those kind of '90s/2000s movies that you watch and you're like, 'Oh, I wish I was at that wedding.' There was a scene in My Best Friend's Wedding, which takes place in Chicago, and [Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz] are in the bathroom at Wrigley Field. Cameron's wearing a little headband and she's in pastel, and she goes off on Julia's character. I kept watching that scene before [filming episode 7] to really get me into it. So much goes down at weddings. It's such a perfect backdrop for drama and comedy. And then when Brie stepped in, it made it all the more perfect. We really hit it off. I think we're pretty similar, and she's so funny. I love her. We were simpatico from the start, which was so much fun to play. And even though we do, sort of, find out [the source of Natalie and Francie's feud], it's still a little unclear! 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She has her home life, which is very satisfying to her, but she also knows how to operate the restaurant. She knows what she's doing. I'd like to see her continue down that path. For entertainment purposes, I would love to see her with Donna. I'd love to see Donna coming over to babysit. And then having something happen. [Laughs.] This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
