Blake Lively begs court to toss out articles portraying her as a 'mean girl' in upcoming Justin Baldoni trial

Published: 01:16, 12 April 2026 | Updated: 01:18, 12 April 2026 Whatever you do, don’t call Blake Lively a ‘mean girl’. The actress is objecting to news articles that paint her in a negative light, being shown to the jury at her trial against Justin Baldoni next month, the Daily Mail can reveal. The actress says that a jury would ‘draw adverse conclusions about her character’ if they were allowed to see the articles being submitted for the trial by Baldoni, her co-star and director in the movie It Ends With Us. That’s because they make her look like a ‘bully’ and a ‘mean girl’, according to court filings seen by the Daily Mail. The stories, according to the docs, include a 2009 article where Lively used the word ‘tranny’ and another from 2014 about her ill-judged wedding to Ryan Reynolds on a southern plantation. Lively is also objecting to Baldoni calling Kjersti Flaa as a witness to recount the Norwegian journalist’s infamous 2016 interview with the actress, which resurfaced during the controversy about the movie in 2024. Lively’s lawyers wrote: ‘Ms Flaa’s testimony ‘about her interview with Ms Lively’ will inevitably echo her numerous public statements describing Ms Lively as ‘rude’ and exuding ‘mean girl energy’. Lively is due to go on trial against Baldoni on May 18th at federal court in New York for allegedly retaliating against her with a ‘smear campaign’ when she complained about him sexually harassing her on set. Blake Lively, 38, is objecting to unfavorable articles being shown to the jury at her trial against Justin Baldoni next month, according to court filings seen by the Daily Mail Lively says that a jury would ‘draw adverse conclusions about her character’ if they were allowed to see the articles being submitted for the trial by Justin Baldoni (Pictured), her co-star and director in the movie It Ends With Us A judge last week dismissed 10 of 13 of Lively’s claims, including all the sexual harassment allegations, but the matters regarding retaliation will go before a jury. Over the weekend, Lively’s lawyers filed a slew of documents with the court in an effort to exclude evidence they claim is not relevant to the case. That includes a number of news stories that Baldoni’s lawyers have claimed resurfaced ‘organically’ in 2024 amid the controversy over the release of the film. Lively’s legal team claims that the move is an attempt to ‘smuggle into evidence a combination of gossip (and) rumor… while misleading the jury into believing that their curated laundry list of old events must have played some role in the overwhelmingly negative shift in public sentiment against Ms Lively in August of 2024’. They wrote: ‘Despite no supporting evidence, defendants appear intent on exposing the jury to a laundry list of negative media stories about Ms Lively, despite having any competent evidence linking those stories to the events in this case’. The reports, which Lively's lawyers dismiss as ‘Gossip Articles’, will aim to prove that Lively was a ‘mean girl’ or a ‘bully’, the filing states. Using them in this fashion should not be allowed because it amounts to a ‘character assassination’ that is meant to ‘paint Baldoni as the victim’. For the same reason, Flaa’s testimony should be excluded, Lively’s lawyers stated. On December 31, 2024, Lively sued Baldoni. The two of them starred as love interests in It Ends With Us, a movie inspired by the book written by Coleen Hoover Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds has been deeply committed to supporting his wife as she gears up to face Baldoni in court (pictured on Instagram) During the summer of 2024, Flaa’s interview with Lively from 2016 went viral amid a backlash against the actress. In one of many excruciating exchanges, after Flaa congratulated Lively on her pregnancy, the actress congratulated Flaa back - even though she wasn’t pregnant. Flaa has since called the interview ‘traumatizing’ and said that it made her nearly quit journalism. Lively’s lawyers claim this testimony will unfairly advance the ‘mean girl’ narrative and is ‘wholly irrelevant’ to the case. They claimed: ‘Whatever marginal relevance her testimony might conceivably have is substantially outweighed by the significant danger of undue prejudice to Ms Lively by Ms Flaa coming into court to paint her as a "bully" and a "mean girl."' Among the other evidence that Lively does not want to go before the jury is any discussion of her husband’s wealth. Reynolds is reported to be worth as much as $400 million thanks to the success of the Deadpool superhero franchise, which he stars in. While Lively claims that Reynolds’ wealth is not relevant, a question on the proposed jury questionnaire hints at why they might not want this coming out. It reads: ‘Would you have any difficulty awarding damages to a person who already has money if you find they have suffered harm?’ Lively departs US District Court in Manhattan after a settlement conference to get to a resolution ahead of the May 18 trial against Baldoni on February 11 Taylor Swift was subpoenaed by Baldoni's team, dragging her reluctantly into the case Lively also wants no mention of the ‘Nicepool’ character that featured in Reynolds' movie ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’, which came out in July 2024. In the movie, Reynolds portrayed Nicepool as a vicious caricature of a ‘woke’ feminist before his violent shooting death at the hands of ‘Ladypool’, a character voiced by Lively. These scenes were allegedly filmed after a tense January 2024 meeting at Lively’s apartment, where Reynolds was present and castigated Baldoni for allegedly harassing his wife. According to Lively, anything to do with Nicepool is ‘irrelevant’ and intended to make Baldoni appear like he is the victim. Taylor Swift will feature in the case as she is mentioned on a list of people ‘likely’ to come up, the filing stated. However, the singer, who was close with Lively during the filming of It Ends With Us, will not testify in person. That means the jury will likely see texts between Swift and Lively that have already become public. They include Swift telling Lively during the filming and promotion of the movie: ‘No one. Should ever. Get into a war of wills with you’ as Lively fawned over Swift and said she ‘thinks like the actual Roman Empire’ and that she was ‘wickedly smart’. And in a brutal comment, Swift told Lively that Baldoni’s ‘misogyny runs so deep he thinks women are incapable of winning chess matches or making long game power plays’. Texts have also shown that the friendship soured amid the controversy over It Ends With Us: in December 2024, Lively asked Swift about a ‘shift’ in their friendship and if all was OK. Lively’s lawyers have also confirmed that Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, will testify in person in her defense, as will Lively herself. Among the others testifying for Lively is actress Jenny Slate, who starred in the movie as Lively’s friend, and Isabella Ferrer, who played a young version of Lively’s character. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. 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