Blake Lively takes a shot at Justin Baldoni’s legal team for making deposition into ‘public spectacle’ amid ongoing legal battle

On July 11, Blake Lively's legal team filed a motion requesting the judge to change the location of her upcoming deposition on July 17. The deposition date was announced on July 7, and Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, suggested live streaming the deposition from Madison Square Garden.

In May, Freedman said,

"If Blake Lively is really serious about testifying for the world to see, let's live stream it in Madison Square Garden and give the money to the domestic violence survivors."

As per the recently filed motion, Lively's team is also requesting that everyone attending the hearing be identified in advance. Lively is reportedly against holding the deposition at Madison Square Garden and live streaming it, since she doesn't want it to be a "public spectacle" for security reasons. Her representatives, while speaking to People Magazine on July 11, said,

"Ms. Lively is looking forward to her deposition next week, and it should follow the same rules as every other witness in this case. Justin Baldoni's lawyer has tried to make this matter a public spectacle at every turn, even proposing to sell tickets to a televised deposition at Madison Square Garden. This is a serious matter of sexual harassment and retaliation and it deserves to be treated as such."

Blake Lively had accused her It Ends with Us co-star and director, Baldoni, of sexual harassment and retaliation on sets, which he had denied.

What is the new location for Blake Lively's July 17 deposition?

While a new location has not been announced for Blake Lively's July 17 deposition, Lively, in her July 11 filing, asked the judge to block Baldoni and his team from selecting the deposition location.

In the filing, Lively and her team stressed that Baldoni's legal team has

"Not denied that their intent is to manufacture a harassing publicity stunt by requiring Ms. Lively to parade through paparazzi, or by inviting unknown attendees to the deposition, including memebrs of the media or social media infleuncers of any other number of abusive tactics."

Given the high-profile nature of the litigation and the actress's retaliation, Lively's legal team pointed out that there is a greater chance that the testimony will become a publicity event and possibly attract others who could endanger the parties' security.

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Lively's lawyers believe their request is "reasonable" to prevent any risks of "annoyance, harassment, and verbal and physical threats."

Freedman, while speaking to TMZ Live on June 10 said his strategy during the deposition is to ask Lively questions to prove how inconsistent her testimony is with actual facts of events.

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