The talent agency executive allegedly responsible for “firing” Justin Baldoni from its roster thinks the It Ends With Us director should let the legal “process play out” in his legal battle with Blake Lively.
Ariel Emanuel, whose talent agency WME dropped Baldoni, 41, as a client in December shortly after Lively, 37, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni and his co-producers on It Ends With Us, said during a live Freakonomics podcast appearance in Los Angeles on Thursday, Feb. 13 that he continues to support Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds amid their legal war with Baldoni.
“Social media is a really good thing at times because it lets stars connect with their fans, but these two guys used it in an evil way, if that’s true,” Emanuel said, seemingly referring to Baldoni and Jamey Heath, Baldoni’s co-producer and CEO of their production company Wayfarer Studios. Both Baldoni and Heath were named in Lively’s complaint, which alleged sexual harassment and a coordinated social media effort to smear her name.
“We just have to be cognizant that they should no longer be out there intimidating people, using social media to try to hurt them,” Emanuel alleged. “And using what they had been doing prior to it now to go against them — they should just stop. If they think they’re innocent, they should let the process play itself out.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman, said, “Perhaps Ari’s perspective would be different if they had ever met in the half decade they were clients of his agency.”
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty; Raymond Hall/GC Images
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Lively is a client of Emanuel’s agency, as is her husband Reynolds, 48, whom Baldoni’s legal team named in the $400 million lawsuit he filed against the couple and their publicist Leslie Sloane in January, alleging extortion, defamation and more.
Speaking of Lively and Reynolds, Emanuel said, “These are good people who have been in the business for decades and have never had any bad press about them. And all the people they’ve worked with like them.”
Later, when speaking of Baldoni, Emanuel confirmed, “I fired him,” adding, “I am a ride-or-die.”
Baldoni and Lively’s legal battle has remained in the public eye over the last month; Baldoni’s attorneys published a website linking to his amended complaint filed in court on Jan. 31. The websitewhich is simply titled “Lawsuit Info,” features one page and buttons linking to two different documents related to his legal battle with Lively.
Justin Baldoni on August 8, 2024 on NBC’s TODAY.
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
In a pre-trial hearing earlier in February, a judge warned both sides not to hash out the case in public after Lively’s team made a prospective gag order request in response to Baldoni’s website, leaked video from the It Ends With Us set and other public statements made by his legal team.
After attorneys for both sides argued in a letter filed in New York federal court on Feb. 13 that engaging in settlement talks at this stage would prove “inappropriate” and “premature,” Lively and Baldoni appear set for a civil trial on March 9, 2026.
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