In an unexpected move, Blake Lively won the presiding judge’s favor during an emergency court session.
On Saturday, July 20, the Daily Mail reported that during an emergency hearing in the high-profile legal battle between the It Ends with Us co-stars, Judge Lewis Liman slammed Justin Baldoni’s lawyer with a major remark.
During the session, held on Wednesday, lawyer Kevin Fritz, accused that the A Simple Favor actress was being given “special treatment simply because she’s a celebrity.”
However, Fritz was immediately interrupted by the judge, who asked the lawyer to stop from making such accusations, calling it a “serious issue.”
Liman claimed that he had not heard of either actor before taking on the case.
“There are problems that the court is trying to deal with and it’s helpful for me if you frame it in language and words that the court is accustomed to. It does not help me — and it’s not helped me in this case — to start throwing around accusations,” he said.
The judge continued, “I’m well aware that [Baldoni] is a person of high profile. So is [Lively. I have told you before, before I came into this case, I didn’t know who your client was, I did not know who the plaintiff was. Their names were unknown to me.”
“As far as I’m concerned, whether they have celebrity at the moment or not is irrelevant. Celebrity, as you know, and everybody knows, can be fleeting. It’s also not relevant to the court. So, your point is well taken that celebrity is irrelevant. Now let’s make it irrelevant. We don’t need to talk about it,” he added.
Judge Lewis Liman’s comment came the night before Blake Lively was scheduled to give sworn testimony.
