Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal troubles just got a new update: While the actress reportedly wants the actor-director of It Ends with Us to pay her some really big bucks, things might come back to bite her. This is because while she didn’t want the complete evidence released, the judge has ruled otherwise, which could prove to be a big problem for her.
Allow us to explain: Lively filed a motion for Baldoni and the Wayfarer party to pay for her “attorney’s fees times three, plus punitive damages,” summing up to a few million dollars. The evidence she added to prove her point included a recording with Steve Sarowitz, the co-owner of Wayfarer parties, who has been willing to fund the whole legal feud.
While the conversation in itself was around over 30 minutes long, the Gossip Girl actress allegedly cherry-picked only a few quotes that she could use to feed into her narrative. And then, per journalist Kjersti Flaa (via YouTube),
[Lively] said to the judge, We need to keep this sealed. We need to keep the rest of this recording a secret from the world because the person who is recorded here or who did this recording wants to stay anonymous.
However, while Lively might want to keep it a secret, Sarowitz, who is also involved in this substantial piece of evidence for Lively’s filing, reportedly wants the entire recording to be released. In the wake of the same, the recent ruling on the case had the judge ruling out,
This kind of motion carries a strong presumption of public access, and the privacy interest claims were not compelling enough to outweigh it.
This simply means that “the value of this recording to become public outweighs the value of keeping this person a secret.” Meaning that the entire recording is likely to become public soon. And, if that happens, then the entire truth would come out with respect to the taping, proving to be a problem for Lively and her motion to get Baldoni to pay her.
Steve Sarowitz Wants That Entire Recording to be Released
In her filing, Blake Lively reasoned that the person who recorded that conversation with the founder of Paylocity wants to remain anonymous; thus, they do not release the entire recording publicly. However, Steve Sarowitz, who is the other party taped in the recording provided as evidence, reportedly wants that entire audiotape to be released.
As Kjersti Flaa, the journalist who has been doing the digging in this case to share the easter eggs, evidence, and updates with fans, revealed in her latest video,
Steve Sarowitz responded, or his lawyers responded to this, saying, We do not want this to be sealed. We want all of this to come out so people can see the whole context of this conversation. We want people to see exactly what happened here.
Obviously, if Lively only shared those parts of the recording as evidence that proved her point, then the quotes of Sarowitz could possibly not entirely be true because they might have been taken out of context. Thus, to know the whole context of the conversation, Sarowitz now reportedly wants the entire recording to be released publicly.
Plus, as Flaa continued to point out, there’s also the major possibility that Sarowitz already knows who recorded that particular conversation. Not to mention, it’s “obvious” that this person was doing it “on behalf of Blake Lively” because, as Flaa said,
Why would you get into a conversation and press ‘Record’ before you start talking to someone if you’re not going to use it or plan to use it against that person?
Additionally, she put due emphasis on the point that the release of this recording would reveal if the person recording “pushed on Steve Sarowitz to say these things.” This is also a possibility because, as Flaa explained, “Why would Sarowitz want this to be public if he had anything to hide here?”
Now that even the judge has ruled for the same, it remains to be seen how exactly the release of that entire audiotape would work out for Lively, though it is currently being speculated that it would not work out in her favor.
Blake Lively Might Get Into Trouble Because of This Recording
While the entire talk about Steve Sarowitz’s words possibly having been taken out of context from that whole recording is one thing, there’s another thing that might get Blake Lively into trouble. Apparently, as revealed by Kjersti Flaa, the audiotape was recorded in California, “which means that this recording is basically illegal.”
Here’s why: California is a two-consent state, which means that both parties involved in a recording need to agree that this is recorded. And it is evident that Sarowitz, for one, “did not know that he was recorded here.” Thus, that’s another thing that could land the Green Lantern actress in further problems amidst her ongoing legal troubles.
Also, judging from the filing, it is likely that people would actually be able to hear the entire recording instead of just looking at the transcript of the same. If that happens, it would also help identify who the person was who decided to record Sarowitz in the first place. So far, it is known that this person is actually a woman, as shared by Flaa.
Additionally, as Flaa continued to speculate,
If it is some actress, maybe we will probably recognize the voice of this person. I mean, it could be Jenny Slate. It could be Isabella Ferrer. It could be some publicist. We don’t know who it is. But what we do know is that this person allegedly also felt that Baldoni had been verbally abusive against her as well. And the only person that we know so far that has felt that is Jenny Slate. Without speculating any further, we will get to the bottom of this.
Either way, things are likely to take their true form pretty soon.
What do you think about all this? Got something to say about this latest turn of events in what feels like a never-ending feud between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni? Make sure to let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below!
