Candace breaks down the latest development in the Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni Lawsuit and how it could have changed the outcome of the case. Candace talks about how her luck turned on a dime when she received a text message from her attorney telling her to drop two of her claims against Baldoni.
00:03:15.080So I'm going to tell you what happened in the beginning.
00:03:17.180Blake listed 13 causes of action against Wayfarer Studios, many of which included Jennifer Abel.
00:03:25.500That was the PR woman formerly of Jones work and Melissa Nathan, who is the crisis PR woman.
00:03:32.960So if I said to you right now, just going back and revisiting that initial lawsuit filing, if I said to you right now, hey, what's up, guys?
00:03:39.540It's Tuesday. Let's play a drinking game.
00:03:41.700Every time Blake Lively uses the word suffer or mental anguish in this lawsuit, emotional distress in this lawsuit, take a shot.
00:03:53.700OK, you would die. You would be dead by 6 p.m. Eastern.
00:03:56.640So let's not play that game. I'm just going to tell you the answer.
00:03:58.980In this initial filing, Blake Lively uses the term or just uses the word rather suffer 31 times, 31 times the word suffer or suffering, some variation of the word suffer.
00:04:12.120She uses the word emotional 30 times and distress 18 times throughout this filing.
00:04:18.720More specifically, in the initial 13 causes of action, she refers to her anguished and emotional state in 10 of the claims.
00:04:28.700So in 10 of the 13 claims, she refers to herself as being anguished and in an emotional state.
00:04:33.580And she specifically asks the jury, the jury down the line, to grant her punitive damages because of that emotional state, because she was so emotionally distressed.
00:04:43.820She needs money. OK, and I'm just going to give you here are the 13 claims.
00:04:47.580In case you don't remember them, why would you remember them?
00:04:50.140Here they are. And I'm going to go through the language here that she repeats in each of these claims.
00:04:56.320We have the first cause of action, which she lists as being sexual harassment, which is in violation of Title VII.
00:05:04.800And she says that she was discriminated against in violation of Title VII.
00:05:09.380She was subjected to harassment and creating a hostile work environment on the basis of her sex and gender.
00:05:16.860She goes on to say that she has suffered and continues to suffer substantial damages, including but not limited to severe emotional distress and pain, humiliation, embarrassment, belittlement, frustration and mental anguish.
00:05:32.420And is therefore entitled to an award of punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
00:05:39.980OK, second cause of action that was for retaliation in violation of Title VII.
00:05:44.740She claims it was an unlawful employment practice for any employer to discriminate against an employee because she opposed their practices that were forbidden under Title VII.
00:05:55.420So she goes on to again state that claim over and over again that this created a hostile work environment.
00:06:02.060And because of that hostile work environment, she has suffered and continues to suffer substantial damages, including but not limited to severe emotional distress, pain, humiliation, embarrassment, belittlement, frustration again.
00:06:13.220OK, and you have the third cause of action.
00:06:19.120She wants those damages to be proven at a time in trial.
00:06:23.600In the fourth cause of action, she lists it again that she continues to suffer substantial damages, including but not limited to severe emotional distress, pain and humiliation.
00:06:35.800The fifth cause of action, this was retaliation in violation of the Californian Labor Code.
00:06:41.660She again repeats that she suffered and therefore must be paid for her severe emotional distress and pain.
00:06:49.240In the sixth cause of action, she lists it again.
00:06:53.400She's accusing them of failure to investigate and prevent the alleged harassment.
00:06:58.860But of course, because she lived through that, she wants them to pay for the severe emotional distress.
00:07:04.100Now, I will say it is not mentioned in the seventh cause of action.
00:07:08.140It is not mentioned in the eighth cause of action.
00:07:11.280And it is not mentioned in the ninth cause of action.
00:07:14.760Skylar, if you go back to the list of the actions, I can just show them.
00:07:17.600Like, so it's not mentioned in three of the 13 causes of action, seven, eight and nine.
00:07:24.880She does not say that she was emotionally distressed and therefore deserving of money.
00:07:29.600Then she jumps right back into it in 10 and 11.
00:07:32.620Now, these are the most notable ones because she's just dropped these.
00:07:35.400OK, the intentional infliction of emotional distress.
00:07:51.980OK, then in the 12th cause of action, once again, substantiates that she has she's a survivor and she has suffered and continues to suffer from grief and anxiety.
00:08:03.640As a result of the near overnight change in her public and the public sentiment towards her.
00:08:10.000And then finally, in that 13th cause of action, she again says that she has suffered emotional distress and humiliation and shame.
00:08:55.180I mean, it gets it's a very dramatic lawsuit.
00:08:59.660I mean, even if you read number the 10th cause of action, she says and she's accusing this Jennifer Abel of engaging in extreme and outrageous conduct toward Ms. Lively.
00:09:11.680The conduct was so extreme as to exceed all bounds of that usually tolerated in a civilized community.
00:09:21.760She's saying the conduct was so outrageous and so extreme that a civilized community would say this has just been it has gone beyond the bounds of what we deem to be civilized.
00:09:33.760That's how much suffering she has lived through.
00:09:35.380And now she's going, OK, I don't I don't want to say that anymore as it pertains to these two claims, because suddenly Baldoni's team is saying, OK, let's see your medical records.
00:10:41.200They go to Judge Lehman and they file this motion, essentially saying that they want the judge to compel her to sign a HIPAA privacy release.
00:10:50.640You know, sign this and you will then be compelled to share this information.
00:10:55.620Blake Lively's team then comes back and indicates, OK, no, no, no, no.
00:10:59.440We're just going to drop claims 10 and claims 11 altogether.
00:11:04.440So you no longer need us to sign that release.
00:11:07.700But we're going to drop that without prejudice, meaning we can come back and we can refile this at a later time, probably when we're outside of the discovery window.
00:11:18.120And Baldoni's team said no dice to this.
00:11:20.340OK, they went to the judge and said that is ridiculous.
00:11:23.380OK, she's only agreeing to drop the claims, meaning that she has a right to refile these claims in the future.
00:11:30.220No, please, please force her hand here.
00:11:32.980So obviously, Blake Lively's team does what they always do, and they accuse them of engaging in a publicity stunt, saying they don't need this.
00:11:40.960They want the motion to be completely squashed.
00:11:45.340They do not want the medical records to be compelled.
00:11:48.520And they would like all of this to be dismissed.
00:11:50.600And Judge Lehman has just come back and they have very he is very much decided in favor of Team Baldoni.
00:11:55.040He's effectively saying via an order, which we can pull this up and you can see the language on this, which he has stamped.
00:12:01.960And he's not going to compel her at this time to sign the HIPAA privacy release, granted that he fully expects her to therefore drop all claims of emotional distress.
00:12:15.080OK, he is committing right here that if Blake Lively does not go through with dropping the claims of emotional distress, he is not going to allow her to present any evidence of her alleged emotional distress throughout the trial.
00:12:28.260You know, he will tell the jury, we're not allowing this evidence whatsoever.
00:12:31.640So this is a major, major win for Team Baldoni, because throughout this entire case, as we just went through, I mean, they've effectively butchered their entire lawsuit.
00:12:43.080So I'm thinking, if you're Team Baldoni, how are you going to respond to this?
00:12:46.640I was curious to see how their team would try to spin this as anything but a major loss in the right direction for us.
00:12:54.360We're all rooting for Team Baldoni. And remarkably, Lively's lawyers, Ezra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, came out and said that the reason they're dropping some of these claims is that they are just, quote unquote, streamlining and focusing her case.
00:13:11.860I'm not kidding. Like, we're dropping these claims because we're just streamlining and focusing on other elements of this case.
00:13:19.060Here's the full statement, because I want you to see how ridiculous this is.
00:13:21.520It reads, once again, this is a routine part of a litigation process that is being used as a press stunt.
00:13:29.360OK, let me stop you right there. They think we're so stupid that they want us to believe that a routine part of a litigation process is to drop pieces of your litigation.
00:13:38.360So you filed this and then you said, never mind, we're going to drop this because that's just routine.
00:13:43.420People just want to waste money on lawyers. They want to waste the judge's time.
00:13:47.420They want to file all of these claims only to therefore drop it. Routine part of the process.
00:13:52.840He goes on to say, we are doing what trial lawyers do, preparing our case for trial by streamlining and focusing it.
00:14:01.120They are doing what they do, desperately seeking another tired round of tabloid coverage.
00:14:05.860The Baldoni Wayfarer strategy of filing retaliatory claims has exposed them to expansive new damages claims under the Californian law, rendering certain of Ms. Lively's original claims no longer necessary.
00:14:20.500Ms. Lively continues to allege emotional distress as part of numerous other claims in her lawsuit, such as sexual harassment and retaliation and massive additional compensatory damages on all of her claims.
00:14:33.240Okay, so again, I want you to know they think that we're stupid by saying, well, what about the other claims that say something about her emotional distress that shows that we're serious about it?
00:14:44.660No, it shows that you don't think that we have the capability to read the lawsuit.
00:14:49.060Okay, Mike Gottlieb, we're not that stupid. I want you to know that.
00:14:52.820Mike knows fully well that they now cannot win punitive damages for the emotional distress claims that are mentioned in the remaining 11 causes of action.
00:15:01.880But he's going to leave it because it would look ridiculous if they completely amended their complaint.
00:15:07.880It would essentially just be a major win for the Baldoni team to trump it.
00:15:12.680So instead, what they're doing is they're saying, well, we still have it in the 11 other claims, but it's irrelevant.
00:15:17.660They can't win it. But the other claims hold other allegations that they could, in theory, still win damages on.
00:15:24.560So let me be super clear on what I'm saying because I can just show you so that it makes more sense.
00:15:28.320Just looking at this first cause of action, ready, it's for sexual harassment in violation of Title VII, like we said.
00:15:35.220So Blake's team, if you look at 234, point 234 here, they say, as a direct, foreseeable, and proximate result of this unlawful and discriminatory conduct,
00:15:46.500we have suffered and continue to suffer substantial damages, including but not limited to severe emotional distress.
00:15:53.540They know they can't win that. But that's not the only claim they're making. Go down to 236.
00:15:57.960In 236, it says that defendants of It Ends With Us movie LLC and Wayfarer intentionally violated Ms. Lively's rights under Title VII with malice or reckless indifference,
00:16:15.540and as a result, are liable for punitive damages.
00:16:18.140So that's a separate claim. And they're saying we can get punitive damages under this claim, even though we're likely not going to win 234.
00:16:23.960So they're just trying to save face here publicly by not butchering the entire lawsuit.
00:16:28.720But this is a major, major loss. In fact, if I'm looking at this, I'm going, what's actually left of this lawsuit?
00:16:33.880If you're removing emotional distress, what is actually left?
00:16:37.440And what's left is the ability for them to prove that there was some sort of a coordinated PR campaign.
00:16:45.300Essentially, they can attach that alleged coordinated campaign PR campaign against Blake Lively to lost earnings like she lost reputation.
00:16:54.040Now she can no longer be booked for movies and were able to prove that Melissa, Nathan and Jennifer Abel coordinated with Wayfarer Studios to make the public hate Blake Lively.
00:17:04.620That's the only like meat and bones of the case that's remaining.
00:17:09.220And thus far, and we're pretty far along now here, she hasn't produced a single shred of evidence to that effect.
00:17:17.240This was just her paranoia. This whole lawsuit was her being paranoid because she's so narcissistic that she could not believe that the public legitimately did not like her behavior.
00:17:27.360And so she cooked up in her paranoid head, along with her psychopath husband, allegedly, allegedly, psychopath, I'm saying allegedly, a sociopath, whatever's going on.
00:17:36.300They cooked up this idea that it had to have been coming from PR agents and had to have been coming from Justin Baldoni, that he intentionally wanted to sink her reputation and in the process, sink his own investment in the movie, which is poignantly ridiculous.
00:17:51.220So they are now going to have to try to make the shadows on the wall real.
00:17:56.420That seems like a pretty steep climb. And as I said, I think we are inching ever closer to having this lawsuit being completely dropped.
00:18:06.180But I don't know what they're doing here. I guess listening to their lawyers who are just trying to make the bills go up, right, just racking up the costs here, which is what lawyers sometimes do.
00:18:16.780If you let lawyers leave them alone, they will keep lawyering. And they realize that this client, her and Ryan, have unlimited money, effectively unlimited money to keep going through this charade.
00:18:28.580So they're going to tell, no, we can file this. We can do that. And they're just trying, I think, at this point, get as much money as they can, because a good lawyer will tell them, you can't win this.
00:18:35.860This is this is pretty lost. And on top of that, not only going to lose this in the actual court, you're also going to lose this in the court of public opinion, which is your entire reputation is being sunk.
00:18:46.640What are you doing here? Try to save face. But now they're too far gone.
00:18:49.580By the way, in addition to that, somebody I think it was actually Skylar pointed out to me, Skylar, my producer, pointed out to me that a lawyer who used to work for the Taylor Swift law firm, member Venable LLC, has now stepped in.
00:19:05.640Her name is Ellen S. Garofalo. She worked at Venable LLP, pardon, a limited liability partnership, and she was one of Swift's former legal representatives from 2018 to 2021.
00:19:20.320She has now joined Baldoni's counsel. She is now team Wayfarer in this lawsuit.
00:19:27.120And she said that she was compelled to join the case, quote, after reviewing its circumstances, feeling strongly that an injustice was unfolding and that her participation could make a meaningful difference.
00:19:41.760So you realize what's happening here now that could just be coincidental or it could be Scott Swift and Taylor kind of still saying what they need to say while keeping their hands clean.
00:19:53.320Because that's that's a move, right? She used to work for Taylor Swift. Now she's working for Team Baldoni in a normal circumstance.
00:19:59.620If Taylor Swift really felt that Blake Lively had endured this harassment, her best friend to whom she is the godmother of her children, Taylor Swift would have called the law.
00:20:11.420She's got a lot of power. They're probably making tons of money off of her and said, you know, this can't happen. This would be ridiculous. Don't let this happen. She can make a phone call.
00:20:18.460Now, this is kind of the writings on the wall here. Taylor Swift is definitely Team Baldoni.
00:20:24.440And this lawyer is making a statement that I think you can really attach to the entire atmosphere and mood of Team Swift, who feels that they almost, you know, got raked over the coals here because they were effectively threatened, allegedly being threatened to support Blake Lively publicly.
00:20:40.420And if you have to threaten your friends to support you, it's probably because you aren't telling the truth.
00:20:45.720Now, I got to tell you, I do not want them to drop this lawsuit anymore because we're getting it every day.
00:20:52.400It's just giving us a little bit more. And I unless they do the full mea culpa, I just really want Justin Baldoni to be delivered a full win.
00:21:00.700And Steve Sarwitz, just a full and complete win, because what tends to happen is people forget.
00:21:05.920And I think that this is the game that they're playing. They want people to get fatigued.
00:21:08.780They want people to get fatigued with the headlines, fatigued with the filings so that nobody's paying attention anymore to how hideous what they attempted to do to Justin Baldoni was.
00:21:18.180That happens. We all deal with this. It's like we're very apathetic. We have a culture.
00:21:22.320It's so ADHD, right? We're constantly being distracted.
00:21:26.080Something else is going on. We're outraged about something else.
00:21:28.500We move to something else and go, OK, I don't talk about this anymore. And it allows bad guys to win.
00:21:33.520Right. Bad guys have a pretty good stamina when it comes to evil.
00:21:36.860I will tell you that I've lived through these things.
00:21:38.560They have a pretty good stamina when it comes to evil and they rely on the public to move on.
00:21:42.440And that's why in a case like this, when you have just like a perfect act of evil that was committed against a guy as nice as Justin Baldoni,
00:21:50.440you have to stay on it and you have to keep applying the pressure publicly.
00:21:54.180And so we're seeing this through till the very end.
00:21:57.120I want to let you know we are two down, 11 to go, 11 claims, causes of action to go before we deliver justice for Justin Baldoni.
00:22:09.400Before I also get into some of your comments, I do want to tell you that something that made me laugh so hard today,
00:22:16.100completely switching gears onto another topic, obviously, going back to the Brigitte slap and everything that's happening to Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte.
00:22:24.800There are there's a team PSG. I'm going to have to look up.
00:22:27.880I am. You guys know I know nothing about we call it soccer.
00:22:30.900They call it football. I don't follow sports at all.
00:22:32.700But there are two players on the PSG team and that's the Parisian team, the Paris Saint-Germain soccer team.
00:22:41.080And their their names are Ashraf Hakimi and Lucas Hernandez.
00:22:47.460And Brigitte is sort of going down the line, shaking hands with the team.
00:22:52.640And somebody caught this moment where these two players, Ashraf Hakimi and Lucas Hernandez,
00:22:58.260are looking at Brigitte in a way that suggests that they have seen my series about Brigitte Macron.
00:23:04.620They're definitely asking some questions with their faces.
00:23:20.700That wig kind of looking a little sideways.
00:23:25.200And so this clip has gone absolutely viral online.
00:23:28.340I was being tagged in it over and over again.
00:23:30.040I want to let you guys know that I saw it and I laughed at it.
00:23:32.840And there's so much on so much going on behind the scenes.
00:23:35.760I do intend to do a Becoming Brigitte season two, because, like I said, we left a lot on the table.
00:23:42.360And a lot has happened since they made that ill fated decision for them to send me a letter to my home while I was seven or eight months pregnant.
00:23:51.960And I just I have to tell you, I have to tell everybody what has gone on.
00:23:55.260And it's going to you're just going to be shocked.
00:23:57.240You're just not going to believe what I tell you.
00:23:59.120You're going to think I'm making it up.
00:23:59.980And I promise you, I am not making these things up.
00:24:03.340So stay tuned, because Becoming Brigitte season two is going to be arriving when I'm officially back from maternity leave, not just popping in for fun stories.
00:24:13.440I also want to throw to my sponsors on today's episode, Gold Co., because you may have heard that Ron DeSantis signed a bill that would recognize gold and silver as legal tender in the state of Florida, exempting them from sales tax.
00:24:25.080Yeah, that law is set to take effect on July 1st, 2026, pending ratification by the state legislature.
00:24:32.980Well, Governor DeSantis explained it by saying, quote, this is our ability to give you the financial freedom to be able to protect yourself against the declining value of a dollar.
00:24:41.140And I guess all that inflation and skyrocketing national debt, not to mention the recent credit downgrade for the United States, may have opened his eyes, because this is exactly the reason that I partnered with a precious metals company.
00:24:53.200The writing has been on the wall for a long time now, so if you want to learn more about how gold and silver can help you protect your money, reach out to my partners over at Gold Co.
00:25:24.460If you're a homeowner, you probably have thought at some point, should I call American financing to refinance and pay off this credit card debt?
00:25:31.400And then you maybe second-guess yourself because of that low mortgage rate that you're enjoying.
00:25:35.300Well, listen, that low rate that you're enjoying, it's not saving you if you're drowning in credit card interest rates at 25% or higher.
00:25:41.700That's the math that no one wants to face.
00:25:43.040It's actually going to cost you thousands.
00:25:46.100If you're only making minimum payments on that credit card, that debt is going to follow you for years.
00:25:51.400That's why people are calling American financing because they're saving customers an average of $800 a month by using their equity to finally break free from credit card debt.
00:25:59.920You owe it to your family to see if it's possible.
00:27:27.860The stuff that we're covering, which I can't cover on the show necessarily, we are deep in the trenches on conspiracy theories.
00:27:33.300Like, we're just, like, sitting in there, reading things, going back into history, understanding what's being covered, a lot of it referring to the occult.
00:27:41.900I'm assuming that you've probably read the first book and you see where it's headed.
00:27:45.160But, yes, you can join and you can watch older episodes.
00:28:01.280Obviously, I haven't really been that engaged in the news cycle on maternity leave.
00:28:06.020It would be so fitting if Ryan is now backing away and blaming Blake because, as we have diagnosed him, and we've just seen his behavior over the years, and he's self-admitted to his own behavior, he never takes responsibility for anything that he does.
00:28:21.740There's always somebody else to blame.
00:28:23.220Somebody did something that was wrong.
00:28:24.640And, yeah, he's taking a pretty big beating publicly because no one really realized that he was this vicious.
00:28:32.320People just thought he was being funny and that he was only cosplaying as a jerk, and it turns out that he actually is a jerk.
00:28:38.860And so, yeah, I could see him being angry and lashing out and blaming Blake and everyone else, probably his PR team, his lawyers, everyone.
00:28:46.240And I think he definitely would be the fire that is keeping all of this moving.
00:29:00.140She's maybe praying that the judge drops it so she can go, oh, this is, you know, justice was not served here.
00:29:05.780You know, the judge dropped this case, and that's very sad.
00:29:10.580Maybe she's waiting for him to come back and drop the case.
00:29:14.400That's the only logical conclusion I can come to.
00:29:17.200I think in the beginning, they were pretty high up on their imaginary dragons, you know?
00:29:23.240And she really thought that she could force Taylor Swift's hand, and anything, irrespective of whether it's fact or fiction, if it has the power of Taylor Swift behind it, it's going to have a lasting effect, right?
00:29:33.440We've covered that in previous episodes.
00:29:35.020And when that failed, what did we say?
00:29:36.720That was in, like, February when their relationship ended after the alleged threat.
00:29:42.000Scott Swift is the person making that allegation.
00:29:44.200I trust that he would not say that if it wasn't true.
00:29:47.120But, yeah, I think that since then, things became a bit more bleak.
00:29:50.680February, things really heated up, and now they're just too far in.
00:29:54.720And they're going to spend a lot of money, a lot of money here, and lose their entire reputations or what is left of their reputations, which is virtually nothing.
00:30:16.080I know some of you guys were saying you and Ian should do an episode every Friday.
00:30:18.780I would commit to that 100% with you guys if you live nearby.
00:30:21.220I really do believe in, especially in this new age of media, that independence is power.
00:30:27.260And I never want to have somebody feel that they're beholden to my ideas.
00:30:34.080I never want my ideas to be beholden to somebody else's.
00:30:37.920And I want to be able to have the freedom to say what I want to say without a system of checks and balances and having to run up to the boss.
00:30:42.840You know, I like that my husband's my boss right now.
00:30:45.560That works for me, you know, and I think with Ian, I want to encourage him and everybody else to be independent and to do what we're doing already.
00:30:53.920We're already teaming up, working together.
00:30:55.560Like I said, if you live nearby, I would make it a permanent fixture.
00:30:58.300And I'm glad that you guys are enjoying his work so much.
00:31:00.820He's doing he's tremendous at all the deep dives.
00:32:36.960Again, reminding you, you can preorder Make Him a Sandwich on our website.
00:32:39.860You could also get our anti-feminist merch on our website as we gear up for this book launch.
00:32:44.120I am going to say I'll see you in a week and a half, but I'm sure there's going to be some more news that I want to pop in on, some light news.
00:32:51.520And, you know, just picture me, if you're missing me, picture me crying over baby flatulence, you know, and hopefully it will bring a smile to your face.