Perez Hilton dropped in his opinion on the Blake Lively, who skipped the TIFF red carpet, and Justin Baldoni legal battle.
Perez, who became “very familiar with copyright issues to learning a lot about defamation,” used his 21 years of experience to weigh in on the case. He told the Express US, “I still believe that shortly before the trial begins in March of 2026, both sides will agree to an out of court settlement. It will be confidential, so we won’t know if any money is exchanged hands. My guess is that none will. And it will be a truce.”
After Perez received a subpoena over his coverage of the ongoing lawsuit, he pushed to quash the order, heading to a hearing. The subpoena came amid another from Blake that involved attemting to gain access to Justin’s phone records.
Perez further predicted that both Blake and Justin’s camp will release a statement “that has to be approved by the other side. And neither statement will admit to any wrongdoing.” Perez added, “And the settlement will also include an agreement that going forward, neither side will talk about the other publicly. That’s actually a win for both sides. And that’s usually what happens in protracted big legal disputes like this one.”
Blake filed a complaint in 2024, claiming Justin and his PR team retaliated against her for reporting sexual harassment. She further alleged they started a smear campaign against her. Both accusations were denied by Justin and his team.
The celebrity gossip blogger explained that the legal standard is high to prove defamation of a famous person. He said, “The legal standard, the bar is high to get a conviction for defamation against a celebrity. You have to prove actual malice. Meaning you have to prove that the person saying alleged defamatory statements knew that those statements were false. And that the person knowingly spread false information. That’s a high bar.”
As a result of the high standard, Perez thinks that a jury trial won’t end in Blake’s benefit. “So it’s very risky for Blake Lively if this goes to trial. She might lose,” he said.
The Express US contacted representatives for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni for comment.
Blake’s legal team claimed in the complaint, “To safeguard against the risk of Ms Lively ever revealing the truth about Mr Baldoni, the Baldoni-Wayfarer team created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms Lively’s credibility.”
The complaint added, “They engaged in the same techniques to bolster Mr Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him.”
Justin and Wayfarer have denied all allegations of misconduct. Justin’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, responded: “It is shameful that Ms Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
