Whatever you do, don’t call Blake Lively a ‘mean girl’.

The actress is objecting to news articles that paint her in a negative light, being shown to the jury at her trial against Justin Baldoni next month, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The actress says that a jury would ‘draw adverse conclusions about her character’ if they were allowed to see the articles being submitted for the trial by Baldoni, her co-star and director in the movie It Ends With Us.

That’s because they make her look like a ‘bully’ and a ‘mean girl’, according to court filings seen by the Daily Mail.

The stories, according to the docs, include a 2009 article where Lively used the word ‘[derogatory term for cross-dresser]’ and another from 2014 about her ill-judged wedding to Ryan Reynolds on a southern plantation.

Actress moves to block ‘mean girl’ interview from trial

Lively is also objecting to Baldoni calling Kjersti Flaa as a witness to recount the Norwegian journalist’s infamous 2016 interview with the actress, which resurfaced during the controversy about the movie in 2024.

Lively’s lawyers wrote: ‘Ms Flaa’s testimony ‘about her interview with Ms Lively’ will inevitably echo her numerous public statements describing Ms Lively as ‘rude’ and exuding ‘mean girl energy’.

Lively is due to go on trial against Baldoni on May 18th at federal court in New York for allegedly retaliating against her with a ‘smear campaign’ when she complained about him sexually harassing her on set.

A judge last week dismissed 10 of 13 of Lively’s claims, including all the sexual harassment allegations, but the matters regarding retaliation will go before a jury.

Over the weekend, Lively’s lawyers filed a slew of documents with the court in an effort to exclude evidence they claim is not relevant to the case.

That includes a number of news stories that Baldoni’s lawyers have claimed resurfaced ‘organically’ in 2024 amid the controversy over the release of the film.

Lively’s legal team claims that the move is an attempt to ‘smuggle into evidence a combination of gossip (and) rumor… while misleading the jury into believing that their curated laundry list of old events must have played some role in the overwhelmingly negative shift in public sentiment against Ms Lively in August of 2024’.

They wrote: ‘Despite no supporting evidence, defendants appear intent on exposing the jury to a laundry list of negative media stories about Ms Lively, despite having any competent evidence linking those stories to the events in this case’.

The reports, which Lively's lawyers dismiss as ‘Gossip Articles’, will aim to prove that Lively was a ‘mean girl’ or a ‘bully’, the filing states.

Using them in this fashion should not be allowed because it amounts to a ‘character assassination’ that is meant to ‘paint Baldoni as the victim’.

For the same reason, Flaa’s testimony should be excluded, Lively’s lawyers stated.

During the summer of 2024, Flaa’s interview with Lively from 2016 went viral amid a backlash against the actress.

In one of many excruciating exchanges, after Flaa congratulated Lively on her pregnancy, the actress congratulated Flaa back - even though she wasn’t pregnant.

Flaa has since called the interview ‘traumatizing’ and said that it made her nearly quit journalism.

Lively seeks to keep Reynolds’ $400m fortune out of court

Lively’s lawyers claim this testimony will unfairly advance the ‘mean girl’ narrative and is ‘wholly irrelevant’ to the case.

They claimed: ‘Whatever marginal relevance her testimony might conceivably have is substantially outweighed by the significant danger of undue prejudice to Ms Lively by Ms Flaa coming into court to paint her as a "bully" and a "mean girl."'

Among the other evidence that Lively does not want to go before the jury is any discussion of her husband’s wealth.

Reynolds is reported to be worth as much as $400 million thanks to the success of the Deadpool superhero franchise, which he stars in.

While Lively claims that Reynolds’ wealth is not relevant, a question on the proposed jury questionnaire hints at why they might not want this coming out.

It reads: ‘Would you have any difficulty awarding damages to a person who already has money if you find they have suffered harm?’

Lively also wants no mention of the ‘Nicepool’ character that featured in Reynolds' movie ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’, which came out in July 2024.

In the movie, Reynolds portrayed Nicepool as a vicious caricature of a ‘woke’ feminist before his violent shooting death at the hands of ‘Ladypool’, a character voiced by Lively.

These scenes were allegedly filmed after a tense January 2024 meeting at Lively’s apartment, where Reynolds was present and castigated Baldoni for allegedly harassing his wife.

According to Lively, anything to do with Nicepool is ‘irrelevant’ and intended to make Baldoni appear like he is the victim.

Taylor Swift will feature in the case as she is mentioned on a list of people ‘likely’ to come up, the filing stated.

However, the singer, who was close with Lively during the filming of It Ends With Us, will not testify in person.

That means the jury will likely see texts between Swift and Lively that have already become public.

 Taylor Swift texts revealed in Lively legal battle

They include Swift telling Lively during the filming and promotion of the movie: ‘No one. Should ever. Get into a war of wills with you’ as Lively fawned over Swift and said she ‘thinks like the actual Roman Empire’ and that she was ‘wickedly smart’.

And in a brutal comment, Swift told Lively that Baldoni’s ‘misogyny runs so deep he thinks women are incapable of winning chess matches or making long game power plays’.

Texts have also shown that the friendship soured amid the controversy over It Ends With Us: in December 2024, Lively asked Swift about a ‘shift’ in their friendship and if all was OK.

Lively’s lawyers have also confirmed that Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, will testify in person in her defense, as will Lively herself.

Among the others testifying for Lively is actress Jenny Slate, who starred in the movie as Lively’s friend, and Isabella Ferrer, who played a young version of Lively’s character.

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