CELEBRITY LAWSUITS: Last News

nasty legal battle while hosting the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards on Saturday night.“So much hazarai over such a terrible movie,” Apatow said.He poked fun at Lively, 37, again by commenting on the box office success of “Wicked” and saying that “usually to make that much money you have to sue Blake Lively,” which generated laughter from the audience.Apatow also made fun of Kevin Costner for his “Horizon” film series bombing in theaters. “Imagine being Kevin Costner’s kids and realizing you don’t get a trust fund, but you do get to watch Horizon one and two whenever you like,” he teased.“Emilia Perez” was a target during Apatow’s opening monologue, as well.“Hollywood hasn’t had a new idea in decades and then suddenly we cram all of them into one f—ing movie,” he said about the Oscar nominated film, joking that it’s the “first movie that Trump is trying to deport.”“It Ends With Us,” based on Colleen Hoover’s novel, became engulfed in controversy upon its August 2024 release as rumors swirled over a feud between Lively, 37, and Baldoni, 41, who also directed the flick.

told Paula Froelich of NewsNation.“Blake apologized and they are talking again.”The pop princess was ruffled that her name was mentioned twice in Baldoni’s lawsuit against Lively.”Taylor is annoyed she was brought into this,” a source told Froelich back in January. “She was supporting her friend — and went to her house to hang out, and now that [hangout] is part of [Baldoni’s] lawsuit.

NEW YORK — Paul Schrader, the writer of “Taxi Driver” and director of “American Gigolo,” has been accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting his former personal assistant, firing her when she wouldn’t acquiesce to advances and reneging on a settlement that was meant to keep the allegations confidential.The former assistant, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, sued the filmmaker and his production company on Thursday. She is seeking a judge’s order to enforce the agreement after Schrader said he couldn’t go through with it.

Lady Gaga was hit with a $100 million lawsuit by a California surf company over claims the pop star stole their logo for her new merchandise, according to documents obtained by FOX Business.Gaga, whose full name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, launched her sixth studio album — “Mayhem” — on March 7, with merchandise featuring the Mayhem design.Lost International filed a complaint in the California district court on Tuesday, claiming the “Just Dance” singer used “substantially similar if not nearly identical” logos that the company trademarked a decade ago.The singer’s legal team denounced the attempt at litigation in a statement provided to FOX Business. “Lady Gaga’s MAYHEM soared to No.

“It Ends With Us” legal battle on Saturday’s episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”“They f–ked up,” Rogan said about Lively, 37, and Reynolds, 48.“Ryan’s trying to get out of it now,” Rogan continued. “He’s trying to get out of the lawsuit and they’re like, ‘You are a key part of this.'”His guest Brendan Schaub also declared he’s on Baldoni’s side.

Pop singer Mariah Carey defeated a lawsuit claiming she illegally copied elements of her holiday megahit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” from a country song of the same name.U.S. District Judge Monica Almadani in Los Angeles in a ruling on Wednesday said the writers of Vince Vance and the Valiants’ “All I Want for Christmas Is You” failed to show their song was objectively similar enough to Carey’s to support their copyright infringement case.Attorneys for the songwriters, lawyers for Carey, and spokespeople for her label, Sony Music, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision on Thursday.Vince Vance and the Valiants’ “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was released in 1989 and reached the Billboard country charts during holiday seasons in the 1990s.

$400 million suit against Lively is illegal because it aims to punish the actress for speaking out about the alleged sexual harassment she suffered, her lawyers argued in a Manhattan federal court filing Thursday. The “vengeful and rambling lawsuit against Blake Lively, 37, is a profound abuse of the legal process,” her attorneys wrote, about the bombshell case filed by Baldoni, 41, and production company Wayfarer Studios.The law prevents Baldoni from “weaponizing” the legal system to retaliate against Lively for coming forward and filing her own suit alleging she was sexually harassed by the director on the set of “It Ends With Us,” her attorneys argued.Lively was “legally entitled” to bring her case and give an interview to the New York Times, revealing her sensational claims against Baldoni — the director and her co-star in the flick.

the Hollywood Reporter that she won’t discuss the legal war between her “It Ends With Us” co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.“I don’t have anything to say about that,” Slate said in response to the outlet asking her to compare making the two projects in the interview published Thursday.“Everything is its own thing. I poured my heart into this work, and every minute of [‘Dying for Sex’] was important to me, and I just want to talk about that,” she said.But Slate did acknowledge that she’s likely going to be asked about the legal drama on her press tour.“Anyone can ask anything,” she said, adding, “but my only responsibility is to speak about the work I’m there to promote.

Justin Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit against him stemming from the “It Ends With Us” director’s feud with his wife, Blake Lively.Baldoni, 41, sued Reynolds, 48, and Lively, 37, in January following the actress’ own legal action against the “Jane the Virgin” alum, in which she accused him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a public smear campaign against her.In his defamation suit, Baldoni accused Reynolds of privately calling him a “sexual predator” and working to get his talent agency — WME — to drop him.However, Reynolds’ lawyers, Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, told The Post on Tuesday that the “Deadpool & Wolverine” star could not have defamed Baldoni because “Mr. Reynolds genuinely believes Mr. Baldoni is a predator.”“The entirety of Mr.

feud that turned legal.Mia Schachter, who has worked on the shows “Lessons in Chemistry,” “Perry Mason” and “American Crime Story: Impeachment” but didn’t work on “It Ends With Us,” shared her take in the new documentary “He Said, She Said: Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni” that aired Monday on Channel 5 in the UK.“From reading their text messages, I do get the sense that, at one point, there was genuine affection between them and what felt like a friendship,” she said about the “It Ends With Us” co-stars.Schachter also brought up that Lively, 37, allegedly refused to meet the film’s intimacy coordinator before production (a claim made by Baldoni in his $400 million January countersuit), which she claimed indicated that the star trusted Baldoni, 41, at the time.“And those texts made me think that at one point, she did feel a lot of trust with him,” she said.Lively sued Baldoni in December for sexual harassment. Baldoni later countersued and released text messages between the pair that he claims proves his innocence.In Lively’s lawsuit, she alleged Baldoni improvised kissing scenes and wanted to add sex scenes to the film.

Lizzo was feeling bad as hell.The 36-year-old singer is opening up about reaching a real low point after she was sued by former backup dancers and an ex-stylist in 2023 for alleged sexual harassment and claims that she created a toxic workplace environment.Lizzo has denied all allegations, but she is still facing ongoing lawsuits. (However, she was dismissed from the stylist’s lawsuit, although her production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc., remains a defendant.)“About a year and a half ago — it’s so hard for me to talk about — I was in such a dark, deep depression,” she told the crowd during an intimate show at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on Wednesday.“I was so heartbroken by the world and so deeply hurt that I didn’t want to live anymore, and I was so deeply afraid of people that I didn’t want to be seen.

a modified protective order she requested to keep sensitive communications and documents out of the public eye and deemed as for “Attorneys’ Eyes Only” during the pretrial phase of her sexual harassment and defamation lawsuit against her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director.However, the actress — along with fellow plaintiffs Reynolds and her p.r. representatives (the “Moving” parties) — did not get a victory outright, as the request was “granted in part and denied in part.”The team for Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios — who have countersued Lively and previously opposed her request for the strengthened protective order — welcomed the decision.“The Court has narrowed the provision to stated that information may be marked AEO only if its disclosure is ‘highly likely to cause a significant business, commercial, financial, or privacy injury,’ ” Judge Lewis Liman wrote in his memorandum obtained by The Post.“The parties have levelled [sic] accusations of theft of trade secrets and the disclosure of confidential sensitive information against one another,” he declared.“The Court’s model protective order is not sufficient for the needs of these cases,” he also stated.“These cases involve both business competitors and allegations of sexual harm.

the actor’s “Rust” trial. On-screen, Hilaria, 41, reveals that when she flew out to New Mexico to support Alec, 66, at the trial, leaving five of their 7 kids at home with a friend, “I wrote [the kids] all little letters… and I hid them.

the October 2021 shooting on the set of his movie “Rust.”Gloria Allred, who represents Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, father Anatolii Androsovych and sister Svetlana Zemko, filed a notice of deposition in New Mexico on Monday, according to People.In the notice, Hutchins’ family demands that the “30 Rock” alum testifies on May 9 in the wrongful death civil suit they originally filed in February 2023.“It is long overdue for Alec Baldwin to admit and face the real-life consequences that he caused Halyna’s parents and sister. It is time for him to face reality under oath,” they told the outlet.Baldwin, 66, was holding a prop gun during a rehearsal for a scene in “Rust” when it discharged, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.The actor, who also served as a producer on “Rust,” has always maintained that he did not pull the trigger that fatally shot Hutchins and did not know that the gun was loaded with live bullets.He was charged with involuntary manslaughter, but the case was dismissed in July 2024 because prosecutors withheld evidence that could have been beneficial in the star’s defense.Prosecutors ultimately dropped their appeal of the ruling last December.

upcoming follow-up flick, “Another Simple Favor.”The filmmaker revealed the swap to Entertainment Weekly, assuring the outlet that his brand, Artingstall’s Brilliant London Dry Gin, will be the only martini-making alcohol used in the movie.“There’s no more Aviation. This movie is all Artingstall’s all the time,” Feig said of his booze brand that he launched in 2020, two years after the thriller hit the box office.“I’m very proud of my brand.

she was the victim of “unwanted touching” by her co-star and director in the scene.Over the weekend, an X user shared a clip of Lively’s dance scene with Ryan Reynolds in their 2011 film “Green Lantern” and called out its alleged similarities to the “It Ends With Us” footage.“I noticed that about 30 mins into the film, there’s a scene where Lively and Reynolds characters dance in a bar in an almost identical way to the slow dance scene from IEWU,” the fan wrote.She said the “only difference” between the two scenes is that Lively and her husband are talking in “Green Lantern,” whereas Lively and Baldoni are nonverbal in their dance footage that was used as part of a montage in “It Ends With Us.”“Could it be possible that Lively was trying to recreate the scene to be similar to the scene she did with her husband when she fell in love with him?” the fan asked. “Did she rewrite the scene to mirror the details of the dance? Is this what she means when she says her husband is ‘all over this movie’? Did Reynolds see this and get jealous because it hit a nerve?”Other fans reacted to the alleged connection between Lively’s two movies.“Great observation!! Even down to the twirl!” one fan wrote on X.“Good detective work,” someone else said.“Wow that’s insane, great catch!” a third person wrote.The Post has reached out to reps for Lively, Reynolds and Baldoni.Reynolds and Lively met in 2010 on the set of “Green Lantern” and got married two years later.

her legal battle with Justin Baldoni after allegedly receiving “violent, profane, sexist, and threatening communications.”Attorneys for Baldoni, 41, along with those for Lively, 37, and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, 48, had previously agreed to a “model” protective order (PO) ahead of their March 2026 civil trial to prevent the public dissemination of sensitive documents and information as discovery gets underway.However, in a letter submitted to Judge Lewis J. Liman in the Southern District of New York on Thursday viewed by The Post, Lively and Reynolds’ lawyers claim that “good cause exists for the Court to provide additional protections” beyond those agreed to in the model PO.The letter cites Lively’s amended complaint against her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director filed earlier this week, which alleges the “Gossip Girl” alum, along with “her family, other members of the [‘It Ends With Us’] cast, various fact witnesses,” along with people who have publicly voiced their support for the actress “have received violent, profane, sexist, and threatening communications.”The additional protections requested by Lively and Reynolds include “an Attorney’s Eyes Only (‘AEO’) category, which applies to ‘Confidential Discovery Material of such a highly confidential and personal, sensitive, or proprietary nature that the revelation of such is likely to cause a competitive, business, commercial, financial, personal or privacy injury,'” according to the letter.

Blake Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Justin Baldoni could “make or break” the case.Lively has now claimed she, along with other cast and crew members, experienced “invasive, unwelcome, unprofessional, and sexually inappropriate behavior” from Justin Baldoni on the set of “It Ends With Us.”“As a preliminary matter, having the support of credible witnesses is extremely useful to Lively,” legal expert Heidi Reavis told Fox News Digital. “In cases involving subjective experience, third-party witnesses can make or break the case.”“If third-party witnesses can support Lively’s version of events, and especially if Baldoni cannot, she will definitely have the upper hand when it comes to her credibility and the veracity of her claims.”Lively claimed two additional female cast members are willing to testify during the scheduled 2026 trial.

legal battle over a lavish Montecito, Calif., mansion — which they bought for $14.2 million in 2021 and was previously owned by disabled veteran, Carl Westcott.The “Roar” hitmaker, 40, sued the 85-year-old bed-bound veteran, who lives with a neurological disorder, for back rent and alleged damages.Now, Westcott’s family has hit out at the “Lifetimes” singer for her “greedy” actions as they accused the Hollywood elite of “treating ordinary people like dirt.”“She has no sense of fair play, no empathy, zero empathy, quite the opposite,” the veteran’s son, Chart Westcott, told The Sun.“The worse the condition my father is in, the harsher they’ve been in trial,” Chart said of the pop star and her legal team.The two parties have been locked in a legal feud since 2020, when Westcott signed a deal to sell his sprawling 8.9-acre property to Perry and Bloom during the pandemic.However, he later claimed that his judgment had been impaired as a result of a slew of health issues he is battling, saying he was not in the right headspace to enter into the contract at the time.As a result, Westcott was slapped with a lawsuit from the singer and her legal team. In December 2023, Perry and Bloom were declared the legal owners of the gated mansion following a four-year legal battle.After getting the keys to the property in March 2024, Perry launched a large-scale lawsuit against Westcott through her team, claiming the disabled veteran owes her $6 million — a claim that his family is disputing.“She can cause damage in other people’s lives,” Chart told the outlet.

Lively detailed allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and more against Baldoni and film producer Jamey Heath in a complaint first filed with the California Civil Rights Department and later in federal court.Baldoni, in his own lawsuit filed in January, insisted that Lively “falsely” had accused him in an attempt to repair her reputation amid the fallout around the movie’s press tour after the actress took control of the film.

“Hot Mics” podcast on Monday and reacted to Reynolds, 48, making a joke from the audience in Studio 8H about the couple’s legal battle with Baldoni, 48.“I’m unaware of anybody, frankly, whose wife has been sexually harassed and has made jokes about that type of situation,” said Freedman.“I can’t think of anyone who’s done anything like that,” he added. “So it surprised me.”Freedman also called Reynolds’ comedic bit “the latest move” made by the couple in the legal showdown.The Post has reached out to Freedman for comment.Reynolds and Lively, 37, attended “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” on Sunday, which marked their first red carpet appearance since the legal drama with Baldoni began in December.During one segment, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took questions from the star-studded audience and called on Reynolds, who was sitting next to his wife in the crowd.“Ryan Reynolds, how’s it going?” Poehler, 53, asked the “Deadpool” star, who stood up from his seat and quipped, “Why? What have you heard?”A source told People after the “SNL” special that Lively was “nervous” to go to the event, but she and Reynolds “had a great time” and mingled with other celebs who were there.On Bush’s podcast, Freedman explained that he speaks to Baldoni “often,” and noted that the actor’s current trip to Hawaii with his family is not a “vacation.”“I don’t think anybody who’s been accused of heinous…you know, arguably what are crimes, is on vacation,” said Freedman.

which is about domestic violence.“I have someone very close to me who’s gone through what [Lively’s character Lily is] going through for a long time and I’ve been on the front lines helping her navigate that space, so that movie meant a lot to me and it means a lot to her,” the actor stated.“It was one of the reasons that me doing that movie gave her the strength to change her life,” Sklenar continued. “It’s unfortunate that things get taken away from what the ethos of that thing is and it gets convoluted.”Last year, Lively sued Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment, claiming he orchestrated a public smear campaign against her.