Blake Lively was reportedly left humiliated during an emergency court hearing this week in her legal battle with It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni.
According to Daily Mail, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman sternly addressed the Gossip Girl actress on Wednesday, warning her that ‘celebrity is fleeting.’
The remark came amid rising tensions over what Baldoni’s legal team viewed as biased treatment toward Lively.
Judge Liman did not hold back during the hearing. “I have told you before, before I came into this case, I didn’t know who your client was. I did not know who the plaintiff was. Their names were unknown to me,” he said, referring to both Lively and Baldoni.
In a moment that echoed Mariah Carey’s infamous “I don’t know her” dig, Liman made it clear that fame would not influence his courtroom.
“Whether they have celebrity at the moment or not is irrelevant. Celebrity, as you know, and everybody knows, can be fleeting. It’s also not relevant to the court,” he stated.
The hearing, which took place the night before Lively was due to be deposed, grew heated when Baldoni’s attorney Kevin Fritz suggested that Lively may have received “special treatment simply because she’s a celebrity.”
Judge Liman quickly shut that down, saying, “There are problems that the court is trying to deal with, and it’s helpful for me if you frame it in language and words that the court is accustomed to.”
“It does not help me — and it’s not helped me in this case — to start throwing around accusations.”
He added firmly, “So, your point is well taken that celebrity is irrelevant. Now let’s make it irrelevant. We don’t need to talk about it.”
For those unversed, Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment and launching a campaign to destroy her reputation.