Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds’ publicist seeks removal from $400 million Justin Baldoni lawsuit

Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds' publicist seeks removal from Baldoni's $400 million lawsuit, citing baseless claims.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' publicist, Leslie Sloane, has filed a request to be removed from the $400 million lawsuit that Justin Baldoni initiated last month.

On Thursday, Sloane’s lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, submitted a motion in New York federal court, asking for Sloane and her firm, Vision PR, to be excluded from the countersuit filed by Baldoni and Wayfarer against Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist.

Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com revealed that Sloane’s attorney claimed she was wrongly pulled into the legal matter, which he described as a "smoke and mirrors exercise" aimed at deflecting attention from sexual harassment and retaliation allegations.

The filing also denied claims that Sloane had orchestrated a "smear campaign" against Baldoni or had spread harmful stories about him.

McCawley also came to the defense of Lively, 37, in response to Baldoni’s claims that she had taken over creative control of their film *It Ends With Us*.

Sloane’s lawyer stated: 'Baldoni's allegations about the creative issues are irrelevant and tellingly sexist.'

'Because Ms. Lively — an executive producer on the film — dared to offer input on the script, wardrobe and editing, Baldoni blasts her as "tyrannical" and "aggressive," among other coded terms,' she continued.

McCawley added: 'When Ms. Lively bravely spoke up about Baldoni's predatory behavior, he and his team used every weapon in their arsenal to blame, embarrass and silence her, going so far as to hire a crisis PR manager who promised to 'bury' Ms. Lively and 'destroy' her life.'

In the lawsuit's preliminary statement, McCawley wrote: 'Baldoni has spent years profiting off the feminist and #MeToo movements, peddling books, podcasts, TED Talks, and more using slogans about believing survivors, ending victim blaming, and promoting informed consent.'

She, then, alleged that his 'conduct in this dispute' has been 'sheer hypocrisy, beginning with his egregious sexual harassment of multiple employees, and continuing with his ongoing campaign to discredit and blame his victims and punish anyone who speaks out against him.'

'The Wayfarer Parties' allegations about Blake Lively boil down to: she was too ambitious, too outspoken, and she should have accepted Baldoni's bizarre and abusive practices without complaint no matter how uncomfortable they made her and other women on set,' Sloane's lawyer added.

McCawley also states that Baldoni 'trivializes this dispute about sexual harassment and retaliation by trying to recharacterize it as a mere battle for creative control of the movie.'

Meanwhile, she claims he doesn't 'deny the lion's share of misconduct for which he is accused' but has just been trying to 'contextualize his behavior and suggest that Ms. Lively asked for it.'