Blake Lively wants to 'protect' her celebrity pals before filing new allegations against Justin Baldoni

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Things are heating up in the courtroom showdown between 'Gossip Girl' star Blake Lively and 'It Ends with Us' co-star Justin Baldoni.

Lively’s lawyer just dropped a bombshell in court—she’s gearing up to hit Baldoni with even more allegations in her sexual harassment case, and it’s all going down by Valentine’s Day.

But as Lively goes on the offensive, she wants to protect some very high-profile names who might get pulled into the drama.

Blake Lively wants to protect her celebrity friends

During Monday’s court hearing, Blake Lively’s attorney Michael Gottlieb announced that they were preparing to add "both claims and parties" to a revised complaint set to drop in a few weeks. This means more people could be named and the allegations could get worse.

Gottlieb made it very clear that protecting celebrity friends is now a top priority. "We do believe there will be provisions in a protective order that will be appropriate in this case, given the nature of the allegations and the high-profile nature of some of the individuals who will be involved," he told the court. "There is a significant number of high-profile individuals on both sides. In particular, addressing the interests and needs of third parties is going to be very important in this case."

While Gottlieb didn’t explicitly name names, one celebrity who’s definitely on the radar is Taylor Swift. Swift’s name has already popped up in Baldoni’s legal filings, and it wouldn’t be shocking if her name came up again given how close she is with Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, the Daily Mail reported.

Blake’s team is pushing for a protective order to keep certain details under wraps. Gottlieb said he plans to "seek protections we believe will be very important, particularly in a case where there's been a significant amount of leaking materials."

“We do intend to propose a protective order in this case," he confirmed.

Even Judge Lewis Liman seemed to acknowledge the Hollywood factor at play, noting that they "already got a lot of high-profile people" involved in this case.

Justin Baldoni’s team fires back

Of course, Justin Baldoni’s legal team isn’t taking any of this lightly. His powerhouse attorney Bryan Freedman made it clear that Baldoni and his PR team are "suffering greatly" from the fallout of the New York Times article that first blew this case open.

"We would really urge the court to allow discovery to take place and move forward because the harms are being suffered and have been suffered since the New York Times article came out," Freedman told the court.

According to Freedman, the scandal has been financially devastating. He claims that Wayfarer—one of Baldoni’s major business partners—has lost "hundreds of millions of dollars." His PR strategist Melissa Nathan has also reportedly lost clients.

"When things hit the press, especially The New York Times, people sometimes react before there's a judicial determination," Freedman argued. "These parties are suffering greatly. It’s so important from our client’s perspective of having a future livelihood to move forward as quickly as possible."

A-List lawyers and gag orders

Blake Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane has brought in Sigrid McCawley, the high-powered attorney best known for representing Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. McCawley’s involvement only makes this battle more intense, especially since Sloane is accused of being part of a scheme to "trash Baldoni's reputation."

And then there’s the drama over Lively’s demand for a gag order. She’s not happy with Freedman’s public statements and is accusing him of making "harassing and retaliatory" comments about her to the media. She wants Judge Liman to shut him down before he does any more damage to her image.

But if Lively was hoping to quiet things down, she’s out of luck—because Team Baldoni recently launched a website dedicated to publishing details about the case. Considering, it’s only going to get messier from here.

Judge Liman has already ruled that the two dueling lawsuits—Baldoni’s $400 million defamation suit and Lively’s own claims—will move forward together in New York.