High-profile litigator Bryan Freedman, played by Justin Baldoni, has been defending his client throughout the evolving drama. It all ends with us. Weeks after filing $250 million defamation lawsuit new york times The law firm allegedly conspired with movie star Blake Lively and her public relations team to advance "unsubstantiated claims" using "carefully selected and modified communications that stripped them of necessary context." and self-serving narrative,” the law firm highlighted on January 21 in a chunk of the unedited content. Actors want footage that debunks sexual harassment accusations.
Yet Friedman is one of the entertainment industry's most controversial lawyers (in 2024 hollywood reporter "If you have sex with my client, you get what you get," he explained), also following Baldoni. In a previously unreported 2021 case, he represented a cystic fibrosis patient who was featured in a documentary series produced and hosted by Baldoni. my last daysabout a young man suffering from a terminal illness. Friedman wins Baldoni's 2019 directorial debut five feet apart — a tearjerker starring Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse as hapless cystic fibrosis patients — is a complete rip-off of his client Travis · Travis Flores’ own tear-jerking romantic script three feet apart. The project, which also centers on young lovers suffering from cystic fibrosis, was earlier developed by a production company affiliated with Universal Pictures. Friedman claimed that a mutual colleague shared Flores' script with Baldoni or other filmmakers.
The lawsuit, which also names Baldoni's Wayfarer Entertainment, claims there are a series of copyright-infringing similarities between the projects' plots, characters and themes, and that this extends to key world-building details: "In both works , the narrators all have one or more important keepsakes from their dead sister."
five feet apartIt earned $92 million on a budget of $7 million and was dedicated to YouTuber Claire Wineland, another person with cystic fibrosis who worked on my last days. Baldoni explained that he was inspired by asking for "the inside scoop" on "what goes on in these hospitals" when teenagers with cystic fibrosis are attracted to each other. "She told me it was terrible, looked down upon and dangerous because there is something called cross-contamination, which is why people with CF can't be more than 6 feet apart from each other ft. because they could contaminate each other with their own "unique germs," he added in an interview before the film's premiere: "I invited her to be a part of it, and she joined me, and when I hired the screenwriter, she was. Sitting with the writers, we discussed the story, and the ideas and treatments she had to be a part of," Baldoni explained. "Just before I showed her my director's cut, she passed away (2018 September 2016). "
Friedman did not respond THRrequest for comment and filed a motion to dismiss the case in 2022. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Flores, an activist and children's book author who underwent three double lung transplants, died in May 2024 from complications of a progressive genetic disease.
my last dayswhich THRTelevision critic Daniel Fienberg described him as "manipulative, but sometimes just exploitative". jane the virginin which Baldoni had his breakthrough as Rafael Solano. Baldoni's nonfiction series were key to establishing his reputation as a producer of tender commercial projects. After the death of an uncle from lung cancer, he explains, "I sat down one night and the title 'My Last Days,' a documentary series about life narrated by the dying, came to mind." Wayfarer itself, he adds, is a continuation of the same impulse: "We create moments to help you remember that you're alive and breathing."