Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively use Wrexham as ‘escape’
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have found an unlikely refuge from the legal and media storm surrounding actor and director Justin Baldoni, a close friend of the couple reports, RadarOnline.com reports.
Humphrey Ker, the British actor and executive director of Wrexham AFC – the Welsh football club co-owned by Reynolds and Rob McElhenney – said the Hollywood couple views their trips to Wrexham as a rare break from intense public scrutiny.
Ker explained that the community’s focus on football, and not celebrities, allows Reynolds and Lively to do so disappear from the spotlight for a while.
“What they love about coming to Wrexham is that no one there gives a damn about their fame,” he said. “What they care about is whether he wants to buy them a new central defender. It’s a cop-out. I sympathize with them.”
The actor, who once attended Eton with Prince William, noted that the couple have “obviously been a bit troubled over the last 18 months with all that stuff and are still dealing with that in some ways.” He added: “It comes and goes in the public interest. But things continue in the background.”
Ker’s comments come as Lively scores a crucial victory in her sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath.
Newly obtained legal documents reveal that a federal judge has ordered Heath to turn over all footage of his wife Natasha’s home birth — material that Lively says he once played for her on set without warning.
In a six-page memorandum filed in the Southern District of New York, Judge Lewis J. Liman ruled that Heath must produce the birth video within three days.
The decision follows Lively’s decision to punish Heath for what she claims is the withholding of crucial evidence.
According to her complaint, Heath approached her and her assistant before allegedly playing a clip of “a completely naked woman with her legs spread,” which Lively initially thought was pornography. Heath later said the video showed his wife giving birth.
Heath denies ever showing the birth footage and claims he only shared a post-birth clip with himself, his wife and their newborn baby. But the court sided with Lively’s position, concluding that the full footage may contain evidence that “supports Lively’s story and directly contradicts Heath’s.”
Judge Liman wrote that because his previous order included all of this material, “the additional footage should have been produced.”
The ruling also specifies that Lively is entitled to any documents or communications “relating to, referring to, describing, evidencing or constituting” the allegations, including the video itself.
