00:00So you were subpoenaed by Blake Lively's attorneys in her ongoing legal battle with her It Ends With
00:05Us co-star Justin Baldoni. Her team believes that you used your sizable digital platform
00:11to help Justin's team orchestrate some sort of smear campaign against her. I feel like I'm in
00:18my Elle Woods era or like Kim Kardashian, you know, studying for the bar. Over the last two
00:25months since I've been handling with this subpoena situation by myself, which I didn't
00:31want to. Some people think I'm doing this for content. No. If I would have had a lawyer
00:39offer to help me pro bono, I would have jumped at that chance. I could have still gotten a ton of
00:47content without having to represent myself. I can admit when I'm wrong. Initially,
00:55I was excited about all of this because I thought, oh, it would be easy. It has not been easy. Let me
01:01tell you. It has been such a distraction from my job, from my kids. It's been all consuming. I wake
01:10up thinking about this. I'm in the shower thinking about this, playing out all the scenarios, how I
01:16will respond, what my next move should be, anticipating their next move. If a lawyer would
01:22have volunteered to help me pro bono for free, I would have absolutely taken them up on that,
01:27but nobody did. And I have the same lawyer as Justin Baldoni, Brian Friedman, but I have not
01:34retained him to help me with regards to this subpoena because I know how expensive he is.
01:40And I know how expensive all of the lawyers at his firm are. If I would have had Friedman Teitelman
01:47help me at a minimum by now, you know how much it would have cost me? At a minimum, $50,000
01:56for a subpoena. I'm not being sued. I did nothing wrong. And the subpoena is burdensome. It is
02:07too broad. And it is seeking my journalistic sources and work product, which is all privileged
02:20and protected information. And that's why I'm so thankful that Page Six is giving me the opportunity
02:26to talk about this because it's bigger than me. This is something that could potentially,
02:33depending on how the judge rules, affect all digital journalists. Absolutely. And more and more,
02:41we are seeing former traditional journalists pivot to digital only, like Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson,
02:52Don Lemon. The list goes on and on. They used to be associated with the legacy media,
02:58and now they're digital only. Blake Lively is arguing in her motion to compel that those
03:04journalists like me are not entitled to the same protections and privileges as a traditional
03:12journalist. And that's wrong. I believe that that is a misrepresentation of the law. And that's what
03:20I will argue in court this Thursday. Yeah, I know that you have this hearing coming up on Thursday.
03:26And I know you did mention that your initial reaction when you received the subpoena was to
03:32laugh it off. Not even laugh. I danced. I made a silly dance video about it. I was excited
03:37until it started to take over my life. And I realized, oh my God, I'm not able to be as productive at work
03:47doing my day job because this is taking up so much of my time.
03:51So it's not so much fear or worry. It's that this is all consuming, very stressful.
03:58Oh, yeah.
03:59All of that. All of that.
04:02Are those the feelings that you have going into Thursday? Or are you feeling confident? Are you
04:08feeling what's kind of going on in your head?
04:10The main feelings are exhaustion, relief, that after this hearing, which is basically a trial,
04:22it's called a hearing, but it's really a trial because from my understanding, the most likely
04:29scenario is that the judge will rule on Thursday. So exhaustion, relief that this is going to eventually
04:36be over and cautious optimism and tempered confidence. I'm proud of all the work I've put into this,
04:50of the dozens of hours that I have spent studying the law.
04:56Wow.
04:57I have done all that I can leading up to Thursday. And that's all that you can do. Your best. I've
05:07really done my best. And it's Vegas. Anything can happen. Even though I'm cautiously optimistic that
05:17the law is on my side and it should be easy for this judge to grant my motion to quash in full,
05:23anything can happen. And actually it might surprise you. I want to thank Blake Lively and her lawyers
05:30because of them. I am now stronger and smarter. I know a lot more about the legal system, the courts,
05:40the laws, and I will use this to be an even better reporter going forward. And it will help me end my job
05:47as a journalist. So in my response, these all have names, right? I filed my motion to quash.
05:56Then she responded with a response and a cross motion to compel and also slid in there the request
06:03for a transfer. Then I responded to her cross motion to compel. And in that response, in the spirit of
06:13cooperation, I felt that it was important to explicitly tell the judge here in Nevada, because
06:20Ms. Blake Lively's lawyers did not want to meet and confer with me, which is usually where these
06:27kinds of negotiations are had. I told the judge, your honor, I am happy to volunteer a sworn declaration,
06:35a sworn affidavit to be deposed under oath or to testify at trial under oath while protecting my
06:45privileged sources and protecting my privileged work product and communications. I am happy to under
06:54oath an affidavit, as I told you, testify. Nobody told me to write anything negative about her. Nobody
06:59paid me to write anything negative about her. Nobody gave me talking points, et cetera, et cetera,
07:04et cetera. You know, to me, it really feels like a case of a real life David versus Goliath.
07:11David being Justin Baldoni. And in this instance, me and Goliath being Blake Lively and her A-list,
07:18very powerful, very famous, very rich husband using their power and money to retaliate against
07:26Justin Baldoni and retaliate against me. And then there's also the topic of, you know, sexual
07:33harassment, especially in the post-MeToo world. There's the element of, you know, the curtain
07:41being lifted. These kinds of disputes and disagreements and butting heads are actually
07:49pretty common. We just don't see it. You know, like actors disagree with their directors and actors
07:55don't get along with other actors, but it's rare to have it get to this point. And actually,
08:06like, I'm not team Baldoni. I'm team the truth.
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