Hi, everyone
I have been fighting with some users in the other "neutral" sub about Lively's efforts to keep things under seal. My initial position was "Wayfarer has consistently taken the position of unsealing things for the public. I’m glad to see them follow through even on the last day."
Since data is more powerful than words, I decided to analyze the motions to seal (only using regex parsing without the use of AI) in the whole docket available below. I downloaded the entire docket for this analysis. I apologize for the weird formatting.
Important things to note here: Despite the fact that a meaningful share of the originally-named defendants were knocked out before they accumulated much (or any) sealing activity, Lively and friendly to Lively third parties have higher motions to seal than Wayfarer and friendly to WF third parties. In June, Judge Liman granted three separate motions to dismiss tossing Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Sloane and Vision PR (the "Sloane Parties"), and The New York Times Company from the Wayfarer Parties' counter-complaint. That timing explains why those parties barely register on the table, the Sloane Parties filed exactly one seal motion (April 30, 2025) before their dismissal, NYT filed none, and Reynolds appears only on a single joint Lively+Reynolds filing on June 6, 2025 (three days before the dismissal). The Wallace Defendants (Jed Wallace, Street Relations) lasted considerably longer but were also dismissed, on November 5, 2025 (Dkt. 925), for lack of personal jurisdiction over the Second Amended Complaint. Their post-dismissal sealing motions in 2026 are non-party "continued sealing" requests for exhibits that reference them. After those exits, the active sealing universe collapses to essentially three parties - Lively, the Wayfarer defendants, and (briefly, in late 2025) Jennifer Abel filing solo plus a long tail of subpoenaed non-parties protecting their own produced materials.
Non-parties expanded:
The fifteen non-party / third-party seal motions break down as:
- Case & Koslow: Katherine Case and Briana Butler Koslow, both former Jonesworks employees swept up in the discovery dispute (subpoenaed for personal communications); their motions cluster around protecting personal/non-public information in produced exhibits.
- Betty B Holdings, LLC: Blake Lively's loan-out company; both motions seek continued sealing of materials produced by Lively.
- M. Lavandeira / Perez Hilton: twin July 2025 NOTICEs of motion to seal/redact personal information (different clerk codes, ~4 days apart).
- Paylocity Corp: payroll vendor responding to a subpoena, sealing personnel records.
- Sony Pictures Entertainment (1), William Morris Endeavor (1), Family Hive LLC (1) — third-party subpoena recipients filing for continued sealing of their produced documents in Jan 2026 (clustered around the SJ-stage continued-sealing review).
- Isabela Ferrer: actress (played young Lily in It Ends With Us); seeking continued sealing of an exhibit produced about her.
- Jane Does 1 & 2: anonymous movants in late July 2025.
In sum, Lively and her friends filed higher number of motions to seal combined in comparison to ALL Wayfarer parties and their allies.
Month,Lively/Reynolds,Wayfarer,Abel (solo),Wallace,Sloane,Jonesworks,Case & Koslow, Jane Does, Lavandeira/Perez Hilton,Ferrer,Paylocity,Sony,WME,Family Hive,Betty B Holdings,Total
Mar 2025,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1
Apr 2025,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1
May 2025,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2
Jun 2025,5,2,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,8
Jul 2025,5,5,0,0,0,0,0,1,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,13
Aug 2025,8,6,0,3,0,0,3,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,21
Sep 2025,7,6,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,13
Oct 2025,3,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,5
Nov 2025,3,8,4,2,0,1,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,20
Dec 2025,4,3,1,0,0,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,10
Jan 2026,6,4,0,1,0,2,1,0,0,1,0,1,1,1,1,19
Apr 2026,7,6,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,16
TOTAL,50,41,5,9,1,6,7,1,2,1,1,1,1,1,2,129