Justin DRAMA IN THE COURTROOM

After exposing more alleged emails and texts, Justin Baldoni's lawyer faces off with Blake Lively's team in an explosive hearing

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Their first courtroom showdown was, by most accounts, a sparring match. "Things got heated," NBC News' Chloe Melas reported of the "courtroom fireworks" between lawyers for Blake Lively and her It Ends with Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, at a 90-minute hearing in NYC on Feb. 3.

The main source of contention? Both sides are accusing each other of defamatory statements and squabbling over details from the dispute that have been leaked to the public. "Not to sound like a 4-year-old fighting a 4-year-old with 'they started it,' but in these kinds of cases, once someone says something it becomes fact," Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, argued to the judge, according to PageSix. "This was not started by us, your honor." Blake did strike first: In a Dec. 20 complaint to the California Civil Rights Department (which she formalized in a Dec. 31 lawsuit against Justin, producers and his publicists), Blake alleged that they had launched a calculated smear campaign against her in retaliation for her sexual harassment allegations. Her claims were detailed in a bombshell New York Times article that month, featuring texts and emails between his publicists and crisis management team. Justin retaliated by filing a $400 million lawsuit against her, her husband, Ryan Reynolds and the Times, accusing them of defamation and extortion, before releasing his own trove of communications. (Blake, Ryan and the Times have denied the allegations.) As U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman told the lawyers at one point, according to NBC, "You've got a lot in front of the court that gives, I think, the public plenty to feast upon."