In a dramatic twist during a court session on Thursday, Justin Baldoni’s legal representative sought to counter Blake Lively’s sexual harassment allegations by referencing a popular show titled “Heated Rivalry.”

Jonathan Bach, Baldoni’s attorney, mentioned “Heated Rivalry” while addressing claims that Baldoni had inappropriately touched Lively without consent during an impromptu scene in the film “It Ends With Us.” The courtroom moment, reported by Variety, saw Bach attempting to draw parallels between the situations.

The courtroom erupted in laughter when Bach queried, “I don’t know if the court is familiar with the show ‘Heated Rivalry,'” as reported by the outlet. This prompted Judge Lewis Liman to admit he had not seen the show.

Bach elaborated, describing “Heated Rivalry” as a queer hockey romance involving actors Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, who engaged in explicit scenes through improvisation. Bach’s point was to illustrate that improvisation in intimate scenes is not uncommon and not inherently discriminatory.

He contended that male actors improvising such scenes without complaints of gender bias should set a precedent, arguing that any physical interaction between Baldoni and Lively was strictly a product of their on-screen characters’ relationship, rather than any gender-based issue.

He further argued that Lively signed up for “It Ends With Us” knowing that the film would feature “hot and sexy scenes,” and that her complaints were “small potatoes” that did not constitute to sexual harassment.

One of Lively’s attorneys, Esra Hudson, pushed back on Bach’s argument, telling the court that Lively was “kissed, nuzzled and touched” in ways she didn’t consent to — regardless of knowing she would be acting in intimate scenes, Variety reported.

Liman also pushed back on Bach’s argument, noting that the film’s sexual subject matter didn’t give Baldoni the right to touch Lively however he wanted without her consent, to which Bach replied that “context matters.”

In Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni, she claimed that he sexually harassed her on the set of “It Ends With Us.”

In court docs obtained by Page Six, she alleged that during the filming of “a slow dance scene for a montage in which no sound was recorded,” Baldoni “leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘It smells so good’… When Ms. Lively later objected to this behavior, Mr. Baldoni’s response was, ‘I’m not even attracted to you.’”

Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman later released behind-the-scenes footage of him and Lively shooting the slow-dancing scene in an effort to refute her sexual harassment allegations.

“The scene in question was designed to show the two characters falling in love and longing to be close to one another. Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism,” Freedman’s statement to Page Six read.

Back in December, Williams — who plays Shane Hollander in “Heated Rivalry” — joked that his close relationship with Storrie (who plays Ilya Rozanov) was a “nightmare for HR.”

“We got comfortable just being inches from each other’s face and invading each other’s personal space,” Williams told Vanity Fair. “A nightmare for HR.”