Justin Baldoni Threatens to Refile His Countersuit After a Judge Threw It Out
"Ms. Lively's own claims are no truer today than they were yesterday," his attorney told Variety. It ends...never?
Photo: Getty; Bryan Bedder for Vital Voices Global Partnership, Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage Latest
On Monday, Judge Lewis J. Liman tossed out Justin Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit against his former It Ends With Us co-star, Blake Lively, and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, which alleged he was the victim of defamation and a public smear campaign, in addition to Baldoni’s $250 million defamation lawsuit against the New York Times.
Lively sued Baldoni in December, accusing him and his PR team of deliberately ruining her reputation in retaliation for speaking up about alleged sexual misconduct on the set of the 2024 film. Her suit arrived a little over a week after the New York Times detailed Lively’s allegations for the first time in a major story headlined “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Campaign.” By New Years Eve, Baldoni answered with a suit of his own that not only claimed Lively lied or misrepresented the production of It Ends With Us, but accused the Times of “quietly working in concert with Lively’s team for weeks or months on their story.”
Per Liman’s ruling, Baldoni cannot sue Lively for defamation over allegations she made in her lawsuit as any claims made in a filing are free from libel pursuit. He also noted that Baldoni’s accusations that Lively hijacked creative control of It Ends With Us don’t count as extortion in the state of California, where Lively’s initial complaint was filed.
Still, Baldoni seems undeterred. In a statement to Variety, his attorney, Bryan Freedman, said he plans to proceed with a new complaint that no longer includes the defamation allegations.
The dismissal arrived a little over two months after Lively’s attorneys asked Liman to throw out the “vengeful and rambling” countersuit, citing a new California statute that protects survivors of sexual assault from defamation lawsuits.
On Monday, Lively posted a statement of her own on Instagram stories, expressing relief that Baldoni’s countersuit was “defeated.”
“Like so many others, I’ve felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us,” she wrote. “While the suit against me was defeated, so many don’t have the resources to fight back.” Lively also vowed that she is “more resolved than ever to continue to stand for every woman’s right to have a voice in protecting themselves, including their safety, their integrity, their dignity and their story.”
“With love and gratitude for the many who stood by me, many of you I know,” Lively continued. “Many of you I don’t. But I will never stop appreciating or advocating for you.”
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