The legal battle between Green Lantern star Blake Lively and filmmaker Justin Baldoni rolls on, and the latter has faced a major setback today after a judge threw out his $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and the New York Times.
He filed the lawsuit earlier this year, nearly a month after Lively sued him for allegedly sexually harassing her on the set of It Ends With Us.
Baldoni's countersuit claimed Lively had taken messages he'd sent her out of context, planted negative news stories about him, and argued that the Times had "cherry-picked" details in their piece to defame him. We're sure you'll also recall that Deadpool & Wolverine got dragged into the whole thing, with Baldoni's legal team arguing that the Nicepool Variant was based on their client and meant to ridicule him.
Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios, executives and PR team of Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel have until June 23 to submit an amended complaint.
Judge Lewis Liman explained his decision by writing, "The Wayfarer Parties have not alleged that Lively is responsible for any statements other than the statements in her CRD complaint, which are privileged."
"The Wayfarer Parties have alleged that Reynolds and Sloane made additional statements accusing Baldoni of sexual misconduct and that the Times made additional statements accusing the Wayfarer Parties of engaging in a smear campaign," Liman, the brother of Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, continued.
"But the Wayfarer Parties have not alleged that Reynolds, Sloane or the Times would have seriously doubted these statements were true based on the information available to them, as is required for them to be liable for defamation under applicable law."
Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has yet to weigh in, but Lively and Reynolds' team is positively buzzing. "Today’s opinion is a total victory and a complete vindication for Blake Lively, along with those that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties dragged into their retaliatory lawsuit, including Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Sloane and The New York Times," Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb told Deadline.
They added, "As we have said from day one, this '$400 million' lawsuit was a sham, and the Court saw right through it. We look forward to the next round, which is seeking attorneys’ fees, treble damages and punitive damages against Baldoni, Sarowitz, Nathan, and the other Wayfarer Parties who perpetrated this abusive litigation."
The case is still set to go to trial on March 9, 2026, and there's every chance Deadpool & Wolverine and Marvel Studios will still be key to the arguments made in court next year. For now, though, it certainly appears as if this is going in Lively and Reynolds' favour.
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.