Judge dismisses Justin Baldoni’s $400M lawsuit against Blake Lively

Justin Baldoni’s $400M lawsuit against Blake Lively officially dismissed.

When a federal judge dismissed Justin Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit on Monday, the legal war between the actor and director of “It Ends With Us” and Blake Lively came to a stop.

In January, Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, were sued for slander by Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, a production business.

He demanded damages, including lost future income, of at least $400 million. Leslie Sloane, a publicist, was also identified as a defendant.

About two weeks after Lively sued him and other people involved in the movie, Baldoni filed his own lawsuit, claiming that she had been harassed and that a concerted effort had been made to damage her reputation after she came up with claims of mistreatment on set. According to Lively’s updated complaint, Baldoni also caused discomfort for other women on the set.

In addition, Baldoni filed a libel suit against The New York Times, alleging that the publication collaborated with Lively to disparage him. Lewis J. Liman, a U.S. District Judge, dismissed that case on Monday.

According to Liman’s court petition, Baldoni’s legal team has until June 23 to revise the allegations of implied covenant breach and tortious interference with contract.

“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,” said a statement from Lively’s attorneys, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb.

In their words, Baldoni’s 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,” stated Hudson and Gottlieb.

According to a representative for the New York Times, the publication was appreciative that the judge “saw the suit for what it was: a meritless attempt to stifle honest reporting.”

“Our journalists went out and covered carefully and fairly a story of public importance, and the court recognized that the law is designed to protect just that sort of journalism,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. “We will keep defending our journalism and our journalists when their work is attacked in court.”

A request for comment on Monday was not immediately answered by Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s lawyer.

After filming “It Ends With Us,” a movie based on Colleen Hoover’s book, Baldoni and Lively’s months-long rivalry came to a head. In her first complaint, Lively claimed that Baldoni had sexually harassed her during filming and that she had been singled out after raising her concerns.

Additionally, Lively claimed that he had engaged a crisis PR firm to launch a “social manipulation campaign” in an attempt to damage her reputation. The accusations have been refuted by Baldoni.

After Baldoni’s lawyer attempted to summon Taylor Swift as a possible witness, Swift was drawn into the acrimonious legal dispute. Swift’s representative swiftly denounced the subpoena as an attempt to “create tabloid clickbait by using Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest.”

A federal judge last week rejected Lively’s request to have emotional distress allegations dismissed. Instead of giving Baldoni’s legal team her medical and mental health documents, Lively had offered to withdraw the claims.

The trial of Lively and Baldoni is set for March.