Justin Baldoni's $400m lawsuit against Blake Lively thrown out by judge
Justin Baldoni's lawsuit against his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively has been thrown out by a judge
Baldoni launched the lawsuit after Lively sued him for sexual harassment and retaliation in December.
Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios counter-sued in January for $400 million, accusing Lively and her husband, Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds, of defamation and extortion.
District Court Judge Lewis Liman has now ruled that Baldoni cannot sue Lively for defamation over claims she made in her lawsuit, because allegations made in a lawsuit are exempt from libel claims.
Judge Liman also ruled that Baldoni's claims that Lively stole creative control of the film did not count as extortion under California law.
While Lively was accused in the lawsuit of threatening to refuse to promote the film, Wayfarer does 'not allege facts showing that Lively had an obligation to promote the film or to approve marketing materials,' Judge Liman wrote.
Baldoni's legal team can revise the lawsuit if they want to pursue different claims related to whether Lively breached a contract, the judge said.
It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie's release was shrouded by speculation of bad blood between Lively and Baldoni.
The judge also dismissed Baldoni's defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, which reported on Lively's sexual harassment allegations.
'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, (publicist) Leslie Sloane and The New York Times,' Lively's attorneys, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, said in a prepared statement.
The lawyers said they 'look forward to the next round' of seeking attorneys' fees, treble damages and punitive damages.
In her original lawsuit, Lively accused Baldoni of making inappropriate physical advances, such as improvising kissing scenes without her consent, and creating a hostile work environment by entering her trailer uninvited.
Lively further claimed that after she reported the alleged incidents, Baldoni and his team orchestrated a smear campaign against her, involving a public relations strategy to damage her reputation.
The Associated Press sent emails seeking comment to Baldoni's attorneys.
Lively appeared in the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and the TV series Gossip Girl from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including The Town and The Shallows.
Baldoni starred in the TV comedy Jane the Virgin, directed the 2019 film Five Feet Apart and wrote Man Enough, a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.
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They will not be tolerated by our justice system and they will not be successful.' On Monday night Blake spoke out for the first time since the news as she released a powerful statement reflecting on the events. Taking to Instagram she penned: 'Last week, I stood proudly alongside 19 organizations united in defending women's rights to speak up for their safety. 'Like so many others, I've felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us.' The Los Angeles-born star continued: 'While the suit against me was defeated, so many don't have the resources to fight back.' Lively, who shares four children with husband Ryan Reynolds, vowed that she was '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.' The Gossip Girl alum wrapped up in thanking those in the public who have supported her amid the turbulent past year. 'With love and gratitude for the many who stood by me, many of you I know,' Lively said. 'Many of you I don't. But I will never stop appreciating or advocating for you.' The It Ends With Us actress, whose legal battle with Justin Baldoni has had a significant impact on her friendship with Taylor Swift, added a list of groups that had publicly supported her amid the highly-publicized Tinseltown tussle. Among them, in alphabetical order, were the California Employment Lawyers Association, California Women's Law Center, CHILD USA, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Equal Rights Advocates, Esperanza United, Her Justice, and Herunivercity Inc. In a move that might have been a harbinger of changing momentum in the case, Lively took aim at Baldoni Thursday, saying that women's groups had abandoned him in droves. 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