Blake Lively's Emotional Distress Claims Are DOA, Judge Rules In Win For Justin Baldoni
The trial over Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's bitter dispute on what really happened on It Ends With Us and in the aftermath of the Sony released film doesn't start until March next year, but sometimes justice picks up the pace in the slow moving and sprawling multi-million dollar battle.
As both sides took to the court docket and the media Monday to fight over how Lively would or would not withdraw her intentional emotional distress claims from her New Year's Eve filed suit against Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios, execs and publicists, the judge shut the whole thing down Tuesday lickety-split with a rebuke of Lively's side.
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'The motion to compel at …is denied based on Plaintiff's representation that the relevant claims will be withdrawn,' wrote Judge Lewis J, Liman this morning in a fairly brisk order.
'Lively's request that 'because the parties have agreed to dismiss Ms. Lively's tenth and eleventh causes of action… the Court exercise its inherent authority and authority under Rule 15 to dismiss them without prejudice' is denied without prejudice to renewal,' the NYC-based federal official (and brother of director Doug Liman) added. 'The parties shall stipulate to whether the dismissal is with or without prejudice, or Lively shall renew her request by formal motion.'
As a kicker, a day after Lively's lawyers exclaimed their client in not completely abandoning her emotional distress claims, Judge Liman made where he sits on all this perfectly clear: 'For avoidance of doubt, if the claims are not dismissed, the Court will preclude Lively from offering any evidence of emotional distress. SO ORDERED'
After all the hoopla of yesterday's letters to the judge and weekend email exchanges between attorneys for Lively and Baldoni, lawyers and representatives for the latter were mum Tuesday, offering a telling 'no comment' on Judge Liman's move in their favor. For Lively, who now has no window to shift strategy and release her requested medical and therapy records, there was a sidestepping of her loss and a repeat of what her team put out on Monday.
'The court denied Wayfarer's motion,' said Lively lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb in a statement Tuesday. 'He told the parties to continue their discussions about the technicalities of how 2 of the 15 claims will be voluntarily dismissed. Ms. Lively has offered to dismiss those claims because they are no longer necessary, and she will continue to pursue emotional distress damages through other claims in her lawsuit, including sexual harassment and retaliation. In addition, the Baldoni-Wayfarer strategy of filing retaliatory claims has exposed them to expansive damages under California law. This is exactly where both parties were before the Baldoni-Wayfarer Parties rushed to file this utterly pointless motion to compel, all searching for yet another press moment.'
With whispers of all not being well on the domestic violence themed IEWU, even though the pic scored at the box office, and press tour and premiere snubs, this all went public and wide when Lively on December 20 filed her sexual harassment and retaliation complaint against Baldoni and his inner circle with California's Civil Rights Department. A formal suit by her followed on December 31 with a $400 million defamation and extorsion action from the Jane the Virgin actor against Lively, her hubby Ryan Reynolds and their PR team was not long behind.
In the months since, the case has ballooned to around half a dozen lawsuits, everyone trying to get dismissed from the cases and the likes of Taylor Swift, Disney, Marvel, the New York Times and others getting dragged in.
Sources on both sides have repeatedly and vehemently insisted to Deadline and the courts that there is no chance of a settlement now, with the high profile Lively and Reynolds hauled way out of their carefully created comfort zone and WME-dumped Baldoni's career now dead in the water in Hollywood.
The trial is set to start in NYC on March 9, 2026 in the same courthouse where the Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex-trafficking trial is taking place right now.
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