A federal US judge has thrown out the majority of Blake Lively’s claims against Justin Baldoni.
In a court ruling on Thursday, judge Lewis Liman dismissed 10 of the 13 claims in Lively’s lawsuit against her costar and director of the domestic violence film It Ends With Us.
Among the 10 claims that Liman threw out were Lively’s claims of sexual harassment, conspiracy and defamation. Just three of the actor’s claims will now be heard at trial: breach of contract, retaliation, and aiding and abetting in retaliation.
This decision leaves Lively’s case with a more narrow purview, with its focus limited to the actor’s claims that Baldoni was behind a retaliatory campaign which shared and boosted negative stories about her online.
Lively’s lawyers had claimed that Baldoni was “consistently inappropriate” with their client, and “kissed, nuzzled and touched” her without her consent. Lively accused Baldoni of sexually harassing her by making unwanted comments about her appearance and weight while filming the Colleen Hoover adaptation.
Last June, Liman dismissed Lively’s two claims of emotional distress against Baldoni. The same month, he threw out Baldoni’s $400 million (€346 million) defamation claim against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds.
Released in 2024, It Ends With Us was a global hit and grossed more than $350 million (€303 million), but was soon overshadowed by rumours of conflict between Lively and Baldoni and messy, drawn out litigation.
The case has lifted the lid on Lively’s private messages to other A-listers such as Taylor Swift and Ben Affleck. In unsealed text messages to Swift, Lively called Baldoni the “doofus director of my movie” and asked the singer for thoughts on a rewrite of the It Ends With Us screenplay. Swift allegedly replied: “I’ll do anything for you!”
“This doesn’t help either of them,” former entertainment lawyer and Puck reporter Matthew Belloni told the Guardian last year of the Lively and Baldoni case. “The longer this goes on and the more mud that’s slung at each other, it really hurts both of them.”
The narrowed case is set to go to trial in May after mediation failed last month. – The Guardian
