The New York Times isn’t yet out of the legal fight between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, but the paper now doesn’t have to worry about lawyers for the It Ends With Us director rooting around their business.
In a swipe to Baldoni’s side, Judge Lewis J. Liman today granted the Gray Lady’s request for stay of discovery as he weighs the NYT’s motion to be dismissed from the $400 million and more case that was birthed out of Lively’s December 20 sexual harassment and retaliation complaint with California’s Civil Rights department.
“The Wayfarer Parties are unlikely to be unfairly prejudiced by a stay while the Court decides the pending motion,” the federal judge wrote of Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios, its CEO, financier Steve Sorowitz, and publicist Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel in a brisk five-page order Tuesday.
“The NY Times did not delay filing its motion; it filed the motion within 21 days of being served,” he added. “The Court intends to address the motion to dismiss promptly after it is fully submitted. To the extent that the Wayfarer Parties are concerned about delay, they have it within their power to accelerate their contemplated further amended complaint or their opposition to the motion to dismiss. The Wayfarer Parties themselves suggest that discovery from the NY Times is unlikely to be voluminous.”
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Originally pulled into this sprawling conflict because of their text message heavy December 21 article “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine” about Lively’s allegations, the NYT was initially sued in LA Superior Court by Baldoni and gang for $250 million on New Year’s Eve, the same day the actress officially sued her IEWU co-star. Launching his own $400 million defamation and extortion action against Lively, Ryan Reynolds and their PR chief Leslie Sloane (who is also trying to get out of this mess) on January 16, Baldoni dropped the West Coast NYT action in early February and added the paper to an amended complaint against the Gossip Girl vet and Mr. Deadpool.
Amidst, all the in court and outside court filings, statements and postures around this multi-lawsuit matter the NYT has long said its journalists did their job and there was nothing underhanded going on. To that, on February 28, the paper’s Davis Wright Tremaine lawyers made their official move to have their client removed from the case. “The Times does not belong in this dispute,” they said in an otherwise pretty pointed filing.
Baldoni’s side believed the paper did belong in the case and unsuccessfully argued for Judge Liman to rebuff the request for stay of discovery and the dismissal motion.
Today, almost a year before the unlikely to settle matter goes to trial on March 29, 2026, the Times was clearly feeling justified in its stance.
“We appreciate the court’s decision today, which recognizes the important First Amendment values at stake here,” a spokesperson for the majority-owned Ochs Sulzberger publication told Deadline. “The court has stopped Mr. Baldoni from burdening The Times with discovery requests in a case that should never have been brought.”
There are no significant sessions scheduled in the case right now, but Lively is expected in Austin for SXSW and the debut of sequel Another Simple Favor with co-star Anna Kendrick and director Paul Feig on March 7. Doubt she’ll be discussing the Baldoni case, but don’t doubt everyone will be wanting to ask.
In this matter, neither reps for Lively or Baldoni responded to request for comment on the stay of discovery. If they do, this post will be uodated.
The post Stop The Discovery!: New York Times Granted Win In Blake Lively Vs. Justin Baldoni Clash As Dismissal Pondered By Judge appeared first on Deadline.
