Apparently, it ends with Judge Lewis J. Liman. On Monday, the U.S. District Court judge tossed out Justin Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Lively’s publicist, and The New York Times in the latest development in the scorched-earth feud surrounding the making of It Ends With Us.
Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios company the option of amending his complaint to include only its claims of breach of contract and business interference against the couple. Baldoni’s team has until June 23 to file that complaint, according to the ruling obtained by Vanity Fair.The decision effectively means that Lively’s claims of sexual misconduct about Baldoni, who directed and co-starred in the film with her, and the newspaper’s December 2024 article about the matter—headlined “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine”—constitute protected speech.
The judge did allow Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios company the option of amending his complaint to include only its claims of breach of contract and business interference against the couple. Baldoni’s team has until June 23 to file that, according to the ruling obtained by Vanity Fair.
“The Wayfarer Parties have not adequately alleged that Sloane or Reynolds individually did any more than repeat Lively’s version of events, which they had no reason to doubt,” Liman wrote in the motion.
The ongoing legal conflagration has led to gag orders that restrict the various parties from commenting on the dispute in general. Still, Lively posted this as a Story on her Instagram account after the ruling: “Like so many others, I’ve felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us. While the suit against me was defeated, so many don’t have the resources to fight back. I’m 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.”
There was also a statement from Lively and Reynolds’ attorneys, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb: “Today’s opinion is a total victory and a complete vindication for Blake Lively,” they said. “As we have said from day one, this ‘$400 million’ 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 [those] who perpetrated this abusive litigation.”
The dismissal also clears Lively’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, of wrongdoing. Her attorney, Sigrid McCawley, said in a statement that Sloane “was wrongfully dragged into this lawsuit … to actively harm Sloane’s reputation. Today’s decision by the Court makes clear that Sloane did nothing wrong. Sloane stands fully vindicated, and justice has been served.”
The judge’s ruling was also a victory for the newspaper that first broke Lively’s allegations. “The alleged facts indicate that the Times reviewed the available evidence and reported, perhaps in a dramatized manner, what it believed to have happened,” the judge wrote in the motion. “The Times had no obvious motive to favor Lively’s version of events.”
Charlie Stadlander, a spokesperson for The New York Times, also called Baldoni’s lawsuit “a meritless attempt to stifle honest reporting.” He expressed gratitude to the court for dismissing it. “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,” Stadtlander said. “We will continue to stand up in court for our journalism and for our journalists when their work comes under attack.”
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Still ongoing is Lively’s legal complaint against Baldoni over her allegations of mistreatment during the making of It Ends With Us. That part, for now, has no end in sight.
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