Lawyers for Blake Lively asked on Tuesday for more than $8 million in legal fees after fighting a defamation lawsuit that Justin Baldoni filed as part of the legal battle over the making of the movie “It Ends With Us.”
The figure represents only part of what Ms. Lively, who co-starred in the movie with Mr. Baldoni, its director, has spent on the litigation. The legal fight erupted after she aired allegations that she had been sexually harassed while making the film and then became the target of an online retaliation campaign that she said damaged her reputation.
Those allegations became part of a federal lawsuit that Ms. Lively filed in late 2024, then settled last month just before trial. The actress received no money as part of the settlement, but she was allowed to keep pursuing a payout related to a separate defamation case filed by Mr. Baldoni and his associates, which characterized her allegations as fabricated.
A federal judge in Manhattan had dismissed Mr. Baldoni’s defamation suit last year, finding that the actress’s account of mistreatment was protected because it was made in legal filings. But this month, the judge granted Ms. Lively her legal fees in defending against the defamation suit.
The judge’s decision to award Ms. Lively legal fees was among the first applications of a two-year-old law in California that arose from the #MeToo movement. Passed in 2023, it was adopted to prevent the weaponization of defamation suits to intimidate those who make complaints of sexual harassment or assault.
In their court filing on Tuesday, Ms. Lively’s lawyers called Mr. Baldoni’s dismissed defamation lawsuit a “gross abuse of the legal system.”
“Its aim,” they wrote, “was to retaliate against Lively by falsely branding her a liar, intimidating witnesses and the media, and discouraging others from speaking out.”
They say the fees requested include costs from January 2025, when the defamation suit was filed, until that June, when it was dismissed. The lawyers note that their fee request will grow to encompass the full costs of arguing the motion under the California law.
Representatives for Mr. Baldoni did not immediately respond to requests for comment. His lead lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has said he believes that the legal fees should be a “relatively nominal amount” considering that they represent only a narrow segment of the overall case.
“Ms. Lively was only awarded limited attorney fees for a single claim as part of a case that lasted only a matter of months, nothing more,” Mr. Freedman said in a statement this month, adding that “we would not hesitate to stand up for the truth again.”
Both sides have presented the outcome as a victory, with Mr. Baldoni’s side highlighting that he paid nothing as part of the larger settlement. The lawyers from both parties are now likely to spar in court over the fee calculations and what is “reasonable” in a high-budget case with well-known lawyers on both sides.
One of Ms. Lively’s lawyers, Michael J. Gottlieb, whose clients have included Drake and the owner of the Washington pizzeria targeted by “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorists, said in court papers that he had charged Ms. Lively an average hourly rate of $2,187, which he said included a discount.
The continued legal wrangling follows a short-lived rapprochement, in which both sides released a joint statement last month expressing hope that they could move on. The statement said they “acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard.”
Ms. Lively’s original lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, accused Mr. Baldoni of sexual harassment, citing unwanted comments about her appearance on set, discussion of his sex life and a slow dance scene where she felt that his initiation of intimacy crossed a professional line.
Mr. Baldoni’s lawyers have described her account of events as exaggerated, saying that the interactions were innocuous and arose in the making of a romantically charged movie.
Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Ms. Lively’s sexual harassment allegations on procedural grounds. But he let several retaliation claims against corporate defendants, including Mr. Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer, proceed to trial.
The retaliation claims largely revolved around the actions in 2024 of Mr. Baldoni and his public relations team, when they were growing concerned that Ms. Lively would take her harassment complaints public. Ms. Lively asserted in her suit that in response, they had seeded and boosted content online and in the tabloid media that tarnished her reputation. Mr. Baldoni’s side countered that they had only made reasonable efforts to protect against the dissemination of a false narrative and took no part in any online smear campaign.
The settlement contained language that allowed Ms. Lively, under the California law, to pursue damages and legal fees related to the tossed defamation suit. Judge Liman declined to grant Ms. Lively any damages, citing legal procedure, but allowed for the legal fees. The judge found she had fulfilled the criteria of the law, which requires that the accuser made sexual misconduct complaints “without malice.”
Both sides agreed they would not appeal his ruling.
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