Judge dismisses most of Blake Lively’s claims in harassment lawsuit against Baldoni

A federal judge has dismissed most of the claims in a sexual harassment lawsuit that actress Blake Lively filed against her It Ends with Us co-star Justin Baldoni.

Judge Lewis Liman threw out 10 of 13 allegations in Lively’s case, including harassment and defamation.

He left in place three claims against Baldoni – breach of contract, retaliation, and aiding and abetting in retaliation – which will now go to a civil trial in New York on 18 May.

The Hollywood legal battle began in 2024 when Lively sued Baldoni, accusing him of harassment and a smear campaign on the set of their hit movie. He denied it and counter-sued.

A member of Lively’s legal team, Sigrid McCawley, told the BBC’s US partner CBS the case “has always been and will remain focused on the devastating retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy” the actress’ reputation.

She noted that the sexual harassment claims were dropped, “not because the defendants did nothing wrong”, but because of a technicality.

Lively plans to testify during the trial, McCawley said, and would continue “to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation”.

The BBC has contacted Baldoni’s lawyers for comment.

A judge last year dismissed Baldoni’s $400m (£295m) counter-lawsuit against Lively, which alleged civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy.

The case stems from interactions between Baldoni and Lively on the set of It Ends With Us, an adaption of a best-selling Colleen Hoover novel.

The film features Lively as the main character, Lily Bloom, a young woman who grew up witnessing domestic abuse and finds herself in the same position years later.

Lively’s legal team have accused Baldoni and his film studio, Wayfarer, of planning to wreck her reputation, including by social media manipulation and using friendly journalists to sow certain narratives.

She shared details of the allegations in a New York Times article published before her lawsuit.

Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios in December 2024, alleging he sexually harassed her on set and retaliated against her for bringing those complaints, among other allegations.

In his 152-page opinion on Thursday, Judge Liman listed a host of reasons for dismissing the many allegations against Baldoni.

For one, he said, harassment claims Lively brought against Baldoni under California law did not hold up because the filming – where the misconduct allegedly occurred – took place in New Jersey.

“None of these acts or occurrences provides the ‘substantial connection’ to California needed to sustain Lively’s sexual harassment claims,” Liman wrote.

The judge also said Lively was ineligible to bring certain claims of harassment and retaliation because she was an independent contractor rather than an employee.

Lively had also accused Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, of defaming her in a series of statements.

But Liman said that because those statements and others directly referred to the allegations Baldoni was facing in court, Lively’s claim of defamation did not hold up.

“To be sure, much of what Lively complains about is not actionable. The Wayfarer Parties were entitled to engage public relations and crisis management specialists to protect their reputations,” Liman wrote. “However, certain conduct at least arguably crossed the line.”

The judge said some of the retaliation claims Lively brought, in which she accuses Baldoni of engaging in a “co-ordinated campaign” to attack her character and reputation, were worthy of trial.

Shortly after Lively’s lawsuit, Baldoni brought defamation cases against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicist, claiming they were aiming to ruin his career and reputation with the allegations, as well as the New York Times.

He alleged that Lively “stole the film” from him and Wayfarer by threatening not to promote it, and that she and others perpetuated a false narrative that Baldoni had harassed her and launched a smear campaign against her.

But in June, Liman dismissed Baldoni’s lawsuit, saying his team had “not adequately alleged that Lively’s threats were wrongful extortion rather than legally permissible hard bargaining or renegotiation of working conditions”.

Evidence in the legal battle has involved texts between Lively and Taylor Swift about Baldoni. (BBC News)

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