Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Aim to Dismiss Justin Baldoni’s $400M Defamation Suit
In the latest amid the ongoing legal saga between Blake Lively and her It Ends With Us costar Justin Baldoni, the actress and her husband Ryan Reynolds told a federal judge that they will move to dismiss Baldoni‘s defamation lawsuit.
According to Variety, the couple’s lawyers filed the notice Thursday in compliance with Judge Lewis Liman’s order, which lays out how the federal case will proceed.
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Earlier this month, Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, accusing her of trying to “destroy” him with false allegations of sexual misconduct. The complaint, filed in New York’s Southern District, accuses Lively, Reynolds, publicist Leslie Sloane, and her company, Vision PR, of defamation, extortion, and invasion of privacy. Along with Baldoni, the suit also lists his film studio, Wayfarer, its chief executive, Jamey Heath, and PR reps Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel as plaintiffs.
His suit arrived after Lively filed a precursor complaint with the California Civil Rights Department and accused Baldoni of sexually harassing her on set and launching a smear campaign against her. Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, denied the allegations at the time and claimed that the actress’ filing was an attempt to “fix her negative reputation.” Lively brought an official lawsuit on Dec. 31.
A pretrial conference was scheduled on Feb. 3 and is set to focus on attorney conduct and pretrial publicity. In a letter, lawyers for Lively and Reynolds previously accused Freedman and Wayfarer of making prejudicial comments to the media and trying to taint the jury pool with a website including what they called “strategically selected documents and communications” between Lively and Baldoni.
“All these motions to dismiss are just yet another attempt by Ms. Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Leslie Sloan to hide and delay the discovery of the hundreds of pages of true facts and well-documented information that we remain dedicated to providing publicly, with full transparency,” Freedman told Rolling Stone in response to the new filing. “We expect such motions to be denied and, in the meantime, stand ready to oppose each and every one of them.”
Along with the expected pretrial hearings and developments, Liman slated the trial to begin March 9, 2026.
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