Unfinished business in 'It Ends With Us' feud as Blake Lively seeks damages from Justin Baldoni
The actors announced a settlement earlier this week, ending their lengthy litigation barring one final hurdle.
MANHATTAN (CN) — Turns out the feud over the film "It Ends With Us" isn't over yet.
While a settlement was announced this week was supposed to end the long-running legal war between co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, new filings in the case Thursday suggest there's still a finale to come.
According to a letter from her attorneys, Lively has one remaining claim not resolved by the settlement deal. She's seeking attorneys' fees and damages from Baldoni, pursuant to a California law that protects sexual misconduct accusers from retaliatory defamation lawsuits.
Baldoni filed a $400 million defamation claim against Lively last year, in response to her 2024 lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of the film. He claimed that Lively and her husband, fellow Hollywood A-lister Ryan Reynolds, conspired to "destroy" him and "hijack" the film's premiere with the accusations. But U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman, a Donald Trump appointee in the Southern District of New York, fully dismissed the suit that summer.
"Thus, as the 'prevailing defendant,' Ms. Lively is entitled not just to attorneys' fees and costs, but also to compensatory damages tripled and punitive damages," Lively claims in one of the Thursday filings.
The claim opens Baldoni up to potentially hefty penalties should Liman rule against him. Both sides have agreed not to appeal the judge's eventual ruling on the remaining issue.
In a statement, Lively's attorneys Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson called this week's settlement a "resounding victory" for their client. And the joint statement announcing the deal, in which Baldoni's team acknowledged that Lively "deserved to be heard," bolsters her claims for damages, they added.
"By agreeing to this settlement, and waiving their right to appeal, Justin Baldoni and every individual defendant now face personal liability for abusing the legal system to silence and intimidate Ms. Lively," Gottlieb and Hudson said Thursday. "And by admitting that Ms. Lively's concerns 'deserved to be heard,' the defendants have ended once and for all the fiction that Ms. Lively 'fabricated' claims of sexual harassment and retaliation. From day one Blake Lively's mission was clear: expose and hold accountable those who weaponize smear campaigns and retaliatory lawsuits to intimidate and silence survivors. That mission continues."
Lawyers for Baldoni didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. This week, his attorney Bryan Freedman told Extra that Baldoni is "ecstatic" and "very pleased" with the settlement, the details of which remain unclear.
The California law under which Lively seeks damages was passed by the Legislature in 2023 in response to the #MeToo movement. According to the legislation, an accuser must have had "a reasonable basis to file a complaint of sexual assault, harassment or discrimination" and done so "without malice."
Lively's lawyers wrote that the law "was designed to ensure that individuals subjected to sexual harassment or retaliation can share their experiences with courts, agencies, the press, and others without fear of suit."
Lively had accused Baldoni of improvising several kisses on the set of the 2024 film and making unwelcome comments about her appearance. She said Baldoni called her "sexy" and commented on her cleavage.
In another instance, she claimed Baldoni announced to other individuals on set that she had never seen pornography — an admission she made to him after he opened up about having a porn addiction.
Lively went public with these claims, which Baldoni vehemently denied, via a 2024 interview with The New York Times. Following the story, she says Baldoni unleashed a relentless PR campaign against her to discredit those accusations.
Her sweeping lawsuit against Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, initially included 13 causes of action, including sexual harassment, defamation and civil conspiracy. But Liman tossed all but three of those in April, gutting the case ahead of the expected May trial date.
"It Ends With Us" wound up being a box office hit, grossing more than $350 million worldwide after its release on Aug. 9, 2024.