A federal judge has formally dismissed the mammoth $400 million defamation and extortion lawsuit brought by actor and director Justin Baldoni against his former co-star, Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and The New York Times. The high-stakes legal battle, which has gripped Hollywood for months, concluded not on the merits of the case but due to a significant procedural misstep by the plaintiff. U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman ruled that Baldoni, along with his production company Wayfarer Studios, had failed to meet a court-imposed deadline to file an amended complaint, effectively closing the case.
Baldoni’s suit, which he had previously termed a “counterattack,” was initially thrown out in June after the court found the defamation claims lacked merit, ruling that the statements in question were legally protected under litigation privilege, as they stemmed from Lively’s prior sexual harassment complaint concerning the set of their film, It Ends With Us. Following that initial dismissal, the plaintiffs were given an opportunity to revise and refile their case. However, their subsequent failure to respond to a court order seeking clarification on the matter led the judge to enter a final judgment, bringing the dramatic lawsuit to a definitive end.
This dismissal marks a major victory for Lively, whose legal team had consistently argued that the multi-million dollar complaint was a “sham” designed to retaliate against her. While Baldoni retains the right to appeal the judgment, the immediate closure of the lawsuit shifts the focus back to Lively’s original sexual harassment and retaliation claims against Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, which remain active and will continue to be a defining story in the industry’s ongoing conversation about workplace conduct.