With a strong recommendation that Justin Baldoni and his team catch up on California law, Blake Lively wants the latest version of her It Ends With Us co-stars $400 million defamation and extortion against her, Ryan Reynolds, the New York Times, publicist Leslie Sloane and Vision PR tossed to the legal curb.
“The Court should dismiss all claims against Ms. Lively with prejudice, deny leave to amend, and award Ms. Lively all relief sought,” declares memorandum of law just filed in federal court in NYC along with Lively’s motion to dismiss.
Having all started with the sexual harassment and retaliation compliant Livley filed with the California Civil Rights department on December 20, today’s paperwork comes two days after the Gossip Girl vet’s Deadpool husband put his own motion to see Balconi’s action ended.
“Nothing in the FAC resembles an actionable legal claim,” the memo from Lively’s the Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips lawyers says of the January 31 amended complaint from Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios and executives, plus PR team Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel.
With a settlement still looking very unlikely in the bitter battle between Team Blake and Team Baldoni, everyone is trying to getone of the lawsuits against them dismissed at this point. However, as several other lawsuits having emerged from the matter of what actually occurred during the making of IEWU and the subsequent alleged “astroturfing” campaign against the actress, the whole thing is right now still schedule to go to trial on March 9, 2026.
Unless, Lively, Reynolds or someone else actually does get this matter that has captivated the industry and the world shuttered.
“It is, instead, a blunt public relations instrument designed to further the Wayfarer Parties’ sinister campaign to ‘bury’ and ‘destroy’ Ms. Lively for speaking out about sexual harassment and retaliation,” Lively’s Mike Gottlieb- and Esra Hudson-led attorneys argue of Baldoni’s suit in their filing Thursday.. “The Court should dismiss the FAC and—as required by California law—hold further proceedings to calculate an appropriate award of Ms. Lively’s attorneys’ fees, treble damages for the harm this meritless lawsuit has inflicted on her, and punitive damages against each of the Wayfarer Parties.”
Taking a calculated strike at the heart of one of the main West Coast arguments, the Jane the Virgin’s alum’s Bryan Freedman-led legal team have been advocating for months, Lively’s motion to dismiss is also saying show me the money!
The memo details:
The Wayfarer Parties’ vengeful and rambling lawsuit against Blake Lively is a profound abuse of the legal process that has no place in federal court. The law prohibits weaponizing defamation lawsuits, like this one, to retaliate against individuals who have filed legal claims or have publicly spoken out about sexual harassment and retaliation. The right to seek legal redress and the right of the press to report on it are sacred principles that are protected by multiple privileges, including the litigation and fair report privileges, which are absolute. Moreover, by choosing to bring their claims under California law, the Wayfarer Parties have voluntarily subjected their entire lawsuit to the sexual harassment privilege in the recently enacted California Civil Code Section 47.1 (“Section 47.1”), which bars retaliatory lawsuits based on public disclosures of sexual harassment and related allegations, including disclosures to the press. Given all of these protections, the Wayfarer Parties’ chief complaint that Ms. Lively and others supposedly “conspired” with The New York Times is barred as a matter of law – she was legally entitled to file her complaint and disclose it to the public.”
Representatives for Baldoni did not respond to request for comment on Lively’d motion. Lively’s lawyer certainly had something to get off their chest, with a bit of repetition from their filing today.
“This lawsuit is a profound abuse of the legal process that has no place in federal court,” Gottlieb and Hudson told Deadline this morning.
“California law now expressly prohibits suing victims who make the decision to speak out against sexual harassment or retaliation, whether in a lawsuit or in the press,” the attorneys continued. “This meritless and retaliatory lawsuit runs head first into three legal obstacles, including the litigation, fair report, and sexual harassment privileges, the latter of which contains a mandatory fee shifting provision that will require the likes of billionaire Steve Sarowitz, Wayfarer Studios, and others that brought frivolous defamation claims against Ms. Lively to pay damages. In other words, in an epic self-own, the Wayfarer Parties’ attempt to sue Ms. Lively “into oblivion” has only created more liability for them, and deservedly so, given what they have done.”
