Justin Baldoni’s $400 million extortion and defamation lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds has officially been dismissed after the It Ends With Us director missed a critical court deadline to amend his claims.
According to an order signed on October 31 by U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman of the Southern District of New York, Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios co-plaintiffs “failed to respond” to an October 17 directive explaining why final judgment shouldn’t be entered. Their inaction led the court to permanently close the case.
This marks the end of Baldoni’s legal battle after his complaint was initially thrown out in June, when Judge Liman ruled that his defamation claims lacked merit. The court found that many of the statements Baldoni cited—taken from Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit and a related New York Times report—were protected under legal and journalistic privileges.
While the latest ruling officially ends Baldoni’s claims against Lively, Reynolds, and The New York Times, he can still appeal once motions regarding Lively’s request for legal fee reimbursement are settled.
Baldoni filed the massive suit in January 2025, calling it a “counterattack” following Lively’s December 2024 sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit. In her complaint, Lively alleged that Baldoni engaged in “disturbing” on-set behavior during the filming of It Ends With Us—including an incident where he allegedly “leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear down her neck,” remarking, “It smells so good.” She also accused him of pushing for an explicit sex scene and making intrusive remarks about her and husband Ryan Reynolds’ private life.
After Lively’s filing became public, Baldoni accused her, Reynolds, and The New York Times of conspiring to ruin his reputation through a smear campaign. His claims referenced the publication’s December 2024 article, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” which covered Lively’s initial complaint filed with California’s Civil Rights Department.
Judge Liman dismissed Baldoni’s defamation allegations in June, siding with Lively’s and Reynolds’ legal teams that the cited statements were protected speech. “The Times’ statements were privileged,” the ruling read.
Although Baldoni’s defamation suit has now been closed, Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation case against him is still active in Manhattan federal court—meaning this bitter Hollywood legal feud is far from over.
A New York Times spokesperson previously commented, “We are grateful to the court for seeing the lawsuit for what it was: a meritless attempt to stifle honest reporting.”
