Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds seek dismissal of Justin Baldoni's $400 million lawsuit
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have requested to dismiss Justin Baldoni‘s $400 million defamation lawsuit brought about by the drama surrounding their film It Ends With Us.
According to a report by Variety, the celebrity couple filed a letter specifying their legal plans over Baldoni‘s lawsuit against them. This was after Judge Lewis Liman ordered that the parties must "indicate in one sentence the Defendant’s intent to make a motion to dismiss."
"The Lively-Reynolds Parties intend to move to dismiss Plaintiffs’ complaint," said the pair's lawyer Michael Gottlieb.
The federal judge will now set a deadline for the filing of the motion to dismiss. However, the report said that Liman "expects to schedule a trial for March 2026, and asked the parties to file a plan that would allow for a trial by that date."
Apart from this, Lively and Reynolds have also requested a gag order for Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, after he released a series of video takes during the production of It Ends with Us to refute the sexual harassment allegations against the actor.
He also announced plans to launch a website containing "all correspondence" with her and "relevant videos."
In their letter, the couple said that Freedman has "given television interviews, appeared on podcasts, issued inflammatory written statements, and leaked information (including, remarkably, documents as banal as document preservation demands to third parties) to the Hollywood press and tabloid media."
They also pointed out that Freedman's ongoing public comments violate New York State’s Rules of Professional Conduct regarding trial publicity.
"As Ms. Lively’s counsel have attempted, repeatedly, to caution Mr. Freedman, federal litigation must be conducted in court and according to the relevant rules of professional conduct,” they said. “His conduct threatens to, and will, materially prejudice both the Lively Case and the Wayfarer Case by tainting the jury pool, because his statements are deliberately aimed at undermining the 'character, credibility, [and] reputation' of numerous relevant parties."
Lively and Reynolds' request to dismiss Baldoni's case is the latest development in the highly publicized legal dispute between the parties, which has been defined by leaked screenshots and harsh accusations.
The issue began when Lively filed a lawsuit in December 2024 against Baldoni, who served as her leading man and director in It Ends With Us, for alleged sexual harassment and creating a smear campaign against her.
She claimed that the actor described his past sexual relationships to the actress and discussed his "previous porn addiction" together with Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath. She further alleged that the two men entered her makeup trailer without permission, "including when she was breastfeeding her infant child."
Apart from sexual harassment, Baldoni was also accused of organizing a "multi-tiered plan" to damage her reputation.
The news was first reported by the New York Times in their article titled "We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine," which included private messages that detailed an alleged campaign to tarnish Lively's reputation. Baldoni has since sued the publication for libel and false light invasion of privacy.
