Yahoo Lifestyle Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Will Urge Judge to Dismiss Justin Baldoni's Defamation Lawsuit Against Them
The letter from the couple's team comes ahead of a pre-trial conference set for Monday, Feb. 3, and a presumed official motion to dismiss
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Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds in New York City on Feb. 28, 2022; Justin Baldoni in New York City on Dec. 13, 2023Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds will seek to have a judge dismiss the defamation lawsuit brought against them by her It Ends with Us director/costar Justin Baldoni.
The couple’s lawyers filed a notice on Thursday, Jan. 30, in accordance with Judge Lewis J. Liman’s order, which outlined the next steps for their federal case. The judge requested a letter containing a single sentence stating the defendants' intent to file a motion to dismiss.
Lively and Reynolds' co-defendant, publicist Leslie Sloane, filed a similar notice in court on Wednesday, Jan. 28. The moves come days ahead of a pre-trial conference in the case.
In their letter submitted to Judge Liman Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Michael J. Gottlieb, an attorney for Lively, 37, Reynolds, 48, and Wayfarer Studios LLC, wrote, "The Lively-Reynolds Parties intend to move to dismiss Plaintiffs’ complaint."
An official motion to dismiss has not yet been filed, but is presumably forthcoming.
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Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds in New York City on July 22, 2024; Justin Baldoni in New York City on Aug. 6, 2024Lively sued Wayfarer Studios and Baldoni, 41, plus It Ends with Us' lead producer Jamey Heath, Baldoni's publicist Jennifer Abel, crisis publicist Melissa Nathan and more in December 2024, alleging sexual harassment and a smear campaign launched in retaliation for speaking out about alleged misconduct. Baldoni has denied the sexual-harassment allegations.
In turn, Baldoni countersued Lively, her husband Reynolds and their publicist Sloane, as well as Sloane's PR firm Vision PR, Inc., on accusations of defamation and extortion.
Both cases in Lively v. Wayfarer Studios et al. are now scheduled for trial on March 9, 2026, Judge Liman outlined in an order filed Monday, Jan. 27.
Additionally, a previously set pre-trial conference — to hash out Lively's prospective request for a gag order — was set for Feb. 12, but will now happen Monday, Feb. 3.
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Blake Lively in New York City on Dec. 11, 2024; Justin Baldoni in Los Angeles on Dec. 4, 2024Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman has called the claims made in Lively's complaint "false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."
About Baldoni's subsequent $400 million lawsuit, the actress's attorneys called it "meritless" and "desperate." They added, in part, "The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail."
Freedman, however, said his client's lawsuit is based on "an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence" and suggested "this is a battle [Lively] will not win and will certainly regret." They allege in Baldoni's complaint that Lively and Reynolds went on a mission to "destroy" Baldoni's reputation and career after "hijacking" the film.
Baldoni has also sued The New York Times for $250 million over its coverage of Lively's complaint.
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