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On June 10, 2025, social media personality Zack Peter appeared on FOX 5 News to discuss the latest updates regarding the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni lawsuit. According to Variety, on June 9, 2025, a U.S. federal judge dismissed Justin Baldoni's $400 million countersuit against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist Leslie Sloane and The New York Times, where he accused them of defamation and extortion.
As reported by The Guardian, Lively's sexual harassment claims against Baldoni were legally protected under principles of judicial privilege, which safeguard statements made in official legal proceedings from being used as the basis for defamation lawsuits.
Judge Lewis Liman decided that the claims made by Lively, first alleged in her California Civil Rights Department complaint and subsequently cited in her lawsuit, could not be defamatory since they were made as part of a legal filing.
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Zack Peter shared his views on how the actress's unproven claim was being protected by the law and setting a "dangerous precedent". He said,
"As of right now, her allegations are yet to be proven true or false, but she already made them, she gave the CRD complaint to The New York Times, it was published and the reputation was done. So she has those protections without even having to prove her case, which I think sets a dangerous precedent, because it essentially teaches people how to make false allegations and how to not be held accountable."
More about the legal dispute between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni
The legal feud between It Ends With Us co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni has reached a critical juncture. A judge dismissed Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit against the actress and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, while allowing Lively’s s*xual harassment claims against Baldoni to proceed.
According to Vulture, Blake Lively’s lawsuit, filed in December 2024, accuses Justin Baldoni of s*xual harassment while they worked together on the film. She has allegedly claimed that he improvised intimate scenes without her consent, demanded unscripted nudity, and retaliated when she complained.
She also claims that Baldoni retained a crisis PR team to launch a smear campaign against her, which ruined her reputation and her haircare brand’s sales.
Baldoni, who denies all the accusations, filed a countersuit against Lively, Reynolds, and The New York Times for defamation, stating Lively’s accusations were part of a stunt to wrest creative control over the film. His lawsuit demanded $400 million in damages.
District Judge Lewis Liman tossed out Justin Baldoni’s allegations of defamation on June 9, 2025, saying that Blake Lively’s statements — filed originally in a California Civil Rights Department complaint — were protected by litigation privilege, and that they couldn’t be the basis for a defamation case.
The judge also dismissed Justin Baldoni’s $250 million suit against The New York Times on the grounds of “fair report privilege”. It is a legal doctrine that protects journalists when they are reporting on legal matters.
However, Baldoni was granted until June 23, 2025, to amend and file new claims related to contractual interference, leaving his legal team a narrow window to continue to push back on Lively.
According to Variety, Justin Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, issued a statement vowing to "march forward", characterizing the dismissal as more of a procedural setback than a defeat. The attorney said,
"This case is about false accusations of s*xual harassment and retaliation and a nonexistent smear campaign, which Ms. Lively’s own team conveniently describes as ‘untraceable’ because they cannot prove what never happened...Most importantly, Ms. Lively’s own claims are no truer today than they were yesterday, and with the facts on our side, we march forward with the same confidence that we had when Ms. Lively and her cohorts initiated this battle"
Meanwhile, on June 9, Blake Lively's lawyers announced the judge's decision as a “total victory” and said they would pursue attorney’s fees and punitive damages against Baldoni and his co-plaintiffs.
Lively's legal team said:
"As we have said from day one, this ‘$400 million’ lawsuit was a sham, and the court saw right through it. We look forward to the next round, which is seeking attorneys’ fees, treble damages and punitive damages against Baldoni...and the other Wayfarer Parties who perpetrated this abusive litigation.”
On June 10, Blake Lively's legal team also reacted to Freedman's statement by saying,
"No amount of spin, bluster, or creative accounting from Baldoni’s legal team will change the embarrassing reality staring them in the face: the plan to sue Blake Lively and her family into oblivion has been a complete and total failure.”
As per Variety, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are scheduled to appear in court in March 2026.
