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Radio host and podcaster Billy Bush discussed the dismissal of Justin Baldoni's $400 million defamation countersuit against Blake Lively in the June 10, 2025, episode of his podcast Hot Mics with Billy Bush. In a podcast clip shared on X, the same day, Bush argued that despite Lively's legal win, public sympathy lay with Baldoni.
"This is a stunning legal victory for Blake, but if Baldoni has more support in the court of public opinion—which I believe he absolutely does—I don't see this doing anything to change that... If people perceive that she tried to bigfoot this guy on set, and now she's done it legally, isn't that worse?" he explained.
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According to a USA Today report dated June 10, 2025, Justin Baldoni had filed a major defamation countersuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and The New York Times. On June 9, 2025, however, Judge Lewis J. Liman passed a ruling dismissing his lawsuit.
Despite the legal setback, Bush, in the aforementioned podcast clip, emphasized that Baldoni might have the upper hand in the long run, at least in the court of public opinion.
"If it goes to court—which it no doubt will in March 2026—Baldoni comes in perhaps as an even more maligned victim, and she, twice the bully," Bush added.
Bush also questioned the timing of Judge Liman's decision to dismiss Justin Baldoni's lawsuit, asking, "Why now?" He further noted that the timing felt odd, suggesting that such a decision "could have been done back in February," just a month after the case was filed.
"Look, here we are in June, and the judge is throwing out the defamation suit— not much has changed," he added.
Judge Liman dismisses Justin Baldoni's lawsuit against Blake Lively and his defamation claim against The New York Times
As per the latest ABC News report, in a major legal development in the ongoing dispute between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, US District Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Baldoni's $400 million lawsuit against Lively. The decision, issued on June 9, 2025, also threw out Baldoni's defamation claims against The New York Times.
Previously, Blake Lively had filed a lawsuit alleging that Justin Baldoni s*xually harassed her on the set of the film It Ends With Us and later orchestrated a smear campaign against her. In response, Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, alleging defamation and extortion.
However, according to the aforementioned report, on June 9, 2025, Judge Liman issued a ruling dismissing Baldoni's countersuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and the couple's publicist.
In his decision, Judge Liman ruled that Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, failed to demonstrate that Lively was responsible for any defamatory statements beyond those made in her complaint to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD)—statements that are legally protected as privileged (as per NewsBytes).
According to the ABC News report, in addition to his claims against Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni also filed suit against The New York Times, alleging libel and false light invasion of privacy.
He claimed the Times article against him, which included alleged text messages and email exchanges between his publicists, Jennifer Abel, and Melissa Nathan, and the newspaper—relied on "cherry-picked" and altered communications. Baldoni further alleged that the details in the article were stripped of proper context and deliberately spliced to mislead readers.
However, in the June 9 ruling, Judge Liman rejected Baldoni's claims against The New York Times. He concluded that the Times had no clear motive to favor Lively's perspective, stating:
"The alleged facts indicate that the Times reviewed the available evidence and reported, perhaps in a dramatized manner, what it believed to have happened. The Times had no obvious motive to favor Lively's version of events."
In response to the dismissal of Baldoni's lawsuit against the newspaper, a spokesperson for The New York Times gave a statement to Good Morning America, saying:
"We are grateful to the court for seeing the lawsuit for what it was: a meritless attempt to stifle honest reporting."
The spokesperson further added:
"Our journalists went out and covered carefully and fairly a story of public importance, and the court recognized that the law is designed to protect just that sort of journalism. We will continue to stand up in court for our journalism and for our journalists when their work comes under attack."
At present, although Justin Baldoni's lawsuit has been dismissed, the judge has given him time until June 23, 2025, to refile some of his claims against Blake Lively.
On the other hand, Blake Lively is still pursuing her sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit against Baldoni. The trial for this lawsuit is scheduled for March 9, 2026.
