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The ongoing legal feud between It Ends With Us actor Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively came to a head this week when a federal judge dismissed Baldoni's $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively as well as the $250 million one against The New York Times. According to Variety, Baldoni’s suit, lodged in December 2024, alleged that The New York Times published a false and defamatory story titled "‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine."
The NYT article detailed Lively’s allegations that Baldoni sexually harassed her on set before ultimately orchestrating a smear campaign to discredit her after she spoke out. Baldoni and his legal team said The Times "cherry-picked" text messages, omitted critical context, and relied heavily on Lively’s unverified allegations to cast him as a villain.
According to MSNBC, on June 9, 2025, Judge Lewis Liman dismissed Justin Baldoni's suit against The Times, stating that the newspaper was protected by "fair report privilege," which shields journalists when covering official proceedings. On June 10, media personality Perez Hilton took to his YouTube channel to disapprove of the judge's ruling. He mentioned feeling "spent" and said,
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"I feel like we need group therapy."
The legal feud between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni explored
According to Variety, Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni in December 2024 for sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us, and argued that Baldoni had retaliated with a smear campaign against the actress after she voiced her concerns.
Baldoni countersued for defamation, arguing that Lively had wielded baseless allegations in order to wrest creative control. The feud escalated when The New York Times ran an investigative story amplifying Lively's allegations, leading to Baldoni's $250 million lawsuit against the newspaper.
At the heart of Justin Baldoni’s complaint was the allegation that the Times distorted exchanges between him and Blake Lively. The piece described Baldoni entering "her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding" — something Baldoni’s lawsuit claimed was a lie, noting that it had evidence of texts that showed Lively inviting Baldoni to rehearse lines in her trailer.
The lawsuit also criticized the Times’ portrayal of PR strategists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, including their text messages about an unflattering Daily Mail story involving Lively, which the lawsuit depicted as thinly veiled proof of a smear campaign. Fuller message threads in the exchanges Baldoni submitted implied that the messages were sarcastic or otherwise unrelated to a coordinated effort.
On June 9, 2025, Judge Lewis Liman threw out Justin Baldoni's $400 defamation lawsuit against Lively as well as his $250 million suit against The New York Times. Although Baldoni has until June 23 to refile complaints of a more limited nature that contest contract interference, the dismissal was broadly considered a win for The Times.
According to Business Insider, The New York Times' deputy general counsel, David McCraw, hailed the decision in an internal memo, comparing it with other outlets that have settled high-profile suits.
"At a time when other news organizations are deciding to settle baseless claims rather than stand up for press freedom in court, the Baldoni decision is a good reminder that The Times has decided that just the opposite approach is needed at this moment in American history," he stated.
As per the BBC, Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively are scheduled to appear in court in March 2026.
