A week after Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni settled their It Ends With Us legal battle, averting a trial that would have started next week, a federal New York judge has denied Lively’s bid to offer up more filings and information in the never-ending case.
Judge Lewis J. Liman denied the 38-year-old Gossip Girl star’s request to file additional briefs and offer further information in the case before he decides whether she’s entitled to legal fees or damages, according to court documents first obtained by TMZ.
The New York Daily News has reached out to lawyers for both actors.
Lively sued her It Ends With Us director and co-star Baldoni in December 2024 for sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign, claims denied by Baldoni and those associated with his production company, Wayfarer Studios. Baldoni filed a since-tossed US$400mil defamation suit against Lively’s camp, for which she says she’s entitled to recoup said fees and damages.
Liman previously tossed Baldoni’s defamation suit — as well as his US$250mil libel lawsuit over The New York Times’ coverage of Lively’s allegations — and last month, also dismissed 10 of Lively’s 13 claims, including those alleging harassment.
The remaining three claims, including retaliation, were supposed to be heard at a trial, starting May 18. That is until Lively and the Wayfarer parties — which, for the purposes of the case, no longer included Baldoni — announced in a joint statement May 5 that they had reached a settlement.
The deal, in which no money was awarded, “ended once and for all the fiction that Ms. Lively ‘fabricated’ claims of sexual harassment and retaliation,” the statement read.
Per Lively’s legal team, the Wayfarer parties also agreed to waive “their right to appeal.”
It’s unclear whether Liman’s latest ruling has any bearing on Lively’s attempt to recover those attorney’s fees and damages in California, where a new law could entitle her to the monetary award she’s seeking. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Services
