(NewsNation) —Blake Lively is seeking millions from Justin Baldoni for legal fees and other damages she says she incurred in defending the since dismissed defamation lawsuit filed by her former “It Ends With Us” co-star.
Lively’s latest motion comes in an already long legal back-and-forth with Baldoni that is expected to culminate in a trial next year.
The actress sued Baldoni and his studio Wayfarer in December 2024 over allegations of sexual harassment on the set of “It Ends With Us” by Baldoni and a producer on the movie.
In response, Baldoni filed a $400 million defamation and extortion lawsuit against Lively over the allegations he has denied.
A New York federal judge dismissed Baldoni’s suit in June, leading her to file a motion this week asking for attorneys’ fees and costs, treble damages, and punitive damages related to that suit.
Her motion hinges on the Protecting Survivors from Weaponized Defamation Lawsuits Act, which seeks to protect survivors of sexual violence and harassment from abusive defamation lawsuits.
The law is fairly new, having been signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023.
Lively argues that the law fully applies to her as it prohibits “the precise tactics that the Wayfarer Parties have deployed here—imposing severe penalties for unsuccessfully filing retaliatory defamation actions against sexual harassment and retaliation complainants.”
In her motion, she states that the law “ensures that individuals who experience sexual harassment or retaliation are able to share their experiences with courts, agencies, the press, and others, without fear of being sued for doing so.”
Her attorneys say that since Baldoni’s suit was dismissed, she counts as a “prevailing defendant” under the law and is entitled to fees and damages.
Baldoni’s attorneys say the law does not apply to her case and argue that his defamation lawsuit was not filed as a form of intimidation, but had a factual basis.
They say their complaint contains “hundreds of pages rife with factual detail about Lively’s calculated efforts first to extort and manipulate the Wayfarer Parties into ceding total control over the film It Ends With Us (the “Film”) and then to defame and scapegoat them when her plan backfired. Nonetheless, Lively refuses to accept responsibility for the trail of untold destruction she left in her wake.”
“In essence, Lively asks the Court to find that she is immune from any culpability for her wrongful acts, and instead it is the Wayfarer Parties who must be punished for daring to exercise their constitutional right to seek a remedy from the Court for her lies,” Baldoni’s attorneys write in a memorandum opposing Lively’s request.
They also argue that a ruling on Lively’s motion will prematurely determine issues of fact that will be contested at trial.
Baldoni and Lively are expected to go to trial in March 2026.