Blake Lively seeks punitive damages from Justin Baldoni under California #MeToo statute

MANHATTAN (CN) — The bitter Hollywood feud between “Gossip Girl” actress Blake Lively and her “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni returned to a New York City courtroom Monday, one month after the parties privately settled Lively’s employment suit shortly before the case was scheduled to stand trial.

While the May 2026 settlement agreement disposed of Lively’s already drastically whittled-down civil suit over Baldoni’s on-set behavior during the filming of the 2024 ­romance drama — on the surviving counts of retaliation, aiding and abetting retaliation and breach of contract —  her attorneys claim she’s still entitled to legal fees and costs, compensatory damages and punitive damages from Baldoni under California Civil Code Section 47.1.

Prompted by litigation in the wake of the #MeToo movement in the late 2010s, the California fee-shifting legislation protects sexual misconduct accusers from retaliatory defamation lawsuits by imposing mandatory penalties — automatically tripled by statute — against any party who files unsuccessful retaliatory defamation actions against sexual harassment and retaliation complainants.

Baldoni filed a $400 million defamation counterclaim against Lively last year in response to her underlying 2024 lawsuit, in which she accused him of sexual harassment on the set of the “It Ends With Us.” He claimed Lively and her husband, fellow Hollywood A-lister Ryan Reynolds, conspired to “destroy” him and “hijack” the film’s premiere with the accusations. But U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman, a Donald Trump appointee in the Southern District of New York, fully dismissed the suit that summer.

“Thus, as the ‘prevailing defendant,’ Ms. Lively is entitled not just to attorneys’ fees and costs but also to compensatory damages tripled and punitive damages,” Lively argued in a court filing supporting her claims for damages.

During oral arguments Monday, Lively’s attorney Michael Gottlieb said the provision functions similarly to other states’ anti-SLAPP, or strategic lawsuit against public participation, laws “to deter this specific kind of lawsuit.”

Under the California code, Gottlieb said the burden to prove that the claimed defamatory statement was made with malice is shifted to Baldoni.

Gottlieb argued Baldoni’s team has waived any challenge against pursuing attorneys’ fees and compensatory damages through this mechanism.

Liman asked Lively’s attorney: “How was she damaged? And what is the proof of that?”

“That is yet to be determined,” Gottlieb responded.

Baldoni’s counsel nonetheless insists Lively is not entitled to the punitive damages she seeks.

Baldoni’s attorney Ellyn Garofalo called the motion “an end run around the jury trial that was eliminated by settlement in this case.”

Pursuant to the terms of the civil settlement, Lively relinquished her right to appeal.

Neither Lively nor Baldoni attended Monday’s in-person hearing on the post-judgment motion.

Liman reserved decision on the motion for post-judgment fees and costs.

Lively had accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during the production of the 2024 film, based on the 2016 novel by the same name about a young woman navigating an abusive relationship.

The trial in Manhattan federal court seeking more than $100 million in damages was expected to be a summer bombshell, with testimony from Lively, Baldoni and Reynolds.

Much of her complaint was gutted ahead of trial in April, however, after a federal judge tossed 10 of 13 causes of action she levied against Baldoni, including sexual harassment, defamation and civil conspiracy.

Lively had accused Baldoni of improvising several kisses on-set and making unwelcome comments about her appearance. She also said Baldoni called her “sexy” and commented on her cleavage.

In another instance, she claimed Baldoni announced to other individuals on the film set that she had never seen pornography — an admission she made to him after he opened up about having a porn addiction.

Baldoni vehemently denied the claims and attributed them to Lively looking to hijack the premiere of the film, which he directed and produced.

Lively went public with her claims against Baldoni via a 2024 interview with The New York Times. Following the story, she says Baldoni engaged in a relentless publicity smear campaign to discredit those accusations by defaming her, pointing specifically to several statements from Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman, who rejected her claims in several interviews with the media.

Baldoni’s side countered that Lively’s claims were an attempt to hijack the premiere of the movie and destroy his reputation. He filed the $400 million extortion countersuit against Lively and Reynolds, but that was dismissed last summer.

The details of Lively’s settlement with Baldoni’s camp were not publicly disclosed, but she reportedly did not receive any compensation under the private agreement.

“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of the 2016 Colleen Hoover novel of the same name, was released in August 2024, ultimately grossing more than $350 million worldwide.

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