Ian YoungsLOVE OF CULTURE
BBC/Getty imagesJustin Baldoni’s $400m (£295m) suit against his former co-star Blake Blake has formally ended with a ruling to continue his claim.
The pair, who starred in the 2024 film It Ends With Us, have been locked in a bitter legal battle since being accused of sexual harassment in a smear campaign against him.
In response, she filed a lawsuit against her as well as her husband Ryan Reynolds, their publicist and the New York Timestory, Stick Civilization Extoridad, Sticksamation Peactortion, Stick Civilation Extoridad, Stickamation and Invasion of Privacy.
Baldoni’s case was dismissed in June, but there is an opportunity to file an amended complaint. However, Judge Lewis Lulis says he failed to do so.
The judge said he contacted all parties on 17 October to warn them that he would enter a final judgment to end the case.
Only the respondent survives, asking for the final judgment to be pronounced, but for his request for legal fees to remain active. The judge agreed.
His original case against Baldoni is also ongoing.
After Baldoni’s case was filed in June, the actress’ lawyers called it “a complete victory and a complete oversight”.
At the time, Baldoni’s lawyer said The “Declared Declaration of Victory is false”, and that “with the facts on our side, we march forward”.
He added: “While the court dismissed the claims related to contempt, the court invited us to amend four of the seven claims against MS favorably, showing more evidence and refined allegations and refined allegations.”
However, those amended claims were not submitted, according to the latest ruling. Bondoni and Wayfarer did not comment.
In June, Judge Liman explained that Baldoni’s case centered on two claims: that he directed the film that he did not sexually assault him and that he sexually assaulted him that he would not have sex with.
But Bondoni and his production company “have never admitted that threats to life are wrongly allowed as hard bargaining or changing working conditions”, Judge Liman wrote at the time.
In addition, wrote the judgment, Baldoni and his company did not prove defamation because the parties “Wayfarer did not charge any statements that are liable for the statements” in his case, which is privileged.
The Judge also pointed out that the evidence did not show that the New York Times “acted with actual malice” in republishing their story, also dropping the $250m suit.
“The alleged facts indicate that the times examined the available evidence and reported, perhaps in a causal manner, what was believed to have occurred,” he wrote. “The times have no apparent motive for exaggerating the version of events of the living.”