UPDATED with statement from reps for both sides: A federal judge today took an ax to Blake Lively‘s multi-pronged legal action against her It Starts with Us co-star Justin Baldoni, tossing out her allegations of sexual harassment in a 162-page ruling (read it here).
Although her multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios and his crisis PR team remains set for trial next month in New York City, the proceedings now mainly will revolve around Lively’s defamation and retaliation claims.
“None of these acts or occurrences provides the ‘substantial connection’ to California needed to sustain Lively’s sexual harassment claims,” Liman wrote in his ruling. Later in the document, he added: “The Court therefore grants judgment on Counts Three and Thirteen of the SAC because those claims lack a sufficient nexus to California. That means that both Lively’s federal and state claims of sexual harassment fail to survive the Wayfarer Parties’ motions for summary judgment on the pleadings.”
With both sides awaiting a summary-judgment ruling and mediation talks having reached a dead-end, Judge Lewis Liman’s decision Thursday came as no surprise.
There have been jurisdiction issues around Lively’s harassment claims since the filings started flying in late 2024. The actress made her move under California law, but the events in question on the Sony-distributed It Ends with Us occurred outside the Golden State.
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“This case has always been and will remain focused on the devasting retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial,” Sigrid McCawley, a member of Lively’s legal team, said in a statement to Deadline. “For Blake Lively, the greatest measure of justice is that the people and the playbook behind these coordinated digital attacks have been exposed and are already being held accountable by other women they’ve targeted. She looks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it becomes easier to detect and fight.
“Sexual harassment isn’t going forward not because the defendants did nothing wrong but because the court determined Blake Lively was an independent contractor, not an employee,” Baldoni lawyers Alexandra Shapiro and Jonathan Bach, Shapiro Arato Bach said in a joint statement to Deadline: “
We’re very pleased the Court dismissed all sexual harassment claims and every claim brought against the individual defendants: Justin Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel,” the attorneys added. “These were very serious allegations, and we are grateful to the Court for its careful review of the facts, law and voluminous evidence that was provided.. What’s left is a significantly narrowed case, and we look forward to presenting our defense to the remaining claims in court.”
Besides claims that Baldoni repeatedly harassed her on the IEWU set, Lively also alleges that he had a online smear campaign launched against her in mid-2024. The most 21st century aspect of Lively’s case, the accusation is that Baldoni brought crisis PR types like defendants Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel on board to rip Lively apart before the premiere of their hit movie to offset accusations he and his Wayfarer gang were worried she would make against him.
In sending the retaliation claim to trial, the judge wrote that he was not making a judgment on whose account is “more credible,” and that he did not need to at this stage.
Liman wrote, “The question is whether Lively has provided more than a mere ‘scintilla’ of evidence to support her claim such that a reasonable jury viewing the evidence in her favor could find that the Wayfarer Parties took adverse employment action against her because of her protected activities. The evidence here, viewed favorably to Lively, passes this test.”
While the judge sent to trial lively’s retaliation claims against Wayfarer, he tossed aiding and abetting claims against Nathan and Abel, concluding that they were “for all intents and purposes individual employees carrying out alleged adverse employment actions at the direction of the employer. In such circumstances, liability attaches against the employer.” The judge, though, withheld judgment on whether Nathan’s The Agency Group could be held liable.
Liman had ordered both parties to engage in settlement talks, but Baldoni attorney Bryan Freedman said in February that attempts to reach a deal proved “unsuccessful.” That means when it comes to Lively v. Baldoni, everybody is expected to be in court in front of Liman and a jury in late May.
Erik Pedersen and Ted Johnson contributed to this report.
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