Actor-director Justin Baldoni’s legal action against his co-star Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist has been halted by a judge due to Baldoni’s failure to meet the deadline for submitting amended claims. U.S. District Court Judge Lewis J. Liman previously dismissed two lawsuits filed by Baldoni in response to Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit against him. Baldoni and his production company sought to counter Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist for defamation, aiming for $400 million in damages, including future income losses.
While the court rejected Baldoni’s defamation claims, citing legal exemptions for allegations in lawsuits, Judge Liman allowed Baldoni to revise some claims related to contract interference and resubmit them by June 23. Baldoni’s legal team expressed their intention to do so following the court’s decision. In a subsequent court order on October 31, Liman noted that Baldoni and his fellow plaintiffs missed the deadline and did not respond to court inquiries about the matter, unlike Lively, who requested the final judgment and the continuation of her legal fee request.
Baldoni retains the right to appeal the defamation ruling once a decision is made on Lively’s fee recovery. Both actors are scheduled to appear in a New York court in March 2026 for Lively’s initial lawsuit, where she alleges Baldoni of sexual harassment during the filming of a 2024 movie and accuses him and others associated with it of libel for tarnishing her reputation post-allegations.
