Blake Lively’s Sexual Harassment Case Against Justin Baldoni Suffers Major Setback

Well, Blake Lively probably isn’t celebrating this week. Her lawsuit against Justin Baldoni just lost some serious steam in court—basically, a huge chunk of her case was thrown out. Out of thirteen different claims she made, Judge Lewis Liman kicked ten of them to the curb, including all the sexual harassment, defamation, and conspiracy stuff. So if you were expecting a full-blown Hollywood legal circus, it just got a bit less sensational.

Here’s the Gist: What the Judge Actually Decided

Lively claimed a bomb’s worth of things against Baldoni—most notably, that she was harassed and defamed while working together. But Judge Liman said ‘nope’ to the big-ticket claims, for reasons that, honestly, get a bit technical:

• She couldn’t pursue the federal sexual harassment angle because (and this trips up a lot of people) she was working as an independent contractor, not an official employee.
• The California harassment law didn’t stick either, since the movie was filmed in New Jersey. (This happens all the time—wrong state, wrong law.)

What’s left? The judge did keep three claims alive: breach of contract, retaliation, and ‘aiding and abetting’ in retaliation. So it’s not dead—just much, much smaller than what Lively was aiming for. The fight moves forward, but with a whole lot less on the table.

Quick Refresher: Why Are They Suing Each Other, Again?

Lively and Baldoni worked together on It Ends With Us. Things went seriously south during filming—Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, which quickly spiraled into a very public and very ugly legal standoff. Lawsuits and counter-suits started flying, Baldoni even tried to sue Lively and Ryan Reynolds for $400 million (yes, that’s the right number of zeros) for things like defamation and extortion. That got tossed, but the feud didn’t stop there. Lively later accused Baldoni of flooding the Hollywood press with nasty stories about her using professional PR hitmen. This is not your standard 'movie set drama.' This is on another level.

How Are the Lawyers Spinning This?

Baldoni’s attorneys wasted zero time declaring victory over the dropped claims. Their statement was basically a polite ‘the court saw through it,’ and they emphasized how the case is now ‘significantly narrowed’ (translation: we’re happy most of it is gone).

'We’re very pleased the Court dismissed all sexual harassment claims and every claim brought against the individual defendants. 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.'

Lively’s camp, as you’d expect, is taking a different approach. Her lawyers are now reframing this whole thing as a crusade against the online retaliation and reputation-wrecking she says she faced for speaking up. In their eyes, the heart of the trial has always been about Baldoni’s alleged revenge tactics after she complained about set safety. Basically, this is about payback and smear campaigns, not just workplace stuff.

'This case has always been and will remain focused on the devastating 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. 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.'

So, yeah—still plenty of drama left, even if the most explosive headlines just got filed in the trash. Whatever happens in court next, don’t expect either side to quietly shake hands and move on. More to come.