<\/p>\n
A federal judge has tossed Blake Lively\u2019s high-profile sexual harassment and defamation claims against Justin Baldoni and his studio partners, scaling back her bombshell lawsuit<\/a> involving the domestic violence movie It Ends With Us<\/em> just six weeks before a trial in Manhattan federal court.<\/p>\n In a new 152-page ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman struck down 10 of Lively\u2019s 13 causes of action, leaving only her claims for retaliation and breach of contract against the movie\u2019s producers, as well as her aiding and abetting retaliation claim against The Agency Group PR. A trial in the case is set to begin May 18.<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n In her lawsuit<\/a> first filed on Dec. 31, 2024, Lively claimed Baldoni, the movie\u2019s production company Wayfarer Studios, and the other defendants subjected her to \u201cdisturbing\u201d sexual harassment during the movie\u2019s production, then targeted her with a \u201csophisticated, coordinated, and well-financed\u201d online smear campaign after she spoke up. Lively said the defendants wanted to \u201csilence\u201d and \u201ceviscerate\u201d her before she had a chance to go public with her claims.<\/p>\n In his ruling on Thursday, Judge Liman rejected Lively\u2019s claim that Baldoni\u2019s improvised actions during the filming of a slow-dance scene, in which he \u201cslowly dragged his lips from her ear down her neck\u201d while whispering, \u201cit smells so good,\u201d constituted sexual harassment.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no question that this conduct might support a hostile work environment claim if it occurred on the factory floor or in the executive suite. But in all sexual harassment cases, the court must carefully consider the social context in which particular behavior occurs and is experienced by its target,\u201d the judge wrote. He focused on whether Baldoni\u2019s conduct reflected hostility or bias based on gender.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was acting in the scene. Assuming he was improvising, the conduct was not so far beyond what might reasonably be expected to take place between two characters during a slow dancing scene,\u201d the judge wrote. \u201cThe conduct was directed to Lively\u2019s character rather than to Lively herself. Creative artists, no less than comedy room writers, must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n In upholding the retaliation claims, the judge said \u201ccertain conduct at least arguably crossed the line.\u201d He said Baldoni and his studio partners had a right to hire public relations and crisis management specialists to protect their reputations. But, the judge wrote, \u201cthere are limits to the response that the accused can make in response to claims of harassment. There comes a point where the accused stops simply defending him or herself and starts taking action that a reasonable jury could view as retaliation for the fact that the accuser had the temerity to make the accusations.\u201d<\/p>\n Lively\u2019s lawyer\u00a0Sigrid McCawley issued a statement Thursday saying the bulk of Lively\u2019s sexual harassment claims were set aside not because they had no merit, but because Lively was found to be an independent contractor, not an employee.<\/p>\n \u201cThis case has always been and will remain focused on the devastating retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively\u2019s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set, and that is the case that is going to trial,\u201d McCawley said. \u201cFor 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\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Baldoni\u2019s lawyers, Alexandra Shapiro and Jonathan Bach, declared victory on Thursday. \u201cWe\u2019re very pleased the court dismissed all sexual harassment claims and every claim brought against the individual defendants,\u201d they said, referring to allegations that singled out Baldoni, his producing partners Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz, and the public relations professionals Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel as personally liable apart from the corporate defendants.<\/p>\n \u201cThese 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,\u201d the defense lawyers said. \u201cWhat\u2019s left is a significantly narrowed case, and we look forward to presenting our defense to the remaining claims in court.\u201d<\/p>\n Lively\u2019s battle with Baldoni first made headlines in late 2024, when\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0published a Dec. 21, 2024 story titled\u00a0\u201c\u2018We Can Bury Anyone\u2019: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0The story revealed\u00a0Lively had filed a precursor complaint<\/a>\u00a0against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department.<\/p>\n Since then, the legal battle has pulled in other famous people, including Lively\u2019s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and superstar musician Taylor Swift<\/a>. In a 2024 text message revealed in court filings, Swift appeared to refer to Baldoni when she wrote, \u201cI think this bitch knows something is coming because he\u2019s gotten out his tiny violin.\u201d<\/p>\n Other messages appeared to show Lively referring to herself as Game of Thrones<\/em> character Khaleesi, with Reynolds and Swift purportedly described as her \u201cdragons.\u201d She called Baldoni a \u201cclown\u201d in another message to Swift.<\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A federal judge has tossed Blake Lively\u2019s high-profile sexual harassment and defamation claims against Justin Baldoni and his studio partners, scaling back her bombshell lawsuit involving the domestic violence movie It Ends With Us just six weeks before a trial in Manhattan federal court. In a new 152-page ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2356170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[25078,457474,390974,274219,386564,457476,457475,314353],"class_list":["post-2356169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-blake-lively","tag-defamation-claims","tag-federal-judge","tag-justin-baldoni","tag-manhattan-federal-court","tag-retaliation-claim","tag-retaliation-claims","tag-sexual-harassment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Blake-Livelys-Lawsuit-Against-\u2018It-Ends-With-Us-Director-Justin.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2356169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2356171,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356169\/revisions\/2356171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2356170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2356169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2356169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2356169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}