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Justin Baldoni Loses Legal War With Blake Lively, Lawsuits Dismissed | TMZ Live
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6/9/2025
Justin Baldoni just lost BIG in his legal war with Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and The New York Times ... because all of his claims against them have been dismissed.
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00:00
We found out that Blake Lively is the big winner in this legal battle that has gone on now for
00:07
six months between herself and Justin Baldoni. Justin Baldoni got a gut punch from the judge
00:14
today who dismissed all of his lawsuits against Blake, against the New York Times, against Ryan
00:21
Reynolds. A clean sweep for Blake Lively that nobody saw coming. We thought both of these
00:28
cases are going to keep going. They're going to end up in court because no one was backing down.
00:32
There was no talk of settlements. And now, just like that. So it ends with this. Yes. It ends with
00:39
us. Well, at least for Justin Baldoni, it does. Blake, on the other hand, is, you would say at
00:46
this point, the winner because her lawsuit against him is still going forward at this point. Is that
00:52
a different judge? I don't know. I don't know. Same judge, same courtroom in the Southern District
00:58
of New York, the same place actually that diddy's being tried, just as it were. But what the judge
01:04
ruled here is that the defamation lawsuits that Justin Baldoni had brought against Blake Lively,
01:08
Ryan Reynolds, the New York Times, and the fact they had all allegedly conspired together to defame
01:13
Justin Baldoni and his company Wayfarer, all tossed out. And importantly, maybe it's a little legally in
01:18
the weeds, but importantly, did so with prejudice, which means that Justin Baldoni cannot refile
01:24
these claims. They are dead forever. Baldoni has a right to appeal it to a higher court,
01:28
but the judge has said this case is over and done with forever. Baldoni still has some rights
01:34
on some lesser claims that tortious interference with contract. But that's what we're talking
01:38
about. He had filed $650 million worth of lawsuits against The Times and Lively and Reynolds.
01:44
All of that is gone and not to come back. That is stunning. And so the part about the defamation
01:52
that it was, and this is what Blake Lively and her team has said all along, she made claims in a
01:59
civil rights action against him about the sexual harassment. And really, the New York Times article
02:05
was just about that filing, right? So basically, the court said she has the right to say those things.
02:11
It's in a legal action. And defamation is a very, very high standard for a news organization.
02:18
Alex, that's exactly right. It's an incredibly high standard. The First Amendment is a very
02:22
powerful thing. And defamation begins where the First Amendment protections end. So what happened
02:27
here is that Blake Lively had filed this complaint. Complaints are, you can say whatever you want
02:32
without exception and not be sued for defamation in a complaint. So she files this complaint.
02:37
Baldoni says, well, she then conspired with Ryan Reynolds and the New York Times to file this
02:43
allegedly false article in The Times. The judge said, well, let's start with the false article
02:49
in The Times. We don't believe it's necessarily false. It's based upon what Lively said in her
02:54
complaint. You can't sue a publication for simply repeating claims that are made in that complaint
03:00
as The Times did with Lively's lawsuit. So basically, Jason, the judge said the fact that
03:06
there were text messages that Justin Baldoni had filed in his lawsuit, there were text messages
03:13
between Blake and the publicist and the publicist in The New York Times. That didn't matter because
03:20
the article that came out was only based on what's in her action.
03:25
Yeah. Now, the judge did point out, Justin did, and then the judge pointed out that The New York
03:30
Times was accused of picking and choosing certain text messages and certain emails and saying to the
03:35
exclusion of others. And he said, therefore, The Times article wrongly portrayed the relationship
03:42
between them. The judge said not so much. What I'm seeing in The Times publication really does track
03:47
very closely to Blake Lively's original lawsuit. Therefore, it cannot be the grounds for defamation.
03:52
So we joked about this concept that it ends with this, but you mentioned the concept of an appeal.
03:58
Are there grounds for appeal for Justin? And are there indications from him and his team
04:02
And how expensive is that going to get for him?
04:04
That they want to go forward with an appeal?
04:06
Yeah, there are always grounds for an appeal. Whether or not you win or not, it can be very
04:09
hard to overturn. Most cases do not overturn an appeal. It's very unlikely. But there are grounds
04:15
for appeal. But to Charles' point about expense, so the judge left open the possibility that
04:21
Justin may be responsible for the legal cost, the legal fees for the three defendants, The Times,
04:29
Lively, and Reynolds, they will definitely be in the multi-millions of dollars. If you then appeal it
04:35
and you lose that, that can get tacked on. Those legal fees, which will again be in millions more,
04:40
will be tacked on to what he could conceivably owe. So Justin Baldoni has got to tread really lightly
04:45
here. We don't really know who is funding his lawsuit. It's possibly a third party is. And
04:50
that third party may in fact be very deep pocketed and not worry about things like that. So we could
04:54
see it appeal. But Baldoni's licking his wounds right now. They have to really figure out how
04:58
to go forward.
04:59
What do we think about the court of public opinion? Because Justin Baldoni wants to work again.
05:03
Blake Lively wants to work again.
05:05
The court of public opinion, it seemed to sway more.
05:09
It seemed like it was going towards Justin, right? Like Justin was winning everything. So this kind
05:12
of seems to kind of come out of nowhere.
05:14
It just goes to show that the public may think one thing, but in the court of law,
05:18
it could be a completely different thing. And Justin Baldoni may end up paying a steep,
05:25
steep price for that.
05:26
Yeah.
05:27
Hi, it's Melissa from Washington. So I think it's like, all of this is just a frivolous case.
05:32
And there is so much more, like the judge could be putting his efforts towards something that
05:37
is much more serious, like Diddy, for example. But I hope that her case, if his is dismissed,
05:45
personally, I thought he had a stronger case. So I hope that they dismiss hers at the same time.
05:50
But then again, if he goes to appeal, that's just going to be insanely expensive. So
05:55
maybe this will just all get dismissed. I don't know.
05:58
It seems like that's what many of us would like to see is just both of them dismissed.
06:03
And we stopped talking about this and everybody can move on.
06:06
That would be actually the easiest, the best out for both of them, right? That neither had to,
06:11
it was, we didn't, had to capitulate. The judge just threw both out. And we didn't have to like,
06:16
agree to anything in a settlement.
06:17
Like a mutually assured destruction, Cold War sort of thing.
06:21
Yes.
06:21
We're disarming.
06:22
Just walk away. But as it is right now, that is not the case.
06:28
I don't know.
06:29
I don't know.
06:29
I don't know.
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