A federal judge has officially brought to an end actor/director Justin Baldoni’s high-profile, $400 million defamation and extortion countersuit against actress Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, per pagesix.com.
On Friday, US District Court Judge Lewis Liman entered a final judgement, concluding that Baldoni, 41, and his Wayfarer Studios co-plaintiffs had declined to file an amended complaint following the suit’s initial dismissal in June.
Court documents obtained by Page Six reveal that Judge Liman contacted all parties in mid-October to warn that he would be entering a final judgment to close the case. Only Lively, 38, responded, asking that her request for legal fees remain active, which the judge granted.
Baldoni’s legal team informed Page Six that the decision not to file an amended complaint was a strategic move to preserve the option to pursue an appeal. The actor-director’s primary focus remains on Lively’s separate lawsuit against him, which is scheduled for trial in March 2026.
Baldoni’s January countersuit—as well as his $250 million libel lawsuit against the New York Times—were initially tossed out in June.
At the time, Judge Liman ruled that Baldoni and his co-plaintiffs “have not alleged that Lively is responsible for any statements other than the statements in her [California Civil Rights Department] complaint, which are privileged.”
Lively first accused her It Ends With Us co-star and director of sexual harassment and retaliation in December 2024, formally suing him later that month. The New York Times was the first to report on her claims.
Judge Liman had explained in his initial ruling that while Baldoni’s countersuit “alleged that Reynolds and [publicist Leslie] Sloane made additional statements accusing Baldoni of sexual misconduct and that the Times made additional statements accusing the Wayfarer Parties of engaging in a smear campaign,” the plaintiffs failed to meet the legal standard for defamation.
Specifically, he ruled the Wayfarer Parties did not allege that Reynolds, Sloane, or the Times “would have seriously doubted these statements were true based on the information available to them, as is required for them to be liable for defamation under applicable law.”
Baldoni has continued to deny Lively’s allegations against him.
