NEW YORK (AP) — Blake Lively can recover some legal costs from fellow actor and director Justin Baldoni but not punitive damages and other relief she sought after settling her legal claims over their 2024 film “It Ends With Us,” a judge ruled Friday.
Judge Lewis J. Liman said in a written decision that Lively can recover legal fees and costs related to her defense against a countersuit Baldoni brought against her after she sued him in December 2024.
In his written ruling Friday, Liman cited a California law designed to protect survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination from retaliatory lawsuits meant to intimidate and silence victims.
The judge said the law requires that the plaintiff must pay the defendant’s legal fees and costs if a defamation claim made in response to a lawsuit is dismissed, even if the facts of the case have not been developed through the gathering of evidence.
Liman said an exception would be if Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios LLC, could prove malice fueled Lively's claims, but that Baldoni and Wayfarer had produced no evidence to show that.
The judge rejected her claims to triple any damages and pursue punitive damages as well under the California law, saying that they did not fall within “carefully crafted federal procedural rules designed to protect the rights of the parties.”
Lively and Baldoni settled the bulk of their dispute last month just as a trial was about to start on Lively’s retaliation claims. She received no money from the deal but was permitted to pursue legal fees.
In their statements, both sides cast Liman's ruling as a victory.
Lively lawyers Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson said the award of legal fees “makes it clear that Ms. Lively brought her claims in good faith, that there was no evidence she acted with malice, and that she is the prevailing defendant.”
Bryan Freedman, Baldoni's lawyer, said Lively failed to get her demands for $300 million in fees and damages, with 10 or her 13 claims tossed out by the judge before the settlement was reached, and then “pivoted to exploit a California law” to get damages.
“Once again, she failed,” he said, noting that she was entitled now to limited attorney fees for a single claim in a portion of the litigation that existed for only a few months.
The lawyer said his clients were “threatened by one of the most famous movie stars, who tried to rip away their life’s work and pristine reputations.”
“Throughout this process, innocent people had their reputations unfairly tarnished. There was no sexual harassment. There was no retaliation. There was no smear campaign. The court recognized it, the record reflects it, and we have maintained it from the very beginning,” Freedman said.
Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation, along with his production company, in late 2024. She said the actor engineered an effort to damage her public reputation and credibility.
Baldoni, who directed the dark romantic drama and starred in it with Lively, denied harassing her or orchestrating a smear campaign. He claimed the complaints about his behavior were made up by Lively as part of an effort to seize creative control of the movie. He countersued, accusing Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, of defamation and extortion.
Liman threw out Baldoni's countersuit last year and then dismissed Lively's sexual harassment claims weeks ago, saying she could not bring them because she was an independent contractor rather than an employee on the movie set.
“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel about a relationship devolving into domestic violence, was released in August 2024 and exceeded box office expectations.
Lively appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”
Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.
This combination of images shows Blake Lively at the London screening of the film "It 'Ends With Us" on Aug. 8, 2024, left, and Justin Baldoni at the world premiere of the film in New York on Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo, File)
PROVO, Utah (AP) — Attorneys for the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk asked a judge Friday to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty as punishment for comments they made in the media about a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body.
The comments were made in response to speculation that the bullet fragment could exonerate defendant Tyler Robinson. Conjecture over the evidence in Kirk’s killing has fueled unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that there might have been a second shooter or that his death was staged.
Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty if Robinson is convicted. The 23-year-old from southwestern Utah is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 killing of Kirk, a conservative activist who was shot in the neck while addressing a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University. Robinson has not yet entered a plea.
Robinson’s attorneys accused prosecutors of going on a “media tour” to discuss expert reports about the bullet fragment, violating the judge's restrictions against speaking about the case outside court.
Prosecutors countered that they had a right to speak to the press to correct misinformation about a preliminary finding by ballistics experts. Those experts' initial tests did not match the bullet fragment with a gun that investigators believe was used to kill Kirk.
In court filings, defense attorneys made public a federal agency's failure to conclusively link the bullet fragment with the rifle. They said it appeared to be “exculpatory evidence” — information that tends to absolve a defendant of guilt — without noting that the finding was preliminary and that further testing was planned.
That spurred stories by some publications raising questions about the prosecution's case: A March 30 headline in the U.K.-based Daily Mail reported that the bullet that killed Kirk “did NOT match” the rifle investigators say was used to kill Kirk.
Authorities have said DNA consistent with Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle, the fired cartridge casing, two unfired cartridges and a towel used to wrap the rifle.
“The rules expressly allow lawyers to set the record straight,” Deputy Utah County Attorney Christopher Ballard wrote in a court filing.
Ballard argued Friday that he didn't speak to the media about case specifics and only spoke generally about how ballistics testing can be inconclusive. He said his goal “was to respond to the substantial undue prejudicial effect of the media stories.”
Defense attorney Richard Novak disagreed, saying Ballard did not speak to the media using general terms and tried to “influence public perception” of the case.
“What was going on here was an attempt to influence the jury pool,” Novak argued.
State District Judge Tony Graf said he will issue his decision about the contempt allegation on June 22.
Earlier Friday, Graf declined a defense request to halt the proceedings while they appeal a June 1 order in which the judge declined to bar cameras from the courtroom.
The ruling comes ahead of a key hearing scheduled to begin July 6, when prosecutors must show they have enough evidence to warrant a trial. That would mark the most significant presentation of evidence to date in the case, which has so far focused on matters of media access.
Before Friday's hearing, the defense team pointed to another criminal case in which prosecutors were accused of contempt and suggested that one potential remedy would be to bar the state from seeking the death penalty.
While the judge in that earlier case disagreed that an order barring the death penalty was merited, Robinson’s attorneys noted that “the court did not conclude that such a remedy was beyond its authority where the facts support it.”
Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
Fourth District Court Judge Tony Graf in Provo listens during a hearing for Tyler Robinson, accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, June 12, 2026. (Francisco Kjolseth /The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Defense attorney Richard Novak in Fourth District Court appears during a hearing for Tyler Robinson, accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, June 12, 2026. (Francisco Kjolseth /The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander attends a hearing for Tyler Robinson, accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, June 12, 2026. (Francisco Kjolseth /The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Tyler Robinson, accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, appears during a hearing in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, June 12, 2026. (Francisco Kjolseth /The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
FILE - Tyler Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, appears during a hearing in Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, on Dec. 11, 2025. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
