Last-Minute Blake Lively Vs. Justin Baldoni Settlement Hopes Dashed; Trial Still Set For Next Month

A federal judge has dismissed most of the claims in a sexual harassment lawsuit that actress Blake Lively filed against her It Ends with Us co-star Justin Baldoni.

via: Deadline

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are still heading to trial over the It Ends With Us actress’ retaliation and defamation lawsuit despite a federal judge’s best intentions and efforts.

Lawyers for the former and bitterly battling co-stars were ordered to call in with Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave on Monday afternoon to find out “their client’s updated settlement position.”

It did not go well.

Coming just days after Judge Lewis Liman dropped 10 of Lively’s 13 claims against Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios execs and PR team, the individual conference calls (3 p.m. ET for Team Blake, 4 p.m. ET for Team Baldoni) saw both sides reject any deal to avert the trial scheduled to begin May 18. Judge Cave searched for any common ground between Lively and Baldoni that she could build on to no avail, I hear.

With her sexual harassment claims tossed not on their merits but on jurisdictional and contractual grounds, Lively certainly took a loss last week with Liman’s summery judgment ruling trimming her case. Allegations of a preemptive online smear campaign by Baldoni’s crisis PR crew against Lively ahead of the premiere of the Sony-distributed IEWU are now the battlefield of the matter. Lively has said in recent days that the astroturfing claim was always the real case.

Perhaps an indication of where the settlement calls would end up, earlier on Monday Lively reposted her strongly worded remarks of last week asking fans to not be “distracted by the digital soap opera” and vowing to “never stop doing my part in fighting to expose the systems and people who seek to harm, shame, silence and retaliate against victims.”

Reps for Lively and Baldoni did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment on today’s settlement calls.

Monday was far from the first time there were moves to get Lively and Baldoni to solve the December 2024 instigated legal matter without the drama of a trial.

Late last year, Liman ordered both parties to engage in settlement talks.