Judge grants Blake Lively $400,000 of $8M in legal fees she sought in film fight with Justin Baldoni

Judge grants Blake Lively $400,000 of $8M in legal fees she sought in film fight with Justin Baldoni NEW YORK (AP) — Blake Lively will get just over $400,000 of the $8 million she sought in legal costs from actor and director Justin Baldoni after they settled their fight over the production of their 2024 film “It Ends With Us,” a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Liman explained in a written decision in Manhattan why Lively was not entitled to the full amount that her lawyers claim was spent after Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios LLC, filed their own claims in response to her December 2024 lawsuit.

Acknowledging Lively and Baldoni had “waged fierce battle against each other in court,” the judge denied Lively the bulk of legal fees she sought, citing the limits of a California law designed to protect survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination from retaliatory lawsuits. The law meant to protect sex abuse survivors from legal actions designed to intimidate and silence victims could only be construed to let her be reimbursed for what she paid lawyers to defend against defamation claims rather than all claims Baldoni made against her, Liman wrote. Thus, the judge ruled, Lively is entitled to $363,245 in attorneys’ fees and $44,206 in costs.

Requests for comment were sent to Baldoni and Lively’s representatives. In her lawsuit, Lively asserted that she had been subjected to sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. 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. Weeks after Lively sued, Baldoni and Wayfarer asserted claims in a countersuit against Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, of civil extortion, defamation, invasion of privacy, breach of good faith and fair dealing and economic interference. In June 2025, Liman tossed out the countersuit Baldoni and Wayfarer had filed and nearly a year later rejected Lively’s sexual harassment claims on the grounds that she was an independent contractor rather than an employee when she worked on the film.

In early May, two weeks before a scheduled trial, Lively and Baldoni reached a settlement, saying in a joint statement that Livel…