By Jack Queen
NEW YORK, April 28 (Reuters) – Lawyers for actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are due in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday for a final hearing ahead of a highly anticipated civil trial stemming from Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment by Baldoni during the filming of their 2024 romantic drama “It Ends With Us.”
The civil trial set to begin in May will be limited to Lively’s retaliation claims against Baldoni’s production company after a judge threw out her sexual harassment claims. Both actors are expected to testify about Lively’s claims after a steady drip of details emerged in more than a year of acrimonious and widely publicized litigation.
Baldoni and his company Wayfarer Studios have strongly denied Lively’s allegations, and Baldoni was dismissed as a defendant in U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman’s April 2 ruling throwing out Lively’s sexual harassment claims.
Tuesday’s hearing will include legal arguments over potential damages and the admissibility of evidence at trial.
Lively, widely known for her role in the TV series “Gossip Girl,” accused Baldoni in her 2024 lawsuit of using his position as director and co-star of “It Ends With Us” to create a sexually charged atmosphere that marginalized women, then mounting a smear campaign against her when she complained.
Lively sued Baldoni, Wayfarer and others in December 2024, seeking damages for alleged harassment, defamation, invasion of privacy and violations of federal and state civil rights laws.
Baldoni, 42, countered that he resolved Lively’s concerns as soon as she raised them, and that he was entitled to hire a crisis management firm after Lively began disparaging him publicly.
He filed a $400 million countersuit accusing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds of trying to destroy his reputation, but Liman dismissed that case in June.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
