Actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are facing off in a New York City federal court for a settlement conference in Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni, with whom she co-starred in It Ends With Us.
The It Ends With Us co-stars, flanked by their attorneys, smiled at a small crowd of media gathered outside of the U.S. District Court as they entered Wednesday morning, but did not speak to reporters.
The court-ordered settlement conference is a last effort for a resolution ahead of the actors’ scheduled May 18 trial in a legal battle that has stretched on for more than a year.
According to court documents, each side will make a 10- to 15-minute presentation during the conference summarizing the issues attorneys believe are important for the opposing party to consider.
The judge will then meet separately with each side in private. The proceedings are not open to the public or press, and there is no word on how long Wednesday’s conference is expected to last.
Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends with Us, and accusing both Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, of engaging in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” her reputation.
The two later filed lawsuits against each other in New York, with Lively reiterating the claims made in her earlier complaint and accusing Baldoni and Wayfarer of allegedly engaging in “unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing” to ruin her reputation in a lawsuit seeking $500 million in damages.
Baldoni’s attorney denied the allegations.
Shortly after Lively filed her lawsuit, Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and the couple’s publicist for extortion and defamation, claiming Lively had “robbed” him of control over the film and had destroyed his reputation.
Lively’s lawyers denied the allegations and called Baldoni’s suit “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
A federal judge in New York dismissed Baldoni’s suit last June, formally ending the counterclaim in October after Baldoni did not refile an amended complaint.
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