Blake Lively and her legal team are fighting back against Justin Baldoni’s motion for a summary judgment.
“In their latest effort to avoid accountability for the hostile environment they created during the production and marketing of It Ends With Us, Justin Baldoni [and other defendants] ask this court to shield them from trial and deny Blake Lively her day in court, by throwing the kitchen sink at Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation claims,” Lively’s team claimed in new court documents obtained by Us Weekly on Thursday, December 4. “But defendants’ scattershot theories collapse under the weight of the overwhelming evidence, in documents and testimony from witness after witness.”
In a heavily redacted filing, Lively’s legal team stands by their claims that Baldoni, 41, and other defendants helped amplify and boost negative content targeting the Gossip Girl alum, 38.
“This is not, as defendants claim, a story of minor annoyances fueled by creative differences, but instead one of a toxic environment,” Lively’s team claimed in court documents. “Defendants filed a frivolous lawsuit, now dismissed, and their lawyer supercharged the Wayfarer defendant’s narratives through friendly journalists and content creators.”
Us has reached out to Baldoni and Lively’s teams for additional comment on the latest filing.
In December 2024, Lively sued her It Ends With Us costar and director for sexual harassment. According to the suit, Baldoni’s alleged behavior caused Lively “severe emotional distress.”
The lawsuit alleged that there was a meeting conducted to address Lively’s claims that there was a “hostile work environment” on set.
After Lively filed her lawsuit, Baldoni’s lawyer addressed the actress’ “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” accusations in a statement to Us, claiming that the actress filed the lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation” and “rehash a narrative” regarding the film’s production.
In January, Baldoni filed his own lawsuit against the actress. In June, however, the case was dismissed.
Last month, Baldoni’s attorneys filed a motion for summary judgement. At the time, the actor’s legal team claimed Lively’s allegations were a “litany of minor grievances” that fall short of the requisite level of being “severe or pervasive enough to create an objectively hostile or abusive work environment.”
Lively’s team, however, sees things differently.
“The record evidence is clear: Lively’s claims survive summary judgment and must be sent to a jury,” Lively’s latest court filing stated. “The court should deny the MSJ in full.”
Baldoni and Lively are both expected to testify in the trial tentatively scheduled for March 2026.
After some legal experts suggested that the parties may settle before trial, one of Baldoni’s attorneys reacted to the prediction.
“The reality is this is not a circus when you go through an experience like this,” Bryan Freedman shared on a March episode of the “The Town” podcast with host and former lawyer Matthew Belloni. “I’ve represented a lot of people in the worst moments of their career, the worst moments of their life. Justin has been destroyed by this.”
Freedman added, “In this day and age, the only way that you can truly get back is to prove your innocence and that’s what we’re actively working to [do]. That may only be able to be done in a courtroom.”
