“A meritless attempt to stifle honest reporting”—NYT reacts as Justin Baldoni lawsuit dismissed by court

After actor and director Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit alleging defamation against his former co-star Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, publicist Leslie Sloane, and The New York Times was dismissed by a judge on June 9, the news publication commended the court’s decision. In a statement released to various media outlets, The New York Times stated,

“We are grateful to the court for seeing the lawsuit for what it was: a meritless attempt to stifle honest reporting.”

Continuing, the statement also asserted,

“Our journalists went out and covered carefully and fairly a story of public importance, and the court recognized that the law is designed to protect just that sort of journalism. We will continue to stand up in court for our journalism and for our journalists when their work comes under attack.”

Why did Justin Baldoni file a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times?

The legal conflict between actress Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, in which The New York Times was involved, is related to the production and marketing campaign of It Ends With Us, a drama about domestic abuse directed by Baldoni, in which he starred alongside Blake Lively. Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, was also involved in producing the film.

In December 2024, Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department alleging sexual misconduct by Baldoni during the filming of It Ends With Us, according to ABC News. As per the news outlet, the complaint also alleged that after Lively demanded that a safe workplace environment be created during the film’s production, Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios embarked on a campaign to destroy her reputation.

After Lively filed the complaint, The New York Times published an article probing Lively’s allegations and claimed that Baldoni employed a crisis expert to work on harming Lively’s reputation. The publication also published text messages written by Baldoni’s publicist, where she allegedly wrote about "burying" Lively.

Baldoni proceeded to file a $250 million lawsuit against the publication, according to The Hollywood Reporter. At the time, Baldoni’s lawyer said in a statement,

“In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative.”

Lively's lawsuit was followed by Baldoni filing a $400 million defamation and extortion lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and Sloane, claiming they began a ‘smear campaign’ against him, noted Variety.

According to BBC, while dismissing the defamation lawsuit on Monday, Judge Lewis Liman said,

“The alleged facts indicate that the Times reviewed the available evidence and reported, perhaps in a dramatized manner, what it believed to have happened. The Times had no obvious motive to favor Lively's version of events.”

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BBC also noted that Judge Liman said that Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit had failed to demonstrate that the publication had “acted with actual malice.”

The dismissal of Baldoni’s defamation lawsuit comes as Judge Liman recognized that claims made by Lively as well as The New York Times were protected by 'litigation privilege' and 'fair report privilege,' which ensures that allegations made in lawsuits cannot be considered defamation, noted Variety.

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