In a bid to dismiss Justin Baldoni‘s lawsuit, Blake Lively is pointing to a change in California law prohibiting the weaponization of defamation claims that concern accusations of sexual assault.
California lawmakers in 2023 expanded libel protections to include communications based on public disclosures of sexual misconduct, effectively making it harder for accused individuals to retaliate by suing.
Baldoni brought his lawsuit against Lively in New York federal court but said his defamation claims should be considered under California law. Lively’s lawyers on Thursday agreed and said the lawsuit should be dismissed, pointing to the amendment to California law that protects individuals who report allegations of sexual assault from retaliatory lawsuits. They seek a court order that would force Baldoni to cover Lively’s legal fees and treble damages.
In a statement, Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, lawyers for Lively, called Baldoni’s lawsuit a “profound abuse of the legal process that has no place in federal court.” They added, “California law now expressly prohibits suing victims who make the decision to speak out against sexual harassment or retaliation, whether in a lawsuit or in the press.”
The filing is the latest in a sprawling legal battle featuring Lively and Baldoni, who alleged he was defamed when the actress said he and his film studio Wayfarer’s chief executive Jamey Heath “engaged in sexual misconduct toward” her and later “orchestrated a retaliatory smear campaign to damage [her] image and reputation after she reported’ the misconduct.”
In Thursday’s motion to dismiss, Lively urges the court to find that California law should be applied to the lawsuit’s defamation claims. She stresses that she was employed by Wayfarer, which is based in California, and that she agreed with the company that all disputes related to the filming of It Ends With Us would be governed by state law.
“In addition, the Wayfarer Parties base their claims on statements made by Ms. Lively in a complaint filed with a California state agency to seek relief from a California employer’s violations of California law,” the filing states. “California has an interest in not only ensuring that its employers comply with its laws, but also in protecting Ms. Lively’s exercise of her right to speak out about, and seek remedies for, sexual harassment and retaliation.”
Assembly Bill 933, the amendment to the California law, contains a provision that requires individuals who are found to have brought retaliatory lawsuits to pay for legal fees, plus treble and punitive damages for any harm they caused to their accusers.
Lively also advances procedural arguments to dismiss the defamation claims, including that Baldoni brought his lawsuit past the one year window to sue for libel. She says she first published her allegedly defamatory statements in her 17-point list of demands for her to return to filming of the production in November 2023, more than a year before she was sued.
Also at issue: whether Baldoni sufficiently alleges actual malice, which requires a showing that the allegedly libelous accusations were made with knowledge they were false or reckless indifference to their truth. Lively says she sincerely believes the It Ends With Us director engaged in sexual harassment, citing a text message between Baldoni and his publicist Melissa Nathan that she “genuinely believes she’s right and that all of this is unjust.”
The argument mirrors the thrust of Ryan Reynolds’ bid to dismiss defamation claims against him in Baldoni’s lawsuit.
Replying to allegations of extortion, Lively adds that the claim is “so convoluted that it cannot survive.” She says that it “arises out of the exact same categories of protected speech that fail to support defamation—Ms. Lively’s supposed ‘threats’ to reveal her sexual harassment claims if the Wayfarer Parties did not give in to her ‘demands’ for creative control of the movie.”
A spokesperson for Lively said that the actress “not alone in being sued for defamation after speaking up about being sexually harassed at work.” The statement added, “While Ms. Lively has suffered greatly by speaking up and pursuing legal claims, it is important for other people to know that they have protections, and that there is a specific law that expressly protects them from being silenced or financially ruined by a defamation lawsuit because they had the courage to speak up.”
Baldoni didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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