Doubtful at this point that anyone not living in either the Blake Lively or Justin Baldoni households will ever really know what went down between the It Ends With Us stars during and after the strained production of the Sony distributed flick. Yet, after days of supposed leaks and whispers, we now know a little bit more of how their bitter and trial bound battle ended this week in an 11th hour settlement, and what’s coming next.
“Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, the Stipulating Parties acknowledge and agree that Blake Lively does not release, and retains all claims, rights, and remedies in connection with her pending Motion for Attorneys’ Fees, Treble Damages and PunitiveDamages under California Civil Code Section 47.1 in the Wayfarer Action,” reveals a notice of settlement just filed in federal court in New York.
“The Stipulating Parties agree that the 47.1 Motion is not withdrawn and remains pending before this Court,” it adds. “The Stipulating Parties further agree that they hereby irrevocably waive any appeal from the Court’s determination of the 47.1 Motion.”
With damages that could be tripled in the millions if the next stage goes Lively’s way, the Golden State’s 2023-introduced Protecting Survivors from Weaponized Defamation Lawsuits Act (AKA Civil Code Section 47.1) now sits at the base of this week’s settlement as a ticking time bomb for Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios brass and his Crisis PR team.
Either Team Baldoni blinked, as Deadline said when the settlement was revealed earlier this week, someone didn’t keep their eye on the ball for the defendants, or there is a very long game being played here. Regardless, there are still some unknowns. Still, after days of speculation, there are a few things we now know are true. For instance, it’s true, as you may have heard, Lively hasn’t snagged any cash from the Wayfarer Studios defendants in this settlement. It’s also true that could change, big time.
“It pulls back in Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, Mr. Sarowitz, Jennifer Abel, Melisa Nathan, all of the Wayfarer parties we have on this issue, and they will have to face whatever punishment Judge Liman finds is appropriate under this new law,” notes Lively attorney Sigrid McCowley to Deadline this morning. “They have waived their right to appeal. In other words, this will be the final judgment by this court, and it will not be able to hold things up with years of appeals.”
“This settlement is a resounding victory for Blake Lively,” bluntly adds the actress’ other lawyers Esra A. Hudson and Michael Gottlieb.
Representatives for Baldoni and the other Wayfarer Studios defendants did not respond to request for comment on today’s settlement filing and what the consequences could be. It should be noted that the notice of settlement, which still needs to be approved by the judge, was signed by Baldoni lawyer Ellyn Garofalo too.
While the nearly 18 months-and-counting core case between the Another Simple Favor star and the Jane the Virgin actor is now in the rearview, there still remains motions in court from Lively over Baldoni’s dismissed $400 million countersuit. Judge Lewis Liman tossed Baldoni and gang’s countersuit in June last year, but he never offered a ruling on the contention of Lively’s lawyers that California’s Protecting Survivors from Weaponized Defamation Lawsuits Act applied to the matter. Now, with that inflection point in play, a quick return to court is assured under the requirements of the settlement – – which now could be the whole ballgame for Team Baldoni.
“By agreeing to this settlement, and waiving their right to appeal, Justin Baldoni and every individual defendant now face personal liability for abusing the legal system to silence and intimidate Ms. Lively,” Manatt, Phelps & Phillips’ Hudson and Willkie Farr & Gallagher attorney Gottlieb stated to Deadline. “And by admitting that Ms. Lively’s concerns “deserved to be heard,” the defendants have ended once and for all the fiction that Ms. Lively “fabricated” claims of sexual harassment and retaliation. From day one Blake Lively’s mission was clear: expose and hold accountable those who weaponize smear campaigns and retaliatory lawsuits to intimidate and silence survivors. That mission continues.”
Under the mechanisms of the court, the matter could be before Judge Lewis Liman within weeks. It should be noted the May 18 trial date has not been vacated and still sits there on the court’s calendar.
Even though attempts at some kind of settlement had seemed to fail and fail again over the past six months, it is now clear a parallel mediation was taking place over the past weekend to reach a deal. While the formal filing of the settlement occurred this AM, a term-sheet was inked by the parties for Monday laying out the basic and binding tenets, I hear.
In that context, there’s also the fact Lively’s sexual harassment allegation and many of her other claims were tossed out last month. Still, as recently as April 3, the actress was asking supporters to not “be distracted by the digital soap opera” as the May 18 starting trial approached. Suddenly, as lawyers sparred in the federal court docket over experts and more pre-trial business, there was an armistice proclaimed earlier this week.
A temporary armistice it appears.
“Section 47.1 imposes severe and mandatory penalties against any party who files unsuccessful retaliatory defamation actions against sexual harassment and retaliation complainants,” states a letter to Judge Liman from Lively’s lawyers that was also filed Thursday morning. “Under Section 47.1, any ‘communication made by an individual, without malice, regarding an incident of sexual assault, harassment, or discrimination [including retaliation] is privileged’ so long as the speaker ‘has, or at any time had, a reasonable basis to file a complaint of sexual assault, harassment, or discrimination, whether the complaint is, or was, filed or not.’”
On May 4, nearly a year and a half after Lively filed her initial sexual harassment and retaliation complaint in late 2024 against Baldoni and his inner circle with the California Civil Rights Department, and just weeks before the whole shebang was set to finally go to trial in NYC, lawyers for the principal parties dropped the bombshell news that they had reached a deal.
In the spirit of such a peace, the attorneys at the opening of this week put out a very carefully worded and framed joint statement of a settlement.
“We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard,” said the release from Bryan Freedman, Ellyn Garofalo, Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson. Leaning on the harassment issues and the alleged online smear campaign against Lively they added: “We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.”
A few hours later, without hubby Ryan Reynolds, Lively swanned on to the red carpet at this year’s Met Gala in full A-lister force.
Blake Lively attends the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art”
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
The next day, as weak sauce claims that the multi-million dollar damages-seeking Lively received no cash in the settlement swirled around, Deadpool star Reynolds posted a happy couple selfie on his IG, deadening any rumblings of a riff in the Reynolds-Lively house.
Baldoni’s lead attorney Freedman, who became an object of scorn and repeated attempts at sanctions for the Lively side, has expressed “I can’t talk about the terms of the settlement, but what I can tell you is that he is ecstatic, that both Jamie and Justin are ecstatic at the results of this and the settlement itself,” the litigator told Extra this week of Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamie Heath and Nashville resident Baldoni. “They are very pleased with where this ended up,” he added.
Perhaps, but with California’s Section 47.1 putting Baldoni, Heath, Wayfarer co-founder Steve Sarowitz, flack Melissa Nathan, her TAG company, and fellow publicist Jennifer Abel on the hook for some big bucks, the “ended” in Freedman’s words might be a tad premature.
In addition to the shuttered but still active countersuit, there’s the separate but clearly connected legal action between the IEWU director’s publicist Jennifer Abel and her former boss Stephane Jones of the Jonesworks PR firm still moving forward. Ironically, after the settlement was unveiled this week, the Abel vs Jones dust-up could actually see both Baldoni and Lively having to give testimony after all – just not in their own case as we all presumed.