New details have emerged about the 11th-hour agreement between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni to avoid a headline-grabbing trial over alleged sexual harassment on set. And it ends with us.
Baldoni noted in a joint filing on Thursday that he had waived his right to appeal a court order last year dismissing his $400 million lawsuit against Lively, opening the door for the actress to recover legal fees and pursue damages under a California law aimed at protecting victims of sexual harassment from retaliatory defamation lawsuits.
If Lively’s bid is approved, the court will set procedures to evaluate the reputational implications of Baldoni’s lawsuit. The actress is also seeking punitive damages, which are intended to punish And it ends with us The director and his faction are in a particularly egregious case of misconduct.
After the settlement was announced on Monday, the two sides issued a joint statement saying the film was “a source of pride for all of us” and that Lively’s concerns “deserve to be heard.” At the time, neither group announced that they were exiting the deal on top.
Now, Lively is vying for a legal and public relations advantage. In a statement, Lively’s lawyers, Michael Gottlieb and Isra Hudson, called the settlement a “resounding victory.” They added: “Justin Baldoni and each defendant now face personal liability for abusing the legal system to silence and intimidate Ms. Lively. By recognizing Ms. Lively’s concerns as ‘worth hearing,’ the defendants have once and for all ended the fiction that Ms. Lively ‘fabricated’ allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation.”
The filing Thursday adds to uncertainty about the scope of potential liability that Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer, have for starting defamation battles against Lively and New York Times. Also among the events: a lawsuit filed by one of Wayfarer’s insurers for the film, Harco National Insurance, seeking a court order not to pay legal fees. Baldoni later accused three other insurers of breach of contract for refusing to cover the costs of the litigation. In all, their insurance policies collectively carried at least $8 million in insurance.
With this settlement, Lively has already faced one of the obstacles it faced in obtaining damages from Baldoni after the court rejected his defamation lawsuits last year. Because he waived his right to appeal the ruling in the deal, the ruling is final.
Under California law, Lively asserts, the actress is entitled to attorney’s fees, as well as triple punitive damages, for damages resulting from the defamation claims made by Baldoni. The law, which takes effect in 2024, aims to protect victims of sexual harassment and assault when they report misconduct as long as they have a reasonable basis for their allegations.
In the lawsuit, Lively says Baldoni’s lawsuit was intended to retaliate against her. He cites a statement from Wayfarer co-founder Steve Sarewitz in which he said he was “willing to spend $100 million to destroy the lives of Ms. Lively and her family.” The billionaire later said: “I will protect the studio just as Israel protected itself from Hamas. There were 39,000 bodies. There will be two bodies when I finish. The minimum,” according to the court document.
The actress also maintains that she reported the alleged incidents of sexual harassment on the film’s set in good faith, saying she repeatedly raised concerns about the production, negotiated contractual protections to address the issue and exposed herself to intense scrutiny by filing a lawsuit.
“The Wayfarer Party’s defamation lawsuit against Blake Lively was meritless from the beginning,” Hudson wrote in a court document. “Despite repeated warnings about the invalidity of their legal claims, and the consequences of continuing to pursue them, passer-by parties have refused to back down. Instead, they have fanned the flames of public sentiment.”
Lively says she expects to receive a “multi-million dollar award” to recover her legal fees and is entitled to damages from Wayfarer’s allegedly frivolous lawsuit.
Both sides have hired a large team of lawyers to litigate, and legal expenses will likely reach tens of millions of dollars. Many of their firms charge up to $1,000 an hour, and there were nearly 1,500 docket entries in Lively’s case alone.
