Blake Lively has filed a motion to dismiss Justin Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit against her, claiming it’s all for revenge and therefore illegal.
The 37-year-old “Gossip Girl” alum sued Baldoni in late December, alleging sexual harassment on the set of “It End With Us,” followed by a retaliatory smear campaign. Baldoni, who directed the film and co-starred alongside Lively, then countersued two weeks later, accusing the actress, her husband Ryan Reynolds and publicist Leslie Sloane of defamation and civil extortion.
In documents filed Thursday in Manhattan Federal Court, Lively asked a judge to dismiss the “vengeful” suit with prejudice and without leave to amend, meaning Baldoni would not be permitted to refile the complaint.
The “lawsuit against Blake Lively is a profound abuse of the legal process that has no place in federal court,” reads a memorandum obtained by the Daily News. “The law prohibits weaponizing defamation lawsuits, like this one, to retaliate against individuals who have filed legal claims or have publicly spoken out about sexual harassment and retaliation.”
The documents state that despite Baldoni’s allegations that Lively tried to leverage false sexual harassment claims to gain creative control of the film, his suit fails to “allege actual malice” and rather demonstrates Lively’s “good faith beliefs.”
“The self-defeating claim appears to be that Ms. Lively bullied her way into doing more work than she was contractually obligated to do, without additional compensation, while [film studio] Wayfarer profited handsomely from the movie’s blockbuster success,” the documents read.
According to the memo, Baldoni’s lawsuit is not “an actionable legal claim,” but instead “a blunt public relations instrument designed to further the Wayfarer Parties’ sinister campaign to ‘bury’ and ‘destroy’ Ms. Lively for speaking out about sexual harassment and retaliation.”
Lively’s motion to dismiss the suit follows that of her husband, who filed to do the same on Tuesday. Sloane filed to be dismissed from Baldoni’s lawsuit last month.
The dueling lawsuits are currently slated to head to trial next March.