Over three months after Justin Baldoni’s $400 million defamation suit against Blake Lively, The New York Times, Ryan Reynolds, and others was dismissed, the Gray Lady is now seeking to recover some costs — approximately $150,000 in attorney’s fees, damages, and more.
A September 30 filing in New York state court from The Times and its in-house counsel states that the District Court’s opinion makes clear that Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, and its affiliates both initiated and continued the lawsuit against The Times without a substantial basis in fact or law.
Initially, Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Times. Subsequently, they included the paper in a countersuit filed in January against Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, publicist Leslie Sloane, and others over allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation. These allegations were first reported to California’s Civil Rights Department late last year and later covered in a New Year’s Eve lawsuit.
The New York Times published a thoroughly researched story on Lively’s Civil Rights Department filing on December 21, just hours after the complaint was submitted to California authorities.
On June 9, Judge Lewis Liman issued a comprehensive 132-page order dismissing Wayfarer’s countersuit. The order criticized aspects of journalistic ethics and other issues. However, the judge allowed Baldoni, his executives, financiers, and PR team the opportunity to submit an amended complaint. After some consideration, they declined to file a revised version.
According to The Times’ filing on Tuesday, the District Court held that any statements in the article and video reporting on the alleged sexual misconduct experienced by Lively were not actionable. This was because they were based on the complaint filed with the Civil Rights Department and therefore protected under New York’s fair report privilege. Additionally, the statements were not made with “actual malice.”
Regarding The Times’ statements about a smear campaign, the District Court found that even those statements, to the extent they fell outside the fair report privilege because they relied on communications not included in the Civil Rights Department complaint, were not plausibly made with actual malice.
With depositions and discovery now underway, and occasional appearances by high-profile figures such as Taylor Swift, Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni (who is no longer represented by WME) and Wayfarer Studios is set to go to trial starting March 9, 2026.
In the meantime, The New York Times has made it clear that their effort is more about defending journalism than just recovering costs.
Danielle Rhoades Ha, Communications Senior Vice President for The Times, told Deadline:
> “The New York Times filed suit against Justin Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, to obtain reimbursement of The Times’ legal fees from their baseless libel suit, which has now been dismissed by a federal judge. New York law allows publishers to recover their fees when they are targeted by suits designed to silence them. That is precisely what happened here. Our journalists covered carefully and fairly a story of public importance, and Wayfarer and Baldoni should pay for having tried to misuse the courts and mislead the public.”
On the other side, Baldoni and Wayfarer’s lead attorney Bryan Freedman commented:
> “Perhaps what constitutes justice in this particular matter needs to be reexamined. Win, lose, or draw, we refuse to cave to power brokers even in the face of seemingly impossible odds. We continue to stand tall for a reason: the pursuit of truth, in the face of giants. Our unwillingness to compromise our values, no matter the odds or the outcome, reflects a simple conviction that standing up for the truth and what is right matters. If the current laws protect legacy media in this manner, perhaps it’s up to us to ignite that change.”
To paraphrase The Times: all the lawsuits that are fit to be filed.
https://deadline.com/2025/10/justin-baldoni-new-york-times-attorney-fees-blake-lively-1236567582/
