Justin Baldoni just lost BIG in his legal war with Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and The New York Times ... because all of his claims against them have been dismissed.
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00:00We found out that Blake Lively is the big winner in this legal battle that has gone on now for
00:07six months between herself and Justin Baldoni. Justin Baldoni got a gut punch from the judge
00:14today who dismissed all of his lawsuits against Blake, against the New York Times, against Ryan
00:21Reynolds. A clean sweep for Blake Lively that nobody saw coming. We thought both of these
00:28cases are going to keep going. They're going to end up in court because no one was backing down.
00:32There was no talk of settlements. And now, just like that. So it ends with this. Yes. It ends with
00:39us. Well, at least for Justin Baldoni, it does. Blake, on the other hand, is, you would say at
00:46this point, the winner because her lawsuit against him is still going forward at this point. Is that
00:52a different judge? I don't know. I don't know. Same judge, same courtroom in the Southern District
00:58of New York, the same place actually that diddy's being tried, just as it were. But what the judge
01:04ruled here is that the defamation lawsuits that Justin Baldoni had brought against Blake Lively,
01:08Ryan Reynolds, the New York Times, and the fact they had all allegedly conspired together to defame
01:13Justin Baldoni and his company Wayfarer, all tossed out. And importantly, maybe it's a little legally in
01:18the weeds, but importantly, did so with prejudice, which means that Justin Baldoni cannot refile
01:24these claims. They are dead forever. Baldoni has a right to appeal it to a higher court,
01:28but the judge has said this case is over and done with forever. Baldoni still has some rights
01:34on some lesser claims that tortious interference with contract. But that's what we're talking
01:38about. He had filed $650 million worth of lawsuits against The Times and Lively and Reynolds.
01:44All of that is gone and not to come back. That is stunning. And so the part about the defamation
01:52that it was, and this is what Blake Lively and her team has said all along, she made claims in a
01:59civil rights action against him about the sexual harassment. And really, the New York Times article
02:05was just about that filing, right? So basically, the court said she has the right to say those things.
02:11It's in a legal action. And defamation is a very, very high standard for a news organization.
02:18Alex, that's exactly right. It's an incredibly high standard. The First Amendment is a very
02:22powerful thing. And defamation begins where the First Amendment protections end. So what happened
02:27here is that Blake Lively had filed this complaint. Complaints are, you can say whatever you want
02:32without exception and not be sued for defamation in a complaint. So she files this complaint.
02:37Baldoni says, well, she then conspired with Ryan Reynolds and the New York Times to file this
02:43allegedly false article in The Times. The judge said, well, let's start with the false article
02:49in The Times. We don't believe it's necessarily false. It's based upon what Lively said in her
02:54complaint. You can't sue a publication for simply repeating claims that are made in that complaint
03:00as The Times did with Lively's lawsuit. So basically, Jason, the judge said the fact that
03:06there were text messages that Justin Baldoni had filed in his lawsuit, there were text messages
03:13between Blake and the publicist and the publicist in The New York Times. That didn't matter because
03:20the article that came out was only based on what's in her action.
03:25Yeah. Now, the judge did point out, Justin did, and then the judge pointed out that The New York
03:30Times was accused of picking and choosing certain text messages and certain emails and saying to the
03:35exclusion of others. And he said, therefore, The Times article wrongly portrayed the relationship
03:42between them. The judge said not so much. What I'm seeing in The Times publication really does track
03:47very closely to Blake Lively's original lawsuit. Therefore, it cannot be the grounds for defamation.
03:52So we joked about this concept that it ends with this, but you mentioned the concept of an appeal.
03:58Are there grounds for appeal for Justin? And are there indications from him and his team
04:02And how expensive is that going to get for him?
04:04That they want to go forward with an appeal?
04:06Yeah, there are always grounds for an appeal. Whether or not you win or not, it can be very
04:09hard to overturn. Most cases do not overturn an appeal. It's very unlikely. But there are grounds
04:15for appeal. But to Charles' point about expense, so the judge left open the possibility that
04:21Justin may be responsible for the legal cost, the legal fees for the three defendants, The Times,
04:29Lively, and Reynolds, they will definitely be in the multi-millions of dollars. If you then appeal it
04:35and you lose that, that can get tacked on. Those legal fees, which will again be in millions more,
04:40will be tacked on to what he could conceivably owe. So Justin Baldoni has got to tread really lightly
04:45here. We don't really know who is funding his lawsuit. It's possibly a third party is. And
04:50that third party may in fact be very deep pocketed and not worry about things like that. So we could
04:54see it appeal. But Baldoni's licking his wounds right now. They have to really figure out how
04:58to go forward.
04:59What do we think about the court of public opinion? Because Justin Baldoni wants to work again.
05:03Blake Lively wants to work again.
05:05The court of public opinion, it seemed to sway more.
05:09It seemed like it was going towards Justin, right? Like Justin was winning everything. So this kind
05:12of seems to kind of come out of nowhere.
05:14It just goes to show that the public may think one thing, but in the court of law,
05:18it could be a completely different thing. And Justin Baldoni may end up paying a steep,
05:25steep price for that.
05:26Yeah.
05:27Hi, it's Melissa from Washington. So I think it's like, all of this is just a frivolous case.
05:32And there is so much more, like the judge could be putting his efforts towards something that
05:37is much more serious, like Diddy, for example. But I hope that her case, if his is dismissed,
05:45personally, I thought he had a stronger case. So I hope that they dismiss hers at the same time.
05:50But then again, if he goes to appeal, that's just going to be insanely expensive. So
05:55maybe this will just all get dismissed. I don't know.
05:58It seems like that's what many of us would like to see is just both of them dismissed.
06:03And we stopped talking about this and everybody can move on.
06:06That would be actually the easiest, the best out for both of them, right? That neither had to,
06:11it was, we didn't, had to capitulate. The judge just threw both out. And we didn't have to like,
06:16agree to anything in a settlement.
06:17Like a mutually assured destruction, Cold War sort of thing.
06:21Yes.
06:21We're disarming.
06:22Just walk away. But as it is right now, that is not the case.
06:28I don't know.
06:29I don't know.
06:29I don't know.