Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios ordered to pay “New York Times” $171k in damages after lawsuit Leigh BlickleyMon, July 27, 2026 at 9:52 PM UTC 0 Justin Baldoni arrives at court on February 12 in New York CityCredit: John Nacion/GettyKey Points Justin Baldoni’s production company was ordered to pay The New York Times more than $171k in damages. A New York Supreme Court justice passed down the order Monday. The defamation suit stemmed from Baldoni’s legal battle with Blake Lively.
Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios ordered to pay “New York Times” $171k in damages after lawsuit
Leigh BlickleyMon, July 27, 2026 at 9:52 PM UTC
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Justin Baldoni arrives at court on February 12 in New York CityCredit: John Nacion/GettyKey Points -
Justin Baldoni’s production company was ordered to pay The New York Times more than $171k in damages.
A New York Supreme Court justice passed down the order Monday.
The defamation suit stemmed from Baldoni’s legal battle with Blake Lively.
Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios was ordered to pay The New York Times thousands of dollars in damages after the production company lost its defamation case against the newspaper for its coverage of Blake Lively’s It Ends With Us allegations.
In court documents reviewed by Entertainment Weekly on Monday, New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits granted summary judgment in the newspaper’s favor and stated that “NYT Co. is therefore entitled to a total amount in damages of $171,616.20.”
EW reached out to Wayfarer Studios for comment.
The ruling stems from the production company’s lawsuit over The New York Times’ December 2024 investigation, “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” which detailed Lively’s sexual harassment and workplace retaliation allegations against Baldoni and others involved with the film It Ends With Us.
‘It Ends With Us’ stars Blake Lively and Justin BaldoniCredit: Sony
The story reported that public relations professionals deliberately set out to destroy Lively’s reputation after she “complained that the men had repeatedly violated physical boundaries and made sexual and other inappropriate comments to her.”
In December 2024, Baldoni announced he was suingThe New York Times for $250 million over its bombshell story about the alleged smear campaign against Lively. The 87-page lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, accused NYT of defamation, stating that the newspaper’s “reliance on ‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.”
The lawsuit added that the news outlet “relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives.”
A judge dismissed the defamation suit in June 2025. In a statement to EW, a spokesperson for NYT said, “We are grateful to the court for seeing the lawsuit for what it was: a meritless attempt to stifle honest reporting. Our journalists went out and covered carefully and fairly a story of public importance, and the court recognized that the law is designed to protect just that sort of journalism.”
Three months later, The New York Times filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios. In a nine-page complaint obtained by EW at the time, the newspaper sought both compensatory and punitive damages to cover approximately $150,000 in costs of defending the defamation claims.
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“It is clear from the district court’s opinion that the claims against The Times lacked any basis in fact or law,” The New York Times’ in-house counsel David McCraw wrote in the complaint. “Under such circumstances, New York’s anti-SLAPP Law requires that The Times be awarded its costs and attorney’s fees and such other compensatory damages as the court deems just and proper.”
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on set of ‘It Ends With Us’Credit: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Baldoni starred in and directedIt Ends With Us, based on Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, in 2023 and 2024, and he and Lively have faced intense backlash amid their legal battle. The actress alleged that he had sexually harassed her on set and then waged a smear campaign against her during the film’s press tour.
He denied the accusations.
Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, defamation, and conspiracy, although those claims were dismissed by a judge in April 2026. Lively continued to fight for breach of contract, retaliation in violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, and aiding and abetting in retaliation in violation of FEHA, but she and Baldoni reached a settlement before trial in May.
“We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard,” a joint statement from both legal teams read at the time. “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.”
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Baldoni also filed a countersuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, in January 2025, alleging that the couple and their PR firm had defamed him and Wayfarer Studios. A judge threw out that case in June of that year.
Earlier this month, Baldoni and his wife, Emily, spoke out about the legal saga on Instagram for the first time, telling followers, in part, “There have been so many painful things that have been spoken into existence over the last couple of years, that created so much noise. And we didn’t want to add to the noise. So we just wanted to let the justice system run its course.”
They added that “healing isn’t linear” but they’re trying to focus on each other and their family. “We have had to rethink for ourselves what is real and what matters. It’s this. It’s our family, it’s our friends, it’s our community, who have been there for us, it’s our faith,” Baldoni said. “I think we’re closer, more devoted, and steadfast in our faith than we’ve ever been.”
on Entertainment Weekly
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Published: July 28, 2026 at 01:09AM on Source: RED MAG
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