Ever since its release the book to movie adaptation It Ends With Us has remained synonymous with behind the scenes drama. The movie, which is streaming with a Netflix subscription, originally went viral due to Blake Lively's behavior with journalists, although it's best known now for the various lawsuits flying around its cast and crew. And it looks like Justin Baldoni's case against the New York Times case might not actually result in that $400 million pay day.
After Blake Lively filed a complaint against Wayfarer Studios, Baldoni issue a few lawsuits of his own, including a defamation case which named Lively and Ryan Reynolds. But a report from Reuters claims that the judge is signaling that they may throw out the $400 case. Per this report, The Judge thinks the New York Times' request to be excused from the ongoing legal situation has "substantial grounds for dismissal" and "a strong showing that its motion to dismiss is likely to succeed on the merits."
This is just the latest update to come from the drama surrounding It Ends With Us. While Justin Baldoni's team has been hard at work, they did not respond to a request for a comment about the Judge's reported intentions. Only time will tell how things actually shake out, and how this ruling might influence the other suits that are at play.
Per the filing, Baldoni was reportedly displeased by the way the New York Times reported his feud with Blake Lively. His original lawsuit was against the publication, although the defamation case also made headlines for naming Lively and Reynolds specifically. The sum of $400 million definitely helped to raise the stakes of the situation, although now it looks like The Times might be of the hook in that regard. For their part, the publication maintained that they were simply gathering and reporting the news, and did not have any malice toward the director/actor.
If this rumored decision actually comes to fruition, that doesn't mean that the legal battle surrounding It Ends With Us will be over. Both Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's legal teams are showing no signs of slowing down, and fans are curious to see if the two former co-stars will end up actually facing each other in court sometime down the line.
Recent years have shown how much celebrity lawsuits can dominate the news cycle: just look at the defamation battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. That trial even had cameras in the courtroom, allowing the public to watch every moment of the trial, including both of the actors' testimonies. And as a result, the court of public opinion made its own judgements in addition to the official Depp/Heard trial ruling. We'll just have to wait and see if Lively and Baldoni's ongoing situation goes to those heights.
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