Lawyers for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are officially talking about coming to some sort of settlement in the bitter and sprawling sex harassment and retaliation action the actress launched last year against her It Ends With Us co-star and his Wayfarer Studios inner circle.
Of course, no one on either side has very high hopes that the parties can come to any deal before the May 2026 trial begins.
“This is a mix of going through the motions, fulfilling Judge (Lewis) Liman’s order and putting the best foot forward,” an individual close to the star-studded matter told Deadline this week as a settlement calendar appeared on the federal court docket. “Don’t be fooled. Everyone is preparing for the trial.”
One thing is sure, Lively and Baldoni will be face-to-face in this settlement process, be it a charade or not.
“The presence of each party (the client), in addition to counsel, is essential to the settlement process,” Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave threw down in a December 18 order.
What the settlement sessions are highly unlikely to produce is any actual settlement as Lively seeks around $500 million in damages from Team Baldoni and the Wayfarer crew. On the flip, Baldoni and crew also seem intent in getting their day in court to disprove the actress’ allegations of misconduct during the production of the Sony distributed IEWU, and a preemptive online smear campaign that followed.
On December 9, Judge Liman kicked the start of the trial two months down the road from its long established March date because of criminal cases that were piling up in the federal court system. At that same hearing, he strongly encouraged the parties to bring the volume down and try to work this all out without a trial.
As it stands right now, representatives for the Another Simple Favor star and the Man Enough podcast co-host will be meeting separately on January 23 with Judge Cave for a “counsel-only conference with counsel …to discuss settlement.” The back-to-back get togethers, with Lively’s team of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Willkie Farr & Gallagher attorneys going first, will occur in Judge Cave’s her New York courtroom in the morning next month.
“Plaintiff to make a settlement demand to the Defendants (or reaffirm any prior demand) by Wednesday, January 28, 2026,” wrote Judge Cave of Lively in a scheduling order Thursday. “Defendants to inform Plaintiff of their response to the demand by Wednesday, February 4, 2026,” she also noted of Baldoni and the Wayfarer defendants.
Next up, as the movement towards the May 18 starting trial continues full-speed ahead on a parallel track, will be an all-hands on deck settlement conference on February 11 in front of Judge Cave. That session could see plaintiff Lively and defendants Baldoni, his Wayfarer CEO, co-founder and PR chiefs Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel all in court with defense lawyer Bryan Freedman and the rest of the legal beagles.
“At the settlement conference, counsel for each side should expect to make a succinct presentation (10–15 minutes) in the presence of all parties and the Court summarizing the issues counsel believes are important for the client(s).. of the opposing party to consider for purposes of formulating a settlement position,” Judge Cave’s order continues.
“After the initial statements, counsel may respond and have their clients speak if they choose,” she goes on to note. “Following the presentations, the Court will meet separately with each side in private. In these meetings, the parties and their counsel must be prepared to inform the Court of the amount of attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred to date, and an estimate of the remaining costs (including attorneys’ fees) of litigating the case to judgment, including appeal.”
(L-R) Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Taylor Swift and Justin Baldoni Photos: Getty
Getty Images
If a settlement fails to be achieved by Lively and Baldoni’s lawyers, that May 2026 trial could see not just the IEWU co-stars testifying but also Lively’s hubby Ryan Reynolds, his Deadpool & Wolverine co-star Hugh Jackman, Taylor Swift (godmother to one of Lively and Reynolds’ kids) and many other A-listers, along with Sony execs. The trial could also prove much more low-key (in relative terms) as the two sides grind it out over data analysis, tweet tracking and careful looks at BTS footage from IEWU to prove their respective points.
No surprise, reps for neither Baldoni nor Lively responded to Deadline’s request for comment on the settlement scheduling orders from Judge Cave – which means they had nothing to say about any slim change of anyone coming to an agreement to end all this.