{"id":307026,"date":"2026-07-27T21:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307026\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T21:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T21:21:10","slug":"justin-baldonis-wayfarer-must-pay-170k-in-nyt-defamation-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307026\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Must Pay $170K in NYT Defamation Damages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Baldoni\u2019s Wayfarer Studios has been ordered to pay The New York Times $171,616.20 in damages following its failed defamation suit.<\/p>\n

On Monday, New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits awarded The Times its win after Baldoni\u2019s production company sued for defamation following the organization\u2019s December 2024 report on the working conditions on \u201cIt Ends With Us.\u201d The article detailed Blake Lively\u2019s allegations of sexual harassment and workplace retaliation against her director and co-star.<\/p>\n

In January 2025, The New York Times was added to the Wayfarer defamation lawsuit, but by June of the same year, U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman had dismissed all claims. That led the organization to file its own lawsuit to recoup its initial legal fees through the anti-SLAPP statute.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Matt\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re delighted by the court\u2019s decision,\u201d a New York Times spokesperson told TheWrap on Monday. \u201cThe anti-SLAPP statute is designed to combat exactly these kinds of meritless suits brought to silence the press.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baldoni and Lively reached a settlement<\/a>\u00a0in May, just two weeks before their case was set to go to trial. Judge Liman then ruled that Lively was entitled to compensation for her defense costs thanks to the Protecting Survivors From Weaponized Defamation Lawsuits Act (aka Section 47.1), a 2023 California law designed to protect sexual harassment, abuse and discrimination victims from retaliatory defamation lawsuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe end product \u2013 the movie \u2018It Ends With Us\u2019 \u2013 is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life. Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors \u2013 and all survivors \u2013 is a goal that we stand behind.\u00a0 We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard,\u201d\u00a0read their joint statement<\/a>\u00a0in May. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the settlement, in June, Lively filed a memorandum seeking more than $8 million in attorneys\u2019 fees and other legal costs from Baldoni and Wayfarer.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Wayfarer\u2019s cross-motion for a stay was also denied in Monday\u2019s ruling. TheWrap has reached out to Baldoni\u2019s team for further comment.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Bryan\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Baldoni\u2019s Wayfarer Studios has been ordered to pay The New York Times $171,616.20 in damages following its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[46107,9,11,10,116169],"class_list":["post-307026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-justin-baldoni","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-wayfarer-studios"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}