Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni failed to reach a settlement in their It Ends With Us dispute following a lengthy closed-door settlement conference Wednesday.
The co-stars both appeared in person at a lower Manhattan federal courtroom for a six-hour conference in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave. Baldoni arrived hand-in-hand with his wife, Emily, while Lively arrived to court alone. Coincidentally, the actors wore matching olive green jackets, paired with a pop of light pink.
As is standard with mediations, both parties were kept in separate rooms as they worked with their respective teams on a potential settlement. But their attempts were unsuccessful. As the parties exited the courthouse separately on Wednesday evening, Baldoni’s lawyer, Hollywood veteran Bryan Freedman confirmed that neither side could reach an agreement and noted that while something could still be worked out, all signs pointed to the case going to trial beginning May 18.
“[We’re] looking forward to it,” Freedman added before departing in a waiting SUV.
It’s the latest standoff in the high-profile lawsuit, which saw Lively make explosive claims of sexual harassment and fostering an unsafe work environment against Baldoni in December 2024, following the disastrous press tour of It Ends With Us. Lively also accused Baldoni of hiring a crisis communications firm to launch a misogynistic smear campaign against her.
The fallout has been highly publicized and multi-pronged with Baldoni filing a since-dismissed $400 million countersuit against Lively, alleging she defamed and extorted him. He also filed a failed defamation claim against The New York Times, which broke the news of Lively’s complaint against Baldoni. (A judge tossed out both lawsuits in June 2025.) Baldoni’s crisis management firm has also been dragged into a separate lawsuit as part of the case, maintaining they’ve operated like any other “firm would when hired by a client experiencing threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources.”
The sprawling case, which has hundreds of court filings and thousands of pages of documents, is a battle of salvaging tarnished reputations. As Judge Lewis Liman previously remarked, he viewed the multi-million dollar case as a “feud between PR firms.” Baldoni has adamantly denied Lively’s claims, while Lively claims she has “suffered emotional distress, humiliation, shame, and embarrassment” from Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign which has also negatively impacted her career.
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The legal dispute has managed to rope in a host of celebrity names. Last month, a judge unsealed a trove of emails and text messages that appeared to show how Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds leaned on the support of their famous friends, including Taylor Swift, Jenny Slate, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Conde Nast’s Anna Wintour, among others as they navigated the increasingly strained relationship between Lively and Baldoni.
In the lead-up to the movie’s August 2024 release and subsequent media storm, Lively appeared to frequently vent to her close friend Swift amid the escalating tension with Baldoni. In messages dated April 2023 and reviewed by Rolling Stone, Lively asked the singer-songwriter to vouch on her behalf to Baldoni about Lively’s scriptwriting pass for the domestic violence movie’s pivotal rooftop scene.
“If you get here w[hen] this doofus director of my movie is still here (I’ll be ushering him out, but hope he’s still here) can you do me a huge favor. I need help with him,” Lively allegedly asked Swift. “Can you tell him you’re excited for the movie. That you read the book but what you’re freaking out over is the pages I sent you. What a magnetic scene that is. Or whatever descriptives you’re comfortable [with] … He’s a clown and thinks he’s a writer now and got this rewrite and told me he appreciates my passion. Thats. It. So having the greatest living story teller unknowingly echo to him how much you love what we’re doing (giving him credit as if he wrote them with me) will go such a long way.”
“I’ll do anything for you!!,” Swift allegedly responded.
From Rolling Stone US
