Judge Lewis Liman threw out 10 of 13 allegations in Lively’s case against Baldoni, leaving only her claims of breach of contract, retaliation, and aiding and abetting in retaliation to be tried next month.

Lively’s claims, which included sexual harassment, were thrown out because Liman said they were brought in the wrong jurisdiction and he said others, like retaliation, couldn’t move forward because Lively was an independent contractor, not an employee of those she brought claims against.

Sigrid McCawley, a member of Lively’s legal team, told multiple outlets in a statement: “This case has always been and will remain focused on the devastating retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set, and that is the case that is going to trial… She looks forward to testifying at trial.”

A federal judge considers Baldoni’s bid to dismiss Lively’s lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her.

Text messages between Lively and longtime friend Taylor Swift, as well as a transcript of actress Jenny Slate’s September deposition in the case, were unsealed.

Attorneys for Baldoni filed a request to dismiss Lively’s lawsuit against him, arguing the defendants did not commit any crimes nor that Lively had appropriately proved the “behavior she disliked was caused by her sex or gender, a basic prerequisite for her ‘sexual harassment’ claims.”

Jed Wallace, who was named in Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni as the social media expert who allegedly helped him orchestrate a smear campaign against her, was dismissed as a defendant in her lawsuit Wednesday after Liman ruled the New York federal court wasn’t the proper venue for him to be sued.

Lively addressed her legal battle on her Instagram, saying she and the 19 women’s groups that backed her in court “stood proudly” in “defending women’s rights to speak up for their safety,” stating she felt the “pain of a retaliatory lawsuit” and the “manufactured shame that tries to break us,” hours after a judge dismissed Baldoni’s defamation and extortion lawsuit filed against her.

In a new amicus curiae brief, 14 women’s rights groups, including the National Organization for Women and its New York City chapter, the National Network to End Domestic Violence and the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, supported Lively’s claims of sexual harassment against Baldoni while accusing him of using the “DARVO” tactic-deny, attack, reverse victim and offender-to smear and silence Lively.

Lively’s legal team has portrayed Baldoni-who has advocated for women throughout has career, including in a viral Ted Talk in 2017-as turning his back on his feminist beliefs: “Baldoni is now contradicting years of his own public persona,” Lively’s legal team told Forbes in a statement, citing Baldoni’s legal team’s attempt to challenge the amicus briefs.

Baldoni’s lawyers said in a legal filing Lively’s counsel informed them she has requested to withdraw her claim of emotional distress made in her lawsuit against Baldoni, which his lawyers say was done after his legal team requested she provide medical and mental health records to demonstrate the distress she says she suffered.

Baldoni’s lawyers also said in their letter to the judge they oppose Lively’s request to withdraw her emotional distress claim without prejudice, which means she can refile the claim at a later time, though Lively’s lawyers dismissed Baldoni’s legal team’s letter as a “a press stunt” and that they are “streamlining and focusing” Lively’s case.

Lively’s legal team accused Baldoni and his lawyers of trying to “prevent women’s rights groups from being heard” in a statement to Forbes, alleging they are trying to “shred a law designed to protect all victims just to make sure they ‘bury’ one,” referring to the #MeToo law Lively invoked.

Thomas Canestraro, who acted as Baldoni’s stunt double in “It Ends With Us,” spoke with the Daily Mail, stating the set was “tense” and filming took longer than expected, adding Lively was more “closed off” on set than when he previously worked with her on the 2018 film, “A Simple Favor.”

Baldoni and his lawyers sent a letter asking the judge to dismiss amicus briefs filed by women’s groups, alleging they are “irrelevant” to Lively’s motion to dismiss Baldoni’s lawsuit, while accusing Lively’s legal team of using the briefs as a “vehicle to renew [Liively’s] public attacks” against Baldoni and as more of a “publicity stunt for Lively than a useful aid for the Court at the pleading stage.”

San Francisco-based Equal Rights Advocates and former government employee and sexual harassment survivor Elyse Dorsey filed amicus briefs supporting Lively’s invocation of a new California law that is meant to protect sexual assault and harassment survivors from defamation lawsuits, commonly known as the #MeToo law after the Hollywood anti-sexual harassment movement.

Baldoni’s lawyers withdrew the subpoena, Variety and Deadline reported, after previously requesting texts between Swift and Lively, which they argued would show that Lively attempted to extort Swift for a public show of support amid her legal battle, though Lively’s legal team denied this (Forbes has reached out to representatives for both Lively and Baldoni’s legal teams for comment, though Lively’s lawyers told Deadline they are “pleased” the “inappropriate subpoenas” were withdrawn).

Taylor Swift was subpoenaed in Baldoni’s lawsuit against Lively, which includes texts from Lively that appear to refer to Swift as “one of her dragons,” though representatives for the billionaire singer argued she should not be involved in the dispute, telling Variety and NBC News that beyond the inclusion of her song “My Tears Ricochet” in a “It Ends With Us” trailer, Swift had no involvement in the making of the movie.

Lively’s legal team told multiple news outlets she plans to take the stand and testify once her trial begins: “The ultimate moment for a plaintiff’s story to be told is at trial. We expect that to be the case here. So we would, of course, expect her to be a witness at her trial. Of course she’s going to testify,” Gottlieb told People (Forbes has reached out to Lively’s legal team for comment).

Lively gave her first televised interview since filing her lawsuit against Baldoni to promote “Another Simple Favor” on Seth Meyers’ late night show, in which she acknowledged she can’t discuss much about her legal battle with Baldoni-whom she did not address by name-but stated she has faced the “highest highs and the lowest lows of my life” over the past “intense year,” adding she feels “fortunate” she has been able to speak about her experience because many women are “afraid to share their experiences” or do not have the opportunity to.

“Another Simple Favor,” Lively’s first film since “It Ends With Us” and a sequel to the 2018 film “A Simple Favor,” premiered on Amazon Prime Video and received mostly positive reviews from critics.

Baldoni’s lawyers submitted a letter to the court opposing Marvel’s request to quash the subpoena, doubling down on their claim that ‘”Nicepool” is a defamatory and mocking portrayal of Baldoni” and that such a portrayal could establish malice for his defamation claim, while accusing Marvel’s counsel of “refusing to engage” with Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios to resolve the dispute.

In response to Baldoni’s allegation that a character in the 2024 Marvel film “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Nicepool, was crafted by Ryan Reynolds as a caricature of Baldoni, Marvel Studios sent a letter to Liman asking the court to squash Baldoni’s subpoena for relevant documents, stating the claims are irrelevant to Baldoni’s claims of defamation and that releasing confidential Marvel documents would harm the studio.

In an amended response to Jones’ lawsuit against Baldoni, which she filed in December accusing him of defamation and breach of contract, Baldoni accused Jones of colluding with Lively to file a “sham legal proceeding” in New York court in September under a company affiliated with Lively, Vanzan Inc., against unnamed defendants as a “transparent ploy to obtain subpoena power” without Lively’s name attached so the parties could obtain text messages-which were central to Lively’s claims, and the basis for a New York Times story-sent among Baldoni’s team.

In a statement to Deadline, Jones’s lawyer Kristen Tahler accused Baldoni’s team of “presenting zero new evidence” and of conducting “a desperate ploy by a team who tonight all but admits they’re in trouble.”

Lively attended the Time 100 Gala as an honoree, where she made a speech apparently alluding to her ongoing legal battle: “I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum,” Lively said, in a speech in which she largely focused on abuse against women, a central theme of “It Ends With Us,” and revealed her mother was a victim of abuse.

“It Ends With Us” storyboard artist Talia Spencer defended Baldoni in an interview with “60 Minutes Australia,” stating she felt Lively “smelled [Baldoni’s] kindness, mistook it for weakness and tried to take advantage and take power,” alleging Lively “tried to” take control of the film, resulting in a “massive compromise” of Baldoni’s vision for the movie.

An actor who played a small role in “It Ends With Us” as Lively’s character’s gynecologist pushed back against Lively’s description of a birthing scene in her lawsuit as “invasive and humiliating,” telling PageSix Lively wore a “full hospital gown, black shorts and torso-covering prosthetic” and was not “nearly nude” as she had claimed in her complaint.

In a counterclaim to Jones’ December lawsuit against Baldoni and Abel, Baldoni alleged Jones attempted to undermine Abel’s authority as a PR representative for Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios production company, claiming she suddenly terminated Abel from her PR firm, seized her phone and leaked texts to Lively’s team, which the lawsuit says was done in response to Abel voicing her intent to leave Jones’ firm and Jones’ fear she would take Baldoni as a client with her.

In her motion to dismiss, Lively slammed Baldoni’s “vengeful and rambling lawsuit” as a “profound abuse of the legal process,” urging the court to “dismiss all claims against Ms. Lively with prejudice, deny leave to amend, and award Ms. Lively all relief sought,” including attorney’s fees and damages for “reputational and emotional harm.”

Reynolds filed a motion to dismiss Baldoni’s lawsuit, in which he is named as a co-defendant, alleging Baldoni’s lawsuit does not prove Reynolds defamed him and is instead “a list of grievances attempting to shame Mr. Reynolds for being the man Mr. Baldoni has built his brand pretending to be.”

Lively attended the South by Southwest premiere of “Another Simple Favor,” a sequel to the 2018 film “A Simple Favor,” where she received a warm reception from the crowd and spoke primarily about her work on the film, though co-star Anna Kendrick dodged a question that appeared to allude to Lively’s legal battle, and one protester held up a sign that said “Justice for Justin Baldoni” outside the theater.

At a hearing Thursday, Lively’s attorneys argued certain information should be treated as highly classified “attorney’s eyes only” material, which lawyer Sigrid McCawley said would help minimize the risk of “irreparable harm if marginal conversations with high profile individuals with no relevance to the case were to fall into wrong hands”-apparently suggesting messages between Lively and celebrity friends may leak. The judge did not rule on the request Thursday.

Though it’s unclear which “high profile individuals” McCawley was referring to, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman has previously suggested he could request Lively’s friend Taylor Swift testify, after she appeared to be referred to in Baldoni’s lawsuit.

The Los Angeles Times published an investigative report on Baldoni’s career, citing multiple unnamed employees at his Wayfarer Studios production company, some of whom said he injected “toxic positivity” and his Bahai faith into the workplace culture in a way that felt “professionally inappropriate.”

Representatives for Baldoni and Wayfarer told the Los Angeles Times there have “never been any reported complaints regarding the workplace culture” and Wayfarer’s work is rooted in “various faiths and backgrounds.”

Liman, a U.S. district judge, said the New York Times’ motion to dismiss Justin Baldoni’s $400 million case against the newspaper provided “substantial grounds,” suggesting the lawsuit-in which Baldoni accused the Times of working with Lively’s team to smear him-could be dismissed.

Shapiro, who formerly served as the CIA’s deputy chief of staff between 2013 and 2015 before starting his own strategic consulting firm, will advise Lively’s litigation team on legal communications relating to the lawsuit she filed against Baldoni in New York federal court.

Attorneys submitted a letter on behalf of Lively and Reynolds asking a new, more extensive protective order be imposed that would shield “personal, sensitive or proprietary information” from the public after claiming they and their allies have been victimized since the legal battle began. The letter goes on to say that it is “inevitable” that the release of more discovery in the case will further violate their privacy, expose them to threats and create “a climate of possible witness intimidation.”

Lawyers for Lively filed an amended complaint that included new accusations Baldoni’s behavior made at least two additional, unnamed female cast members uncomfortable and that both of those women brought their complaints to Lively, who documented them in writing and reported them to higher-ups on the film (the complaint references Baldoni’s “unwelcome behavior” but does not specify exactly what he is accused of doing).

The suit claims Baldoni was made aware of at least one of the additional cast members’ concerns and responded to her in writing at the time, promising “adjustments would be made”-but alleges he instead launched a PR campaign to discredit any future claims made against him.

Forbes reached out to Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, for comment on the new complaint Wednesday.

Baldoni and Lively’s letter to the judge, filed in New York federal court on Thursday, said mediation or reaching a settlement would be “inappropriate” and “premature” for this case, suggesting their legal feud could eventually head to trial.

Hoover, who deactivated her Instagram account as the legal battle between Lively and Baldoni continued to play out, has wiped any photos with Lively or Baldoni from her account. Most posts related to the film at all have been deleted, including an post supporting Lively that went up shortly after she filed her initial lawsuit against Baldoni: “@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met. Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt,” she wrote.

During promotion for the “It Ends With Us” film, Hoover appeared to take Lively’s side when a clear rift emerged among the film’s cast and crew. Lively refused to promote the movie alongside Baldoni and the pair were never interviewed or photographed together during its highly publicized press tour, Hoover and most of Lively’s co-stars, including Jenny Slate, Brandon Sklenar and Isabela Ferrer, appeared at her side rather than Baldoni’s. Hoover still follows Lively on Instagram, but does not follow Baldoni.

A three-year-old video interview of Blake Lively admitting to Forbes she’s ruffled feathers in the film industry by attempting to have more “authorship” over her projects has gone viral. In a resurfaced interview from the 2022 Forbes Power Women’s Summit, Lively said just following direction as an actress “wasn’t fulfilling for me” and that she’s received backlash for stepping in and trying to be part of costume design, writing and other aspects of a project. She said she’s had writers, producers and directors “welcome that and invite that,” and others who resented her for stepping on toes. She also said she hasn’t always upfront with her plans to step in to other parts of a project when she was hired as an actress, and that she “wouldn’t reveal that I actually need to have authorship in order to feel fulfilled… Sometimes that might have felt like a rug pull.”

Filmmaker Judd Apatow joked about “It Ends With Us” at the 77th Annual Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards Saturday night, calling it “such a terrible movie” and referencing the Baldoni-Lively lawsuits. “I loved Wicked. I saw it four times in the first four days,” Apatow added. “It was the highest-grossing movie musical of all time. Do you know that? Usually to make that much money, you have to sue Blake Lively.”

Comedian Chelsea Handler, who hosted the Critics’ Choice Awards, also poked fun at the legal battle, which has played out dramatically in the media over the last six weeks. Handler thanked the pair for providing a “distraction” from heavier headlines: “I want to personally extend my gratitude to Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively… I’m grateful. I think we’re all grateful. And I think we’re good. I think everybody in this room, no matter whose side you’re on, we can all agree to accept that there’s probably not going to be a sequel. It ends with us, guys.”

Baldoni’s lawyer suggested in an interview with TMZ he could call on Taylor Swift-a close friend of Blake Lively’s who may have been alluded to in Baldoni’s lawsuit against the actress-to testify once the case goes to trial. After TMZ’s Harvey Levin asked about deposing Swift, Freedman didn’t rule out the idea, calling it a “game time decision” and adding he would seek testimony from anyone who may have relevant information (Freedman also said Swift was present alongside Baldoni, Lively and Ryan Reynolds at a meeting about Lively’s proposed script edits to “It Ends With Us” that is referenced in Baldoni’s lawsuit, though the suit only refers to the alleged attendee as “Taylor” with no last name).

Wallace, owner of the crisis PR firm Street Relations, sued Lively in Texas federal court for defamation, alleging she falsely claimed in a civil rights complaint and her lawsuit that Wallace participated in an alleged smear campaign against the actress at the behest of Baldoni’s public relations team, which he says caused him “millions of dollars in reputational harm.”

“A Simple Favor 2,” Lively’s latest film, will open at the SXSW Film and TV Festival next month, Director Paul Feig said, after rumors the film had been shelved, partially due to the Lively/Baldoni legal battle.

Liman told lawyers for Lively and Baldoni that he would move up the trial date, set for March 2026, if the case continued to be “litigated in the press.” Liman ordered both sides to adhere to the New York Rules of Professional Conduct, which stops lawyers from making public comments that have a “substantial likelihood” of tainting a jury, but stopped short of sanctioning Baldoni’s attorney, Freedman, despite claims from Lively’s team that he has gotten close to defaming her and has made “extrajudicial statements” about her and her character.

Baldoni’s team published a website dedicated to supporting his lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds that links to to an amended complaint filed on Jan. 31 and contains a timeline of events outlining what he says happened on the set of “It Ends With Us,” including corresponding text messages, emails and a statement Baldoni has said he was pressured into releasing by Reynolds and Lively that would have seen him take the blame for the “troubled production” of the movie (he refused to put out the statement). In addition to the statement, Baldoni released a text message exchange with Lively that showed she chose not to meet with the on-set intimacy coordinator he hired, leaving him to relay uncomfortable information from the meeting on his own.

Lawyers for Lively and Reynolds said in a letter to Liman that they plan to move to dismiss the lawsuit filed against them at a pre-trial conference scheduled for Monday, Feb. 3.

The Hollywood Reporter cited unnamed sources in reporting Baldoni has “lost three jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars” since Lively first filed suit against him in December and that an in-the-works “Pac-Man” movie project he was set to direct is now in jeopardy.

Liman told Lively and Baldoni’s lawyers to prepare for a March 9, 2026 trial date and set a pretrial conference to discuss, among other things, complaints from Lively’s team about the conduct of Baldoni’s lawyer. Lively’s lawyers have claimed Freedman is trying to paint potential jurors by creating a website to release communication between the two actors and documents from set, and accused him of making an “endless stream of defamatory and extrajudicial media statements.”

The Daily Mail first published a nearly seven-minute voice note it says Baldoni sent to Lively at 2 a.m. during the filming of “It Ends With Us,” in which he allegedly apologizes for not being open enough to script changes she made, admits he is a “a very flawed man” and makes a reference to her breastfeeding her then-newborn child.

Baldoni’s legal team countered Lively’s claims that he acted inappropriately while filming a slow dancing scene for the film by releasing a 10-minute video from set that includes three takes of the same scene, which Baldoni’s team says is the entirety of the footage shot for that scene, during which Lively alleged in a lawsuit Baldoni “leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘it smells so good.'” The footage shows a similar interaction, where Baldoni is seen nuzzling Lively’s neck, and she says, “I’m probably getting spray-tan on you,” to which he responds, “It smells good.” Lively’s team says the footage fully corroborates her account, and “any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort.” Baldoni’s lawyers said the footage proves both actors clearly behaved “well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism.”

Deadline reported Baldoni’s former publicist Stephanie Jones, who sued the actor and a handful of others for defamation and breach of contract in December, has issued subpoenas to WhatsApp, Signal, website hosts Hostinger and Name Cheap, digital publishing platform AnyFlip and chatbot company Gab AI in attempts to discover who may have been behind posts and websites aimed at harming Lively and Baldoni’s reputations.

Feig, who directed Lively’s upcoming film “A Simple Favor 2,” responded to viral rumors the film had been shelved “indefinitely,” partially due to the Lively/Baldoni legal battle, calling it “total BS” and confirming the film “is finished and coming out soon.”

In an interview with Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, TMZ founder Harvey Levin said about the co-stars’ competing accusations about online campaigns to damage one another’s reputation: “Both sides tried to skew this story. We’ve been on the recipient end of that … It has happened on both sides in the Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni war. Both sides.” Freedman responded by saying, “That’s good to know.” (In recent days, Freedman has denied Lively’s allegations that she faced a smear campaign by Baldoni’s PR team, claiming Lively’s team was instead working to smear Baldoni.)

Freedman appeared on Megyn Kelly’s YouTube show to discuss Baldoni’s plans to sue Lively “into oblivion” and pushed back on several of the actresses’ allegations, accusing Lively of not reading the source material for the film, refuting claims she was sexually harassed and accusing her of orchestrating her own smear campaign against Baldoni. The interview also included newly released sound from a voice note from Baldoni explaining that he was “sent to the basement” of the film’s premiere because Lively “didn’t want me anywhere near her or the rest of the cast” (Here’s more on what Freedman said on Kelly’s show.)

Freedman told NBC’s “Today” he “absolutely” plans to file suit against Lively after she alleged she was subjected to “sexually inappropriate behavior” by Baldoni on the set of their 2024 film, but wouldn’t say exactly what the countersuit would allege, though denied Lively’s claim that Baldoni and his team launched a smear campaign against the actress.

Glaser, the first solo female to ever host the Golden Globes, warned viwers in advance that she wouldn’t be poking fun of Baldoni and Lively while on stage. “I think the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni thing is such a hot-button thing right now that even a mere mention of it will seem like I could be on the wrong side of things, even though I would never be,” Glaser told Yahoo Entertainment. “I also don’t want to give (Baldoni’s) name any – I’m mad I even know his name, to be honest with you, so I don’t need to say it anymore.”

Baldoni filed a $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times for the paper’s reporting on Lively’s allegations, accusing the outlet of having “cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites”-Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds (on Jan. 31, Baldoni added defamation allegations against the Times to his sweeping lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds, and his attorney said he would drop the original suit against the paper).

Baldoni was sued by his ex-publicist, Stephanie Jones, over an alleged conspiracy to discredit her and steal her clients.

Vital Voices, a nonprofit that focuses on empowering women, rescinded an award it gave to Baldoni, who has made a career expressing his support of women’s stories and co-hosted a podcast about masculinity called “Man Enough,” which his co-host pulled out of the same day.

Baldoni was reportedly dropped by his talent agency.