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Blake Lively attends the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 4, 2026, in New York. Justin Baldoni speaks onstage at the Vital Voices 12th Annual Voices of Solidarity Award, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images | Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)
A New York federal judge has ruled that Justin Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, must pay his former It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively’s attorneys’ fees, after the parties reached a settlement last month in Lively’s lawsuit against the actor and production studio.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman denied Lively’s claim for punitive damages but wrote that the actress was entitled to attorneys’ fees under California Civil Code Section 47.1.
Section 47.1 states in part that a “prevailing defendant” in a defamation case is “entitled to their reasonable attorney’s fees and costs for successfully defending themselves in the litigation,” as well as any additional damages permitted by a judge.
In a statement to ABC News following the ruling, Lively’s attorneys Esra Hudson and Michael Gottlieb said the judge’s decision “makes it clear that Ms. Lively brought her claims in good faith, that there was no evidence she acted with malice, and that she is the prevailing defendant under Section 47.1.”
“Ms. Lively is gratified that her lawsuit shows how Section 47.1 and laws like it create a path for survivors to hold accountable those who weaponize online attacks and retaliatory lawsuits to intimidate and silence survivors,” they added.
ABC News has reached out to representatives for Baldoni for comment.
Friday’s decision comes after the parties reached a settlement in early May in Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni, ending their nearly year-and-a-half legal dispute.
According to settlement documents filed May 7 in the Southern District of New York, Baldoni, via his Wayfarer production company, and Lively agreed to settle their ongoing dispute on terms that Lively could still seek to recover attorney’s fees and additional damages.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Lively and Baldoni’s legal battle kicked off in December 2024, when Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department alleging “severe emotional distress” after she said Baldoni and key stakeholders in the film — which Baldoni also directed — sexually harassed her and attempted, along with Baldoni’s production company, to orchestrate a smear campaign against her.
Baldoni followed up the action by filing a lawsuit against the New York Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy on Dec. 31 after it published the article about Lively’s California complaint.
Lively subsequently formalized her complaint into a lawsuit against Baldoni in New York, also on Dec. 31.
Baldoni responded by filing a civil lawsuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and others for, among other things, extortion and defamation.
The suits were consolidated into one lawsuit in January 2025.
In June last year, Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and the couple’s publicist Leslie Sloane, as well as Baldoni’s defamation suit against the Times, was dismissed by Liman.
A federal judge in New York gutted much of Lively’s case against Baldoni in April of this year, including claims she was subjected to sexual harassment on set.
The judge determined in a ruling at the time that Lively would be allowed to pursue certain claims of retaliation against Baldoni’s public relations team over alleged harm to her reputation.
In May, after reaching a settlement in their protracted legal dispute, the two actors issued a joint statement via their respective legal teams, saying, “We 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.”
Tom Holland and Zendaya attend the ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Rome premiere evening photocall at Ponte Sant’Angelo on June 23, 2026, in Rome, Italy. (Franco Origlia/WireImage via Getty Images)
Tom Holland referred to his wife, Zendaya, by an unexpected name at the Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiere in Rome.
While the pair were talking to different reporters on the red carpet at the premiere, Holland called out to Zendaya to ask her a question, as seen in a video shared by People.
“Maree!” Holland shouted, to which Zendaya responded back, “Yeah?”
Holland then asked her where they were going after the premiere, to which she said, “Giolitti’s.” Zendaya added more context to the reporter she was speaking with, telling them, “That’s where I’m going after this.”
Zendaya’s full name is Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman, meaning Holland used one of her middle names to refer to her on the carpet.
Holland also posted photos of him and Zendaya at the premiere to his Instagram on Tuesday.
The first photo in his carousel is a black-and-white picture of him and Zendaya walking hand-in-hand across the Ponte Sant’Angelo in Rome. Zendaya is dressed in a vintage Giorgio Armani web dress.
The second photo was taken in color and features the couple looking up at the sky as a Spider-Man: Brand New Day graphic is displayed on Castel Sant’Angelo behind them. Many other black-and-white and color photos follow in the rest of Holland’s post.
“When in Rome! Spider-Man Brand New Day,” Holland captioned the carousel.
Javier Bardem and Amy Adams in ‘Cape Fear.’ (Apple TV)
Max Cady is back, and this time he’s played by Javier Bardem.
Apple TV’s limited series adaptation of Cape Fear has just debuted its first two episodes. This reimagining of the classic 1962 film and Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake finds Bardem taking on the role of the former prisoner set on revenge. He told ABC Audio he felt pressure stepping into both Robert De Niro and Robert Mitchum’s shoes.
“Of course, the pressure is about me being a huge admirer of De Niro’s and Mitchum’s iconic performances,” Bardem said. “But also, the pressure was off when I first read the scripts and I felt that there was a different take, different character to play because it’s a different time in history.”
Bardem said he didn’t have to emulate anything specifically from De Niro or Mitchum’s takes on the role, outside of the “sense of humor” and “the irony of those performances,” although those aspects “were present [in] the writing.”
This take on Cape Fear gender swaps Max Cady’s lawyer into a woman — a new, reimagined character named Anna Bowden. Amy Adams portrays Anna, and she spoke about what this change brings to the story.
“I really love that aspect of it, this dynamic between them and the sort of power play. … There’s a depth and sort of a complexity to the relationship that we got to explore,” Adams said.
Going further, Adams said the story has more nuances when Max Cady’s lawyer is a mother, with audiences “understanding the risk and the protective nature that she would have.”
“Women’s relationship with shame is also something that I was interested in exploring through this. And pressuring yourself and being unforgiving to yourself,” Adams said. “It gave me a lot to play with.”
