Justin Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios to pay The New York Times $171,000 in damages

Justin Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios has been ordered to pay $171,000 (£128,000) in legal fees to The New York Times.

In December 2024, the actor-director filed a $250 million (£188 million) defamation lawsuit against editors at the newspaper regarding an exposé that detailed court documents and allegations made against him by his It Ends with Us co-star, Blake Lively.

But in June 2025, a judge dismissed the complaint, with a representative for the outlet calling the lawsuit "a meritless attempt to stifle honest reporting" at the time.

Later, executives at The New York Times filed a lawsuit against Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios in which they sought to recoup costs, and on Monday, the judge ruled in favour of the outlet on anti-SLAPP grounds, also known as strategic lawsuits against public participation.

Representatives for Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and The New York Times have not yet commented on the update.

In May, the 42-year-old and Lively announced that they had settled a lawsuit over allegations of smear campaigns and a hostile work environment on the set of the 2024 film. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

But negotiations over the case continue, and earlier this month, Baldoni asked a judge to deny Lively's request that he and Wayfarer pay more than $8 million (£6 million) toward her legal bills.

Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, filed a motion asking the judge to either reduce or deny the application.

In the original request, the A Simple Favor star's lawyers argued that the work involved in defending the lawsuit was "comprehensive and necessary to achieve the complete win that was secured", adding that the 38-year-old "has paid, and continues to pay" her legal bills.