\n<\/p>\n
\n\tEarlier this month, Justin Baldoni\u2018s $400 million defamation lawsuit against Blake Lively was dismissed after the actor allowed the deadline to file an amended complaint lapse. At the time, legal representatives for Baldoni stated that they would instead be focusing on tackling Lively\u2019s complaints. In alignment with this, Baldoni has filed a motion to dismiss the suit filed by Lively that claims $161 million in damages and lost wage, as well as sexual harassment and retaliation. <\/p>\n
\n\tIn court documents reviewed by Rolling Stone<\/em>, representatives for Baldoni argue that Lively \u201ccannot prove any actionable sexual harassment\u201d experienced during the filming of It Ends With Us<\/em>. \u201cLively knowingly took on a lead role in a provocative, sexually charged film, based on a book famous for its \n\tDespite this comparison being made to establish a distinction between a film set and an office setting, it is also argued that Lively was working as an independent contractor, rather than an employee. This would then mean that she would not be protected under Title VII, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin and extends to sexual harassment. Furthermore, the motion states that Lively\u2019s request damages from lost profits that extend to her business ventures \u2014 including Betty Buzz, Betty Booze, and Blake Brown Beauty \u2014 \u201cdemonstrates that she was in business for herself.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tThe 73-page document denies Lively\u2019s claims against Baldoni and urges the that the case not be escalated to the court. \u201cThat Lively\u2019s reputation may have suffered is a result of her own ill-advised public statements and actions,\u201d it reads. \u201cThis is a dispute about Hollywood reputations, not genuine legal wrongs. It does not belong in court.\u201d <\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tLively\u2019s lawsuit is expected to go to trial next March with Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath, studio head Steve Sarowitz, and their publicists named as defendants. <\/p>\n \n\tLegal representatives for Lively and Baldoni did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2018s request for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Earlier this month, Justin Baldoni\u2018s $400 million defamation lawsuit against Blake Lively was dismissed after the actor allowed the deadline to file an amended complaint lapse. At the time, legal representatives for Baldoni stated that they would instead be focusing on tackling Lively\u2019s complaints. In alignment with this, Baldoni has filed a motion to dismiss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[4092,9872,11169,160,14258,3442,3289,19101,1305],"class_list":{"0":"post-33317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-asks","9":"tag-baldoni","10":"tag-blake","11":"tag-court","12":"tag-dismiss","13":"tag-justin","14":"tag-lawsuit","15":"tag-lively","16":"tag-million"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
intense intimate scenes,\u201d the document reads. \u201cWhen viewed in context, no reasonable juror could find that the handful of comments and miscommunications Lively has mustered amounts to sexual harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n