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By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A judge on Tuesday signaled he may dismiss the New York Times as a defendant in a $400 million defamation lawsuit where the actor Justin Baldoni alleged the newspaper colluded with the actress Blake Lively to smear him after she accused him of sexual harassment.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan said the Times' February 28 motion to be excused from the case offered "substantial grounds for dismissal" and "a strong showing that its motion to dismiss is likely to succeed on the merits."
Baldoni has denied sexually harassing Lively or engaging in a smear campaign.
He and Lively have filed competing civil lawsuits stemming from Lively's claim that Baldoni sexually harassed her while filming the 2024 movie "It Ends With Us," which Baldoni also directed. Lively's husband Ryan Reynolds is also a defendant in Baldoni's lawsuit.
Lawyers for Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lively's and Reynolds' lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests.
Baldoni accused the Times of working behind the scenes with Lively on a false and malicious narrative and becoming a "conduit for her revenge," resulting in its December 21, 2024 article "'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine."
In its dismissal motion, the Times said it engaged merely in newsgathering and publishing the article, and that the plaintiffs did not show it acted with actual malice.
The newspaper also said the sole alleged defamatory statement in the article - that the plaintiffs orchestrated a "smear campaign" in retaliation for Lively complaining about sexual harassment - was protected opinion.
Liman also granted the Times' request to put discovery, or the gathering of evidence, on hold pending a decision on its motion to dismiss.
"We appreciate the court's decision today, which recognizes the important First Amendment values at stake," Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said in a statement. "The court has stopped Mr. Baldoni from burdening The Times with discovery requests in a case that should never have been brought."
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Sonali Paul)
