Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni lawyers spar over damages ahead of trial

Lawyers for actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni sparred in court on Tuesday over Lively's potential bid for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in an upcoming civil trial stemming from her allegations of sexual harassment during the filming of their 2024 romantic drama "It Ends With Us."



The highly anticipated civil trial set to begin in May will be limited to Lively's retaliation claims against Baldoni's production company after a judge threw out her sexual harassment claims. Both actors are expected to testify about Lively's claims after a steady drip of details emerged in more than a year of acrimonious and widely publicized litigation, though neither attended Tuesday's hearing.



Baldoni and his company Wayfarer Studios have strongly denied Lively's allegations, and Baldoni was dismissed as a defendant in U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman's April 2 ruling throwing out Lively's sexual harassment claims.



The case is proceeding to trial on Lively's claims that Wayfarer retaliated against her for complaining about misconduct and organized what she called a smear campaign aimed at destroying her reputation and career prospects through a flood of negative social media posts.