Los Angeles, March 19 (IANS) The legal fight between Hollywood actress Blake Lively and actor-director Justin Baldoni is taking new turns as the time progresses.
Now, Blake’s husband, Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds has asked a court to dismiss Justin Baldoni‘s legal claims against him, saying the actor cannot sue him over “hurt feelings”, reports ‘Variety’.
Ryan was accused in the lawsuit of mocking and bullying Baldoni by using the character of ‘Nicepool’ in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ to satirize Baldoni’s “woke feminist” image.
As per ‘Variety’, in a motion to dismiss on Tuesday, Reynolds’ lawyers did not dispute that Nicepool is based on Baldoni, but said that Baldoni had shown “thin-skinned outrage” by complaining about it.
Baldoni directed ‘It Ends With Us’, in which he and Blake Lively co-star. After the film’s successful release last summer, Lively accused Baldoni of sexually harassing her on set, and of using his publicists to try to spread negative stories about her.
Baldoni countersued her and Reynolds, alleging that they were trying to destroy his career with false allegations. In the lawsuit, Baldoni alleged that Reynolds had berated him for allegedly “fat shaming” Blake Lively.
He also accused Reynolds of calling him a “sexual predator” and of pressuring his agency, WME, to drop him as a client.
In the motion to dismiss, Ryan Reynolds’ lawyers argue that that is not defamation if Ryan Reynolds genuinely believes it.
The “allegations suggest that Mr. Reynolds genuinely, perhaps passionately, believes that Mr. Baldoni’s behavior is reflective of a ‘predator’”, the motion states. “The law establishes that calling someone a ‘predator’ amounts to constitutionally protected opinion… While Mr. Baldoni ‘may not appreciate being called’ a predator, those hurt feelings do not give rise to legal claims”.
The motion argues that Reynolds was not making a provably false statement of fact, but was merely offering his “unabashed negative opinion of Mr. Baldoni’s character”.
“Mr. Reynolds has a First Amendment right to hold Mr. Baldoni, or any man who Mr. Reynolds believes sexually harassed his wife, in ‘deep disdain’”, the motion states.
The motion alleges that the lawsuit is deficient in many other ways.
“It is, in essence, a burn book filled with grievances attempting to shame Mr. Reynolds for being the kind of man who is ‘confident enough to listen’ to the woman in his life and to hold her ‘anguish and actually’ stand with her”, the complaint states.
–IANS
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