NEW YORK — Over a year after a federal New York judge tossed “It Ends with Us” director and star Justin Baldoni’s libel lawsuit against The New York Times, his studio has been ordered to pay over $171,000 to the paper.

The 42-year-old filmmaker, who also starred in the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s book of the same name, filed a $250 million suit against The Times in early 2025, alleging that its Dec. 2024 feature, which laid out co-star Blake Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign, was “rife with inaccuracies [and] misrepresentations.” Judge Lewis Liman dismissed the filing in June 2025.

Now, Wayfarer Studios must pay $171,616 to The Times, according to legal documents obtained Monday by TMZ, with an insider close to the company saying they “fully understood the enormous risks involved in taking on” the paper.

Ultimately though, Wayfarer felt the filing “a significant victory” as it “was lost on journalistic privilege, not on the facts.”

The Times’ piece, “‘We Can Bury Anyone:’ Inside a Hollywood Smear Campaign,” detailed Lively’s civil rights complaint against Baldoni, which she then followed up — also in Dec. 2024 — with a lawsuit against him.

Liman, in his decision, found The Times had “no obvious motive to favor Lively’s version of events,” merely the “available evidence” and her initial complaint.

In addition to suing The Times, Baldoni and co. filed a $400 million defamation suit against Lively and her camp, which was also tossed in June 2025. For that suit, Liman found the actress not liable as her allegations originated in a civil rights complaint.

Baldoni missed the deadline to appeal Liman’s tossing of either suit, as reported by TMZ in late October.

Lively’s suit was still set to go to trial this May when news broke that she and the Wayfarer parties had settled in early May, by which point Liman had also dismissed 10 of her 13 claims against Baldoni, including those pertaining to sexual harassment and defamation. No money was awarded in the settlement.

Roughly a month later, Liman ordered Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties to pay$8 million toward Lively’s legal fees but denied her bid for punitive or treble damages.

Earlier this month, the Wayfarer parties called on Liman to “significantly reduce” the legal fees owed to Lively, citing the $181,622.70 sought by The Times. A Lively source at the time told People that discovery in the Times case was a significantly shorter one.

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