Ryan Reynolds asked a court on Tuesday to dismiss Justin Baldoni‘s legal claims against him, saying the actor cannot sue him over “hurt feelings.”
Reynolds, who is married to Blake Lively, 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.
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 Lively co-star. After the film’s successful release last fall, 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” Lively.
He also accused Reynolds of calling him a “sexual predator” and of pressuring his agency, WME, to drop Baldoni as a client.
In the motion to dismiss, Reynolds’ lawyers argue that that is not defamation if 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. “(T)he law establishes that calling someone a ‘predator’ amounts to constitutionally protected opinion.”
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.
From Variety US