He asked for 8 million and got 400,000 dollars!

Hollywood's most talked about incident Actress Blake Lively claimed about $8 million in legal costs against her former co-star and director of the movie 'It Ends With Us' Justin Baldoni. However, the court ordered her to pay only $47,451. The dispute that began around the shooting of the 2024 movie 'It Ends With Us' later ended up in court. Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment and retaliatory behavior. Baldoni in turn sued her for defamation. However, in 2025, a judge dismissed Baldoni's defamation claim. Lively then approached the court to recover her legal costs. She claimed $7.5 million in lawyers' fees and another $540,000 in other expenses. In total, about $8 million.

But the judge said the claim was excessive. Lively had claimed more time and manpower than was necessary to defend the defamation case. The judge also said that some "interrelated" costs related to the larger legal battle should not have been included in the claim. The court also found that Lively's side had followed an "overly broad" approach to calculating lawyers' time. In the end, the $8 million claim was awarded, but only $47,000.

Meanwhile, Baldoni has denied any harassment or malicious defamation of Lively since the beginning. Earlier this year, a judge dismissed some of Lively's lawsuit, including the sexual harassment claim. The two sides later reached a settlement and decided to end the legal battle. In that case, Lively was given the opportunity to recover some of her legal costs under a 2023 California law that aims to protect those accused of sexual harassment from retaliatory defamation lawsuits.

Both sides are seeing the court's latest decision as a victory. Lively's lawyers say it's "historic" to allow legal fees and expenses under the law for the first time. Baldoni's lawyer, Brian Friedman, says the ruling is a "significant victory" for his clients, arguing that no one, no matter how powerful, can use the courts and the law for personal gain.