Ryan Reynolds blasts Justin Baldoni as a ‘predator’ as he files to dismiss ‘It Ends With Us’ director’s $400M defamation suit

nypost.com:

Justin Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit against him stemming from the “It Ends With Us” director’s feud with his wife, Blake Lively.Baldoni, 41, sued Reynolds, 48, and Lively, 37, in January following the actress’ own legal action against the “Jane the Virgin” alum, in which she accused him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a public smear campaign against her.In his defamation suit, Baldoni accused Reynolds of privately calling him a “sexual predator” and working to get his talent agency — WME — to drop him.However, Reynolds’ lawyers, Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, told The Post on Tuesday that the “Deadpool & Wolverine” star could not have defamed Baldoni because “Mr.

Reynolds genuinely believes Mr. Baldoni is a predator.”“The entirety of Mr. Baldoni’s case appears to be based on Mr. Reynolds allegedly privately calling Mr.

Baldoni a ‘predator,’ but here is the problem, that is not defamation unless they can show that Mr. Reynolds did not believe that statement to be true,” Gottlieb and Hudson said. “The complaint doesn’t allege that, and just the opposite, the allegations in the complaint suggest that Mr.

Reynolds genuinely believes Mr. Baldoni is a predator,” the lawyers continued. “Mr. Reynolds’ wife has accused Mr. Baldoni — privately and in multiple complaints — of sexual harassment and retaliation, and as pointed out by Mr.