New York
Blake Lively accuses costar of abusing courts with countersuit
NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Blake Lively asked a judge on Thursday to dismiss a countersuit filed against her by her “It Ends With Us” costar Justin Baldoni, calling his claims “vengeful and rambling” after she sued for sexual harassment and retaliation.
Lively’s lawyers wrote in papers filed in Manhattan federal court that Baldoni and his production company’s claims that he and his companies were defamed were a “profound abuse of the legal process.”
“The law prohibits weaponizing defamation lawsuits, like this one, to retaliate against individuals who have filed legal claims or have publicly spoken out about sexual harassment and retaliation,” the lawyers said.
Lively sought unspecified damages when she sued Baldoni in late December for alleged sexual harassment and retaliation. He countersued for $400 million, accusing Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, of defamation and extortion.
On Wednesday, lawyers for Reynolds filed papers in the countersuit urging that he be dismissed as a defendant from the countersuit to Lively’s claims that Baldoni and related parties launched a social media campaign to “destroy” her after she privately called out alleged sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct against her and others on the movie set.
“So what does Ryan Reynolds have to do with that, legally speaking, other than being a supportive spouse who has witnessed firsthand the emotional, reputational and financial devastation Ms. Lively has suffered?” they wrote.
In recent court papers, Baldoni’s attorneys wrote that slanderous statements and actions by Lively and related parties had ruined their clients.
“Their reputations are destroyed, their businesses lie in tatters, and their own Film was taken from them,” they said in court papers.
Both sides have accused the other of trying to ruin them.
“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni.
Lively became widely known after she appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” She bolstered her stardom on the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”
Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book pushing back against traditional notions of masculinity.
Washington
White House rescinds EO targeting law firm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday rescinded an executive order targeting a prominent international law firm after it pledged to review its hiring practices and to provide tens of millions of dollars in free legal services to support certain White House initiatives.
The move follows a meeting between Trump and Brad Karp, the chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton, over the White House order issued last week.
The order, the latest in a series of similar actions targeting law firms whose lawyers have provided legal work that Trump disagrees with, threatened to suspend active security clearances of attorneys at Paul, Weiss and to terminate any federal contracts the firm has. It singled out the work of Mark Pomerantz, who previously worked at the firm and who oversaw an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office into Trump’s finances before Trump became president.
To avoid those consequences, the White House said Paul, Weiss had agreed to “take on a wide range of pro bono matters that represent the full spectrum of political viewpoints of our society,” to disavow the use of diversity, equity and inclusion considerations in its hiring and promotion decisions and to dedicate the equivalent of $40 million in free legal services to support Trump administration policies on issues including assistance for veterans and countering anti-Semitism.
In a statement issued by the White House, Karp said: “We are gratified that the President has agreed to withdraw the Executive Order concerning Paul, Weiss. We look forward to an engaged and constructive relationship with the President and his Administration.”
The firm becomes the latest corporate target to make concessions to the president to avoid his ire.
Meta and ABC made settlement payments to Trump’s future presidential library to end lawsuits filed by Trump. Other tech and financial firms have publicly rolled back DEI programs in line with Trump’s policy interests.
Earlier executive orders have targeted the law firms of Perkins Coie, which last week sued in federal court in Washington, and Covington & Burling.
California
Judge: Mariah Carey didn’t steal ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ from other writers
A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that Mariah Carey did not steal her perennial megahit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” from other songwriters.
Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani granted Carey’s request for summary judgment on Wednesday, giving her and co-writer and co-defendant Walter Afanasieff a victory without going to trial.
In 2023, songwriters Andy Stone of Louisiana — who goes by the stage name Vince Vance — and Troy Powers of Tennessee filed the $20 million lawsuit alleging that Carey’s 1994 song, which has since become a holiday standard and annual streaming sensation, infringed the copyright of their country 1989 song with the same title.
Their lawyer Gerard P. Fox said he’s “disappointed” in an email to The Associated Press.
Fox said it is his experience that judges at this level “nearly always now dismiss a music copyright case and that one must appeal to reverse and get the case to the jury. My client will make a decision shortly on whether to appeal. We filed based on the opinions of two esteemed musicologists who teach at great colleges.”
Stone and Powers’ suit said their “‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ contains a unique linguistic structure where a person, disillusioned with expensive gifts and seasonal comforts, wants to be with their loved one, and accordingly writes a letter to Santa Claus.”
They said there was an “overwhelming likelihood” Carey and Afanasieff had heard their song — which at one point reached No. 31 on Billboard’s Hot Country chart — and infringed their copyright by taking significant elements from it.
After hearing from two experts for each side, Ramírez Almadani agreed with those from the defense, who said the writers employed common Christmas cliches that existed prior to both songs, and that Carey’s song used them differently. She said the plaintiffs had not met the burden of showing that the songs are substantially similar.
Ramírez Almadani also ordered sanctions against the plaintiffs and their lawyers, saying their suit and subsequent filings were frivolous and that the plaintiffs’ attorneys “made no reasonable effort to ensure that the factual contentions asserted have evidentiary support.”
She said they must pay at least part of the defendants’ attorney fees.
Defense attorneys and publicists for Carey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carey’s Christmas colossus has become an even bigger hit in recent years than it was in the 1990s. It has reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart the past six years in a row — measuring the most popular songs each week — not just the holiday-themed — by airplay, sales and streaming.
Carey and Afanasieff have had their own public disagreement — though not one that’s gone to court — over who wrote how much of the song. But the case made them at least temporary allies.
South Carolina
Family of an airplane safety whistleblower is suing Boeing over his death
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The family of a former Boeing quality control manager who police say killed himself after lawyers questioned him for days about his whistleblowing on alleged jumbo jet defects sued the airplane maker Thursday.
Boeing subjected John Barnett to a “campaign of harassment, abuse and intimidation intended to discourage, discredit and humiliate him until he would either give up or be discredited,” lawyers for the family wrote in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in federal court in South Carolina.
Barnett, 62, shot himself March 9, 2024, in Charleston after answering questions from attorneys for several days. He lived in Louisiana.
“Boeing had threatened to break John, and break him it did,” the attorneys wrote in court papers.
Boeing has not yet responded in court filings.
“We are saddened by John Barnett’s death and extend our condolences to his family,” the company said in a statement this week.
Barnett was a longtime Boeing employee and worked as a quality-control manager before he retired in 2017. In the years after that, he shared his concerns with journalists and became a whistleblower.
Barnett said he once saw discarded metal shavings near wiring for the flight controls that could have cut wiring and caused a catastrophe. He also noted problems with up to a quarter of the oxygen systems on Boeing’s 787 planes.
Barnett shared his concerns with his supervisors and others before leaving Boeing, but according to the lawsuit they responded by ignoring him and then harassing him.
Boeing intentionally gave Barnett inaccurate, poor job reviews and less desirable shifts, according to the lawsuit. Barnett’s family argues the company publicly blamed him for delays that angered his co-workers and prevented him from transferring to another plant.
Barnett eventually was diagnosed with PTSD and his mental condition deteriorated, his family said.
“Whether or not Boeing intended to drive John to his death or merely destroy his ability to function, it was absolutely foreseeable that PTSD and John’s unbearable depression, panic attacks, and anxiety, which would in turn lead to an elevated risk of suicide,” the lawsuit said. “Boeing may not have pulled the trigger, but Boeing’s conduct was the clear cause, and the clear foreseeable cause, of John’s death.”
The lawsuit doesn’t specify the amount of damages sought by Barnett’s family but asks for compensation for emotional distress and mental anguish, back pay, 10 years of lost future earnings as well as bonuses, health expenses and his lost life insurance benefits.
Blake Lively accuses costar of abusing courts with countersuit
NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Blake Lively asked a judge on Thursday to dismiss a countersuit filed against her by her “It Ends With Us” costar Justin Baldoni, calling his claims “vengeful and rambling” after she sued for sexual harassment and retaliation.
Lively’s lawyers wrote in papers filed in Manhattan federal court that Baldoni and his production company’s claims that he and his companies were defamed were a “profound abuse of the legal process.”
“The law prohibits weaponizing defamation lawsuits, like this one, to retaliate against individuals who have filed legal claims or have publicly spoken out about sexual harassment and retaliation,” the lawyers said.
Lively sought unspecified damages when she sued Baldoni in late December for alleged sexual harassment and retaliation. He countersued for $400 million, accusing Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, of defamation and extortion.
On Wednesday, lawyers for Reynolds filed papers in the countersuit urging that he be dismissed as a defendant from the countersuit to Lively’s claims that Baldoni and related parties launched a social media campaign to “destroy” her after she privately called out alleged sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct against her and others on the movie set.
“So what does Ryan Reynolds have to do with that, legally speaking, other than being a supportive spouse who has witnessed firsthand the emotional, reputational and financial devastation Ms. Lively has suffered?” they wrote.
In recent court papers, Baldoni’s attorneys wrote that slanderous statements and actions by Lively and related parties had ruined their clients.
“Their reputations are destroyed, their businesses lie in tatters, and their own Film was taken from them,” they said in court papers.
Both sides have accused the other of trying to ruin them.
“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni.
Lively became widely known after she appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” She bolstered her stardom on the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”
Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book pushing back against traditional notions of masculinity.
Washington
White House rescinds EO targeting law firm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday rescinded an executive order targeting a prominent international law firm after it pledged to review its hiring practices and to provide tens of millions of dollars in free legal services to support certain White House initiatives.
The move follows a meeting between Trump and Brad Karp, the chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton, over the White House order issued last week.
The order, the latest in a series of similar actions targeting law firms whose lawyers have provided legal work that Trump disagrees with, threatened to suspend active security clearances of attorneys at Paul, Weiss and to terminate any federal contracts the firm has. It singled out the work of Mark Pomerantz, who previously worked at the firm and who oversaw an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office into Trump’s finances before Trump became president.
To avoid those consequences, the White House said Paul, Weiss had agreed to “take on a wide range of pro bono matters that represent the full spectrum of political viewpoints of our society,” to disavow the use of diversity, equity and inclusion considerations in its hiring and promotion decisions and to dedicate the equivalent of $40 million in free legal services to support Trump administration policies on issues including assistance for veterans and countering anti-Semitism.
In a statement issued by the White House, Karp said: “We are gratified that the President has agreed to withdraw the Executive Order concerning Paul, Weiss. We look forward to an engaged and constructive relationship with the President and his Administration.”
The firm becomes the latest corporate target to make concessions to the president to avoid his ire.
Meta and ABC made settlement payments to Trump’s future presidential library to end lawsuits filed by Trump. Other tech and financial firms have publicly rolled back DEI programs in line with Trump’s policy interests.
Earlier executive orders have targeted the law firms of Perkins Coie, which last week sued in federal court in Washington, and Covington & Burling.
California
Judge: Mariah Carey didn’t steal ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ from other writers
A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that Mariah Carey did not steal her perennial megahit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” from other songwriters.
Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani granted Carey’s request for summary judgment on Wednesday, giving her and co-writer and co-defendant Walter Afanasieff a victory without going to trial.
In 2023, songwriters Andy Stone of Louisiana — who goes by the stage name Vince Vance — and Troy Powers of Tennessee filed the $20 million lawsuit alleging that Carey’s 1994 song, which has since become a holiday standard and annual streaming sensation, infringed the copyright of their country 1989 song with the same title.
Their lawyer Gerard P. Fox said he’s “disappointed” in an email to The Associated Press.
Fox said it is his experience that judges at this level “nearly always now dismiss a music copyright case and that one must appeal to reverse and get the case to the jury. My client will make a decision shortly on whether to appeal. We filed based on the opinions of two esteemed musicologists who teach at great colleges.”
Stone and Powers’ suit said their “‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ contains a unique linguistic structure where a person, disillusioned with expensive gifts and seasonal comforts, wants to be with their loved one, and accordingly writes a letter to Santa Claus.”
They said there was an “overwhelming likelihood” Carey and Afanasieff had heard their song — which at one point reached No. 31 on Billboard’s Hot Country chart — and infringed their copyright by taking significant elements from it.
After hearing from two experts for each side, Ramírez Almadani agreed with those from the defense, who said the writers employed common Christmas cliches that existed prior to both songs, and that Carey’s song used them differently. She said the plaintiffs had not met the burden of showing that the songs are substantially similar.
Ramírez Almadani also ordered sanctions against the plaintiffs and their lawyers, saying their suit and subsequent filings were frivolous and that the plaintiffs’ attorneys “made no reasonable effort to ensure that the factual contentions asserted have evidentiary support.”
She said they must pay at least part of the defendants’ attorney fees.
Defense attorneys and publicists for Carey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carey’s Christmas colossus has become an even bigger hit in recent years than it was in the 1990s. It has reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart the past six years in a row — measuring the most popular songs each week — not just the holiday-themed — by airplay, sales and streaming.
Carey and Afanasieff have had their own public disagreement — though not one that’s gone to court — over who wrote how much of the song. But the case made them at least temporary allies.
South Carolina
Family of an airplane safety whistleblower is suing Boeing over his death
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The family of a former Boeing quality control manager who police say killed himself after lawyers questioned him for days about his whistleblowing on alleged jumbo jet defects sued the airplane maker Thursday.
Boeing subjected John Barnett to a “campaign of harassment, abuse and intimidation intended to discourage, discredit and humiliate him until he would either give up or be discredited,” lawyers for the family wrote in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in federal court in South Carolina.
Barnett, 62, shot himself March 9, 2024, in Charleston after answering questions from attorneys for several days. He lived in Louisiana.
“Boeing had threatened to break John, and break him it did,” the attorneys wrote in court papers.
Boeing has not yet responded in court filings.
“We are saddened by John Barnett’s death and extend our condolences to his family,” the company said in a statement this week.
Barnett was a longtime Boeing employee and worked as a quality-control manager before he retired in 2017. In the years after that, he shared his concerns with journalists and became a whistleblower.
Barnett said he once saw discarded metal shavings near wiring for the flight controls that could have cut wiring and caused a catastrophe. He also noted problems with up to a quarter of the oxygen systems on Boeing’s 787 planes.
Barnett shared his concerns with his supervisors and others before leaving Boeing, but according to the lawsuit they responded by ignoring him and then harassing him.
Boeing intentionally gave Barnett inaccurate, poor job reviews and less desirable shifts, according to the lawsuit. Barnett’s family argues the company publicly blamed him for delays that angered his co-workers and prevented him from transferring to another plant.
Barnett eventually was diagnosed with PTSD and his mental condition deteriorated, his family said.
“Whether or not Boeing intended to drive John to his death or merely destroy his ability to function, it was absolutely foreseeable that PTSD and John’s unbearable depression, panic attacks, and anxiety, which would in turn lead to an elevated risk of suicide,” the lawsuit said. “Boeing may not have pulled the trigger, but Boeing’s conduct was the clear cause, and the clear foreseeable cause, of John’s death.”
The lawsuit doesn’t specify the amount of damages sought by Barnett’s family but asks for compensation for emotional distress and mental anguish, back pay, 10 years of lost future earnings as well as bonuses, health expenses and his lost life insurance benefits.
