New Delhi, June 2 -- The legal battle between actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni hit center stage in a New York federal courtroom again Monday despite a recent deal to end Lively's claims that she suffered retaliation after making sexual harassment claims over the making of their 2024 film "It Ends With Us."

Attorney Ellyn Garofalo, representing Baldoni, told US District Judge Lewis J. Liman that Lively was trying through an application for attorney fees to do "an end run around the jury trial" that was voided when a deal was reached before a May trial was set to start.

At a hearing without the actors, Garofalo told Liman it was wrong for Lively to seek damages and attorneys fees after agreeing to a settlement in which she dismissed...