Justin Baldoni is suing The New York Times for $250 million over the publication's bombshell article that claimed the actor and others coordinated a smear campaign against his “It Ends with Us” co-star. Blake Lively.
Baldoni, who directed and starred in the romantic drama Starring Lively, was accused by the actress of sexual harassment in a legal complaint — and subsequent lawsuit — that featured heavily in the Times article.
However, according to diversityBaldoni has now accused the newspaper of defamation, invasion of privacy, promissory note fraud and breach of an implied contract over the article… claiming the Times “cherry-picked” details and changed key communications to “intentionally” mislead readers.
Baldoni isn't the only one suing the Times…he's one of 10 plaintiffs, including publicists Melissa Nathan And Jennifer Abelwhich were detailed in Lively's complaint and in the newspaper's article.
According to the outlet, Lively was portrayed as a victim in the Times' retelling of the drama “It Ends with Us” … which Baldoni and other plaintiffs now claim is not an accurate depiction of what happened.
They say Lively was actually the one who spearheaded a smear campaign … which they call “strategic and manipulative.”
Baldoni and the other plaintiffs claim that Lively used false allegations of sexual harassment to seize control of their film. The actor/director also calls out Lively's husband, Ryan Reynoldswho, as he says, aggressively reprimanded him for alleged “fat shaming” BL.
Baldoni claims Reynolds even pressured his agent to drop him from the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere this summer… long before the drama made headlines and he hired a crisis PR team.
According to documents obtained by Variety, the Times “relied almost exclusively on Lively's unverified and self-serving narrative, expounding it almost verbatim while ignoring a wealth of evidence that contradicted her claims and revealed her true motives.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Lively's public relations representative ran stories critical of Baldoni… which the newspaper allegedly missed.
In a statement to TMZ, Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman said… “In this vicious smear campaign, orchestrated entirely by Blake Lively and her team, The New York Times has bowed to the wishes and whims of two powerful 'untouchable' Hollywood elites, while disregarding journalistic practices and ethics that were once… the respected publication.” By using fake and manipulated texts and deliberately omitting texts that questioned their chosen PR narrative, they predetermined the outcome of their story and supported and favored their own A devastating PR smear campaign aimed at reviving Lively's self-inflicted, faltering public image and countering the organic groundswell of criticism in the online public. Make no mistake, however, because we are all uniting to bring down the NY Times by no longer allowing it to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also suing those individuals who are their Abused power to destroy my clients' lives. While their side advocates partial truths, we advocate the full truth. and have all the communications to support this. The public will decide for themselves, just as they did back then.”
In a statement to TMZ, a spokesperson told The New York Times… “Our Story was reported carefully and responsibly. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and extensively in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article, and their representatives have not identified a single error. We published them complete statement also in response to the allegations in the article. We plan to vigorously defend ourselves against the lawsuit.”
We've reached out to representatives for Lively and Reynolds…no response yet.