Justin Baldoni sues New York Times over ‘defamatory’ story on Blake Lively’s allegations
In the latest twist in the “It Ends With Us” legal drama, director and actor Justin Baldoni has filed a lawsuit against the New York Times accusing the news outlet of publishing a “false and defamatory article” about his co-star Blake Lively’s allegations against him.
The complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that the New York Times relied on “Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative” and disregarded “an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims” in its Dec. 21 article on the lawsuit Lively filed.
“Given the breadth of the article and the coordinated drop, it is readily apparent that The Times had been quietly working in concert with Lively’s team for weeks or months,” the suit states.
Lively has accused Baldoni of engaging in sexual harassment on the set of the Sony Pictures movie and mounting a smear campaign against her in the media.
Baldoni’s lawsuit, first reported by Variety, was filed Tuesday against the New York Times for libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract.
There are nine other plaintiffs in the suit, including several of Baldoni’s publicists, “It Ends With Us” producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz and the production company behind the movie, Wayfarer Studios. They are seeking at least $250 million for damage caused to their reputation, work and well-being.
A spokesperson for the New York Times said in a statement shared with the L.A. Times that the company stands by its journalism and intends to vigorously defend against the lawsuit in court.
On Dec. 20, Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni accusing him, as well as a producer on the film, of inappropriate behavior including sexual remarks and physical touching without consent. Lively says she was pressured into performing more nudity than agreed upon. She also accused him of enlisting a crisis PR team to wage a retaliatory smear campaign against her.
Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of sexually harassing her and seeking to damage her reputation after she spoke out about a ‘hostile work environment’ that nearly derailed the film.
On Dec. 24, Baldoni’s former publicist Stephanie Jones filed a lawsuit of her own, accusing the actor’s crisis PR team of working to undermine her and deflect blame for a smear campaign against Lively.
The New York Times’ article, headlined “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” relied heavily on text messages between Baldoni and his PR team that were used as evidence in Lively’s complaint.
The new lawsuit filed by Baldoni accuses the New York Times of cherry-picking texts, stripping them of context and deliberately splicing them to mislead readers.
“If the Times truly reviewed the thousands of private communications it claimed to have obtained, its reporters would have seen incontrovertible evidence that it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign,” states Baldoni’s complaint.
A spokesperson for the New York Times shared a statement with the L.A. Times saying its story was “meticulously and responsibly reported.”
“It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article,” stated the spokesperson. “To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well.”
Baldoni’s lawsuit includes evidence presenting a counter-narrative to the portrayal of several of Lively’s accusations that were included in the New York Times article.
For example, the New York Times reported that Lively alleged Baldoni would enter her trailer on set without invitation while she was undressed or breastfeeding. Baldoni’s complaint, however, includes text messages it says are from Lively inviting him to practice lines in her trailer while she was pumping.
Baldoni also accuses the New York Times of failing to include key texts when discussing the smear campaign allegations.
The lawsuit highlights a section of the article where the New York Times describes an exchange about an unflattering story about Lively that appeared in the Daily Mail.
The Times included texts from publicists such as: “You really outdid yourself with this piece,” but the lawsuit says the publication failed to include texts that hinted at sarcasm, such as, “Damn. This is not fair because it’s also not me.”
