Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively Cover images (2)
It ends with Us director and star Justin Baldoni filed a lawsuit against New York Times after his reporting for costar Blake Lively after she sued him for sexual harassment.
Baldoni, 40, filed a $250 million lawsuit against Lively, 37, on Tuesday, Dec. 31 in Los Angeles Superior Court. Us Weekly can confirm.
The actor is among a group of 10 plaintiffs, including publicists Melissa Nathan AND Jennifer Abel as well as It ends with Us Manufacturer James Heath AND Steve Saraowitzwho started legal proceedings.
Plaintiffs are sued for defamation and false slight invasion of privacy and allege that New York Times “Cherry-picked” communications and omitted context to mislead readers in his article We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Tarnish Machine.
Part written by Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire AND Julie Tate Alleged Lively faced months of sexual harassment from Baldoni and it went public on Saturday, December 21.
The lawsuit alleges that Lively pursued a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign against Baldoni (rather than the other way around), using “false allegations of sexual harassment to claim unilateral control over every aspect of the production.”
“The Times story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, ripping her off almost verbatim, ignoring an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit details the alleged discrepancies and provides a rebuttal to the claims made in the article. Among them are texts between publicists Nathan and Abel that celebrated negative press against Lively, which the lawsuit claims took out key context, such as a text from Nathan that said, “Damn that’s unfair because it’s not me too.”
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Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in “It Ends with Us” Sony Pictures
The lawsuit also offers rebuttals to many other claims in the lawsuit New York Times article, including the suggestion that Baldoni would repeatedly enter Lively’s trailer while she was breastfeeding (the lawsuit sent a text from Lively to Baldoni that read “I’m just entering my trailer if you want to pick the lines ours.”)
of Times The article also accused Baldoni of showing Lively a “pornographic video” involving his wife, which the lawsuit claims was “non-pornographic.”
“This claim is without a doubt absurd,” the lawsuit states. “The video in question was a (non-pornographic) recording of Heath’s wife giving birth at home – a deeply personal recording with no sexual overtones. To twist this benign event into an act of sexual misconduct is outrageous and emblematic of the lengths to which Lively and her associates are willing to go to defame plaintiffs.”
Additionally, the lawsuit also alleges that claims that Baldoni sexualized Lively during references to her character’s costumes were “exaggerated and misleading.”
The lawsuit alleges Lively herself used similar terminology as she advocated making her character’s outfit “sexier” and claimed Baldoni was following the tone. One text read: “I’ll show you both ways, but the beanie is way sexier.”
of Times The article also reported that Lively had filed a complaint with HR during filming, with 30 items determined and agreed upon before she returned to set. Among them were that an intimacy coordinator must be present, “no more showing Blake nude videos or images of women” and “no further mention of the cast and crew’s genitalia”.
The plaintiffs’ lawsuit alleges that no complaint was ever formally filed by Lively.
“No such document was ever presented to Baldoni, the Wayfarer team, or, to their knowledge, anyone else – either during that meeting or at any other time – and therefore, could not have been agreed to,” the statement said. lawsuit
or New York Times The spokesperson stood by his story in a statement to Us Weekly on Tuesday, December 31.
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the statement said. “Our story was reported accurately and responsibly. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including 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 pointed out a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article.”
The spokesperson added, “We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
In response to the filing, Lively’s attorney said us on Tuesday, Dec. 31, that the lawsuit was based on a “manifestly false premise.”
“Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the allegations made in Ms. Lively’s California Department of Civil Rights Complaint, nor her federal complaint filed earlier today,” the statement said. “This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that the administrative complaint of Mrs. Lively v. Wayfarer et al was a ruse based on a choice “not to file a lawsuit against Baldon, Wayfarer” and that “litigation was never her ultimate goal.” As shown by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is bogus. While we will not discuss this matter in print, we encourage people to read Ms. Lively as a whole. We look forward to addressing each of Wayfarer’s claims in court.”
Meanwhile, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman vowed to “remove” New York Times for her “vicious smear campaign,” he says Us Weekly.
“In this vicious smear campaign completely orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, New York Times bowing to the whims and whims of Hollywood’s two powerful “untouchable” elites, flouting the journalistic practices and ethics that once graced the venerable publication, using elaborate and manipulated texts and deliberately omitting texts that contradict the narrative of their chosen PR,” he said in a statement to Us. “In doing so, they predetermined the outcome of their story and aided and abetted their devastating PR smear campaign designed to revive Lively’s self-induced battered public image and counter the organic base of criticism in the online public. The irony is rich.”
He continued: “Make no mistake though, as we all come together to bring down NY Times By not allowing them to deceive the public any longer, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also prosecuting those individuals who have abused their power to attempt to destroy the lives of my clients. While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the whole truth – and have all the communications to back it up. The public will make up their own minds as they did when it first started.”
Lively made headlines when she sued Baldoni for sexual harassment in December 2024. In court documents obtained by Us Weekly after reporting from TMZ AND New York TimesLively also accused Baldoni of launching a “social manipulation” campaign against her to “destroy” her reputation. The documents also claim Lively wasn’t the only cast member to complain about Baldoni.
Baldoni denied the allegations through his lawyer, Bryan Freedmanwho called the allegations “completely false, outrageous and deliberately shameful” in a statement to us. The statement also claimed that Lively filed the lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation” and “retell a narrative” about the film’s production.
In a statement to New York Times on Saturday, Dec. 21 regarding her lawsuit, Lively said, “I hope my legal action will help pull back the curtain on these evil vindictive tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and help protect her others who may be targeted”.
Before Baldon’s appearance, Daily Mail reported that the actor was planning to file a countersuit and suggested that Lively’s publicist tried to tarnish his image by leaking stories to the press.
“I was contacted on 8/11 by Sarah Nathan (Melissa Nathan‘s sister) passing on an anonymous tip that Page six received, regarding claims for HR complaints in group e It ends with Us,” Lively’s rep, Leslie Sloansaid us in a statement. “After that, I was contacted by various media outlets asking about the claims of HR complaints. When contacted, I responded to press inquiries by referring them to Wayfarer or Sony for information regarding HR complaints.”
Sloane added, “It is clear that Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates are suggesting that I made up press stories about HR complaints in the square, which is false. Please read the complaint of Ms. Lively and the complaint filed by Jonesworks LLC and Stephanie Jones, which details the campaign against my client.”
In response to Daily Mail article, Freedman said Deadline: “I won’t say when or how many lawsuits we will file, but when we file our first lawsuit, it will shock everyone who has been manipulated into believing a false narrative. It will be backed by real evidence and tell the real story. In over 30 years of practice, I have never seen this level of unethical behavior deliberately encouraged through media manipulation.”