Justin Baldoni is suing The New York Times for $250 million over a bombshell article in which they alleged the actor and others orchestrated a smear campaign against his It Ends With Us co-star. Blake Lively.
Baldoni, who co-starred with Lively in the romantic drama, was accused by the actress of sexual harassment in a legal complaint and subsequent lawsuit that was heavily covered in The Times article.
However, according to DiversityBaldoni has now sued the paper for defamation, invasion of privacy, breach of fiduciary duty and alleged breach of contract over the article … claiming that the Times “cherished” details and changed key communications to “deliberately” mislead readers.
Baldoni is not alone in suing the Times, he is one of 10 plaintiffs, including publicists. Melissa Nathan and: Jennifer Abelwhich were mentioned at length in Lively’s complaint and in the newspaper story.
According to the report, Lively was portrayed as the victim in The Times’ retelling of the drama “It’s Over With Us,” which Baldoni and the other plaintiffs now claim was not an accurate portrayal of what happened.
They say Lively actually led the smear campaign … which they call “strategic and manipulative.”
Baldoni and the other plaintiffs allege that Lively used false sexual harassment allegations to control their film. The actor/director is also calling out Lively’s husband; Ryan Reynoldswho says that he made an aggressive remark to allegedly “fat-sham” B.L.
Baldoni claims Reynolds even pressured his agent to drop him at this summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine premiere … long before the drama made headlines, and he brought in a crisis PR team.
According to documents obtained by Variety, the Times “relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, taking it down almost verbatim while ignoring abundant evidence that contradicts her claims and exposes her true motives.”
The lawsuit also states that Lively’s PR rep brought up criticism of Baldoni … something the paper allegedly ignored.
Baldoni’s attorney in a statement to TMZ Brian Friedman “In this vicious smear campaign orchestrated entirely by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times pandered to the whims and whims of two powerful Hollywood ‘out-of-touch’ elites, disregarding the journalistic practices and ethics once befitting a reputable publication. Using polished and manipulative writing, and deliberate.” omitting texts that contradict themselves selected PR story Pre-determined the outcome of their story and supported their devastating PR smear campaign designed to revive Lively’s self-deprecating image and counter the organic basis of criticism among the online public as we all come together to take down the NY Times by not allowing them to cheat anymore public, we will continue this campaign. authenticity, also prosecuting those who abused their power to try to destroy my clients’ lives, while their side accepts the partial truth, we accept the whole truth and have all the communications for it started for the first time.”
In a statement to TMZ, a spokesperson for the New York Times said … “Our story It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails. the letters we quote at length in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, and their representatives have not pointed out any errors to them full statement in response to the claims in the article as well. We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
We’ve reached out to reps for Lively and Reynolds…no word back yet.
