Welp, Justin Baldoni has now filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times following their report about Blake Lively’s allegations against him. In her 80-page legal complaint, the actress accused her It Ends With Us costar and director of sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment, and retaliation. Per his suit, Justin is accusing The Times of publishing an article “rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions” and supporting Blake’s “self-serving narrative.” He filed the lawsuit on December 31 in Los Angeles Superior Court.
In a response statement, Blake’s attorneys told Deadline: “Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint.”
Following The New York Times article about Blake’s allegations, Justin was dropped by prominent talent agency WME, his women’s solidarity award was rescinded (why is that even a thing?), his Man Enough podcast host, Liz Plank, announced she’s quitting the show, and his former publicist is suing him. Not to mention, several It Ends With Us cast members and other celebrities have made it clear that they’re on Blake’s side. So, it’s unsurprising that he’s fighting back.
Here’s a breakdown of Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit against The New York Times.
Justin Baldoni’s Lawsuit Against The New York Times, Explained
Justin Baldoni’s Claims About Blake Lively And The New York Times In His Lawsuit
Justin is among 10 plaintiffs (including his publicists, Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan) suing The New York Times for libel and false light invasion of privacy over the article, “We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” According to the suit, the newspaper “relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives.” The plaintiffs are claiming that The Times “cherry-picked” text and email exchanges “stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.”
The actor and podcast host also alleges in the complaint that it was Blake who engaged in a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign against him — not the other way around. He accuses the actress of creating “sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production.” (Over the summer, there were reports about an alleged creative control battle between Justin and Blake.)
The suit highlights several allegedly “misleading” points in The New York Times report. For example, that report claimed that Justin “repeatedly” entered Blake’s trailer “uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.” Justin’s suit includes a text exchange between him and Blake in which she seemingly gives him permission to enter her trailer while she’s breastfeeding. “I’m just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work out our lines,” Blake texted Justin during filming. He responded, “Copy. Eating with crew and will head that way.”
In addition, Justin claims that Blake’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, aggressively accused him of “fat shaming” Blake and also pressured WME to drop him. A WME rep has since denied the latter claim.
The New York Times‘ Response To Justin Baldoni’s Lawsuit
The Variety report about Justin’s lawsuit notably includes a response statement from a New York Times spokesperson. “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the representative told the outlet. “Our 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.”
The statement continues, “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. We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
