Justin Baldoni is suing the New York Times for $250 million over the publication’s blistering article, which they allege the actor and others coordinated a smear campaign against his “It Ends With Us” costar. Blake Lively.
Baldoni, who directed and starred in the romance drama with Lively, was accused of sexual harassment in a legal complaint — and subsequent lawsuit — by the actress that featured heavily in the Times piece. .
However, according to diversityBaldoni now accuses the paper of defamation, invasion of privacy, promissory estoppel and breach of contract in fact over the article… alleging “cherry-picked” details at the Times and “intentionally” misleading readers. Alleged to change the main communication for .
Baldoni isn’t alone in suing the Times … he’s one of 10 plaintiffs, including publicists Melissa Nathan And Jennifer Abelwhich were mentioned at length in Lively’s complaint and in the paper’s story.
According to the outlet, The Times’ “It Ends With Us” retelling of the drama painted Lively as the victim … which Baldoni and other plaintiffs now allege was not an accurate representation of what went down. .
They say Lively was actually leading a smear campaign … which they call “strategic and manipulative.”
Baldoni and other plaintiffs alleged that Lively used false sexual harassment allegations to control their film. The actor/director also calls Lively’s husband, Ryan ReynoldsWho he says aggressively scolded him for allegedly “fat shaming” BL.
Baldoni claims Reynolds even pressured his agent to drop out at the “Deadpool & Wolverine” premiere this summer … long before the drama hit the headlines and he recruited a crisis PR team.
According to documents obtained by Variety, the Times “relies almost entirely on Lively’s uncorroborated and self-serving narrative, taking it almost verbatim, while refuting her claims. and exposes his true motives.”
The lawsuit also says Lively’s PR rep planted stories critical of Baldoni … something the paper allegedly ignored.
In a statement to TMZ, Baldoni’s attorney Brian Friedman said … “In this smear campaign orchestrated entirely by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times bowed to the whims and fancies of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood oligarchs, with a disregard for journalistic practices and ethics.” was appropriate for the time-honored publication, using doctored and manipulative text and deliberately omitting text that disputed their chosen PR narrative. So, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided by their devastating PR smear campaign designed to revive Lively’s self-indulgent public image and combat the organic grounds of criticism among the online public. No mistake though, as we all unite to destroy The NY Times and not allow them to be deceived. Publicly, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by suing the individuals who my of customers have abused their power to try to ruin lives, while their side embraces the partial truth – and all we have is communication. The public will decide for themselves as they did when it first started.
In a statement to TMZ, a New York Times spokesperson said … “Our the story Reported carefully and responsibly. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails that we refer to accurately and at length 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 them full statement Also in response to the allegations in the article. We plan to vigorously defend the lawsuit. “
We’ve reached out to reps for Lively and Reynolds … so far, no word back.
