Justin Baldoni sues New York Times for $250 million over Blake Lively story

Justin Baldoni is firing back after being accused of sexual harassment by his co-star Blake Lively, filing a libel suit against the New York Times on Tuesday, claiming that the newspaper published an article “rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions” that relied on Lively’s “self-serving narrative.”

Justin Baldoni is firing back after being accused of sexual harassment by his co-star Blake Lively, filing a libel suit against the New York Times on Tuesday, claiming that the newspaper published an article “rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions” that relied on Lively’s “self-serving narrative.” Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department in December, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation. In the bombshell complaint, Lively claimed that after she raised concerns of sexual harassment on the set of their film, “It Ends With Us,” Baldoni and his team retaliated against her, leaking unflattering press to try to ruin her professional reputation. Lively’s complaint was first reported in The New York Times, which published an article titled, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” on December 21. The 4,000-word article contained contents from the Civil Rights Department complaint, which typically remain confidential. In the wake of The New York Times article and Lively’s complaint against Baldoni, he was dropped by the talent agency, WME, which also represents Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. Lively received swift support across Hollywood SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, releasing a statement in support of her. Sony, the studio behind “It Ends With Us,” also released a statement standing by Lively. Now, Baldoni is alleging that Lively created false sexual harassment accusations so she could take control of the film, then set out on a campaign to “reshape her public persona” with “salacious, headline-grabbing allegations” in the New York Times at Baldoni’s expense. “Lively’s cynical abuse of sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production was both strategic and manipulative,” Baldoni’s lawsuit states. “Simultaneously, her public image suffered as a result of a series of high-profile blunders, which she tried to deflect by blaming Plaintiffs for the public’s prying interest into the foibles of an A-list celebrity. This is nothing but an excuse. Fame is a double-edged sword, but Lively’s tactics here are unconscionable.”