Justin Baldoni sues New York Times after Blake Lively lawsuit
The director accuses the newspaper of omitting information from its reporting of Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment on set of the film It Ends with Us.
The film stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have launched competing multimillion-dollar lawsuits over allegations of sexual harassment during the shooting of It Ends With Us.
Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit in New York on Tuesday in which she accused Baldoni, 40, of sexual harassment and initiating a scheme to “destroy” her reputation. Meanwhile Baldoni has filed a lawsuit against The New York Times, which first reported Lively’s claims.
Baldoni has accused the newspaper of working with the actress to damage his reputation by omitting information to support Lively’s version of events.
The newspaper denied the claims and insisted that the article was “meticulously and responsibly reported”.
Lively and Baldoni both starred in It Ends With Us, an adaptation of a novel by Colleen Hoover that includes themes of domestic violence and emotional abuse. Baldoni also directed the film.
The subsequent court cases centre on Lively and Baldoni’s time together on set, allegations of sexual harassment and how different PR factions were battling to promote the stars.
The actress is seeking unspecified damages for “lost wages” over “mental anguish and pain”.
Her lawsuit alleges that Baldoni, the production company Wayfarer Studios and others engaged in a “carefully crafted, co-ordinated and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out”.
It claims that there was a “multi-tiered plan” by Baldoni and the studio to damage her reputation after she and her husband, the actor Ryan Reynolds, addressed allegations of “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behaviour” by Baldoni and Jamey Heath, a producer, in a private meeting.
Lively has accused Baldoni of entering her trailer unannounced while she was breastfeeding. He denies the claims and says he has a message from the actress inviting him to her trailer.
After the claims emerged in The New York Times, Baldoni sued the newspaper in a dollars 250 million (pounds 200 million) lawsuit. Accusing it of libel and fraud, his legal claim says that “Blake Lively and her team” orchestrated a “vicious smear campaign”.
Bryan Freedman, representing Baldoni, said that the newspaper “cherry-picked” texts to support Lively’s case, which “pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign.”
The New York Times said in a statement that Baldoni’s team had “not pointed to a single error” in the article.
In a statement last month, Lively said: “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct.”
Baldoni has been approached for comment.
The Times
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