Justin Baldoni sues U.S. newspaper over Blake Lively allegations

Actor-filmmaker Justin Baldoni has sued a major U.S. newspaper, for publishing the story, backing the sexual harassment allegations, by ‘It Ends With Us’ actor Blake Lively, against him.

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As reported by foreign media, Justin Baldoni filed a $250 million libel lawsuit against the New York Times, for publishing an article ‘rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions’ that relied on a ‘self-serving narrative’ of Blake Lively.

For the unversed, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Commission, accusing him of sexual harassment and a smear campaign, and NYT was the first to report the development last week. She alleged that ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star attempted to tarnish her image after he called up a meeting in which she brought along her actor husband, Ryan Reynolds, to address ‘repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behaviour’ by the director and a producer on the set of the Box Office hit.

In response now, Baldoni, among the group of 10 plaintiffs including publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, as well as ‘It Ends With Us’ producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz, are now suing the publication for libel and invasion of privacy.

“Lively’s cynical abuse of sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production was both strategic and manipulative,” states the lawsuit. “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.”

In response to the lawsuit, an NYT spokesperson said, “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead.”

“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,” they defended. “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,” the person confirmed.

Blake Lively lawsuit

Notably, in her lawsuit earlier, the ‘Gossip Girl’ alum shared the alleged chats of Baldoni with his publicists Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, planning a smear campaign against Lively, with a reference to the one against Hailey Bieber.

However, Baldoni’s legal team had previously denied the allegations, terming them ‘categorically false’. The team claimed they hired a crisis manager because Lively had threatened to derail the film unless her demands were met.

In her second lawsuit with the New York federal court, Lively levelled allegations of ‘severe emotional distress and pain, humiliation, embarrassment, belittlement, frustration, and mental anguish’ against Baldoni.

Also Read: Justin Baldoni faces another lawsuit after Blake Lively’s allegations