Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively
Cover images (2)It ends with us director and star Justin Baldoni has filed suit against New York Times after reporting for costar Blake Lively after she sued him for sexual harassment.
Baldoni, 40, filed a $250 million lawsuit against Lively, 37, on Tuesday, Dec. 31 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Us Weekly can confirm.
The actor is among a group of 10 plaintiffs, which also includes publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel as well as It ends with us manufacturers James Heath and Steve Saraowitzwhich initiates legal proceedings.
The plaintiffs are suing for defamation and false light, invasion of privacy and claim that New York Times “chosen” communications and omitted context to mislead readers of the article We Can Bury Anyone: Inside the Hollywood Grease Machine.
Months after a reported rift between It Ends With Us co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, she sued him for sexual harassment. In the lawsuit, which was filed on Friday, December 20, and obtained by Us Weekly after being reported by TMZ and The New York Times, Lively accused Baldoni of starting (…)
The piece written by Megan Toohey, Mike McIntyre and Julie Tate claims that Lively faced months of sexual harassment from Baldoni and was published on Saturday, December 21.
The lawsuit alleges that Lively ran a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign against Baldoni (not the other way around) using false “allegations of sexual harassment to establish unilateral control over every aspect of production.
“The times story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, quoting it almost verbatim, while ignoring abundant evidence that contradicted her claims and revealed her true motives,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit details the alleged inconsistencies and provides a rebuttal to the claims made in the article. Among them are the texts between publicists Nathan and Abel that celebrated negative press against Lively, which the suit claims left out key context, such as a text from Nathan that read, “Damn, that’s unfair because it’s not me either.”
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in It Ends with Us
Sony PicturesThe case also offers rebuttals to many other claims in the New York Times article, including the suggestion that Baldoni repeatedly enter Lively’s trailer while she was breastfeeding (In the lawsuit, Lively sent a message to Baldoni that read, “I’m just pumping up my trailer if you want us to work our lines.”)
The times the article also accused Baldoni of showing Lively a “pornographic video” featuring his wife, which the lawsuit alleges was “non-pornographic.”
“This claim is patently absurd,” the lawsuit says. “The video in question was a (non-pornographic) recording of Heath’s wife during a home birth – deeply personal, with no sexual overtones. The perversion of this benign event into an act of sex crime is outrageous and emblematic of the lengths Lively and her associates are willing to go to defame plaintiffs.”
In addition, the lawsuit also claims that claims that Baldoni sexualized Lively during references to her character’s costumes were “exaggerated and misleading.”
The suit alleges that Lively herself used similar terminology while advocating to make her character’s clothing “sexier” and claims that Baldoni followed the set tone. One text read: “I’ll show you both ways, but the hat is way sexier.”
The times The article also reports that Lively filed a complaint with HR during filming, with 30 points laid out and agreed to before she returned to the set. Among them were that an intimacy coordinator should be present, “no more showing nude videos or images of blake women” and “no more references to the genitalia of the cast and crew.”
The plaintiffs’ lawsuit alleges that Lively never filed a formal complaint.
“No such document was ever presented to Baldoni, the Wayfarer team or, to the best of their knowledge, to anyone else – whether at this meeting or at any other time – and therefore cannot be reconciled,” it claimed in the case.
A New York Times A spokesperson stood by his story in a statement to Us Weekly on Tuesday, December 31.
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the statement said. “Our story was reported thoroughly and responsibly. It is based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails, which we quote accurately and in detail in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article, and their representatives have not indicated a single error. We have published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article.”
The spokesman added: “We plan to vigorously defend ourselves against the lawsuit.”
In response to the filing, Lively’s attorney said us on Tuesday, Dec. 31, that the case was based on a “manifestly false premise.”
“Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims presented in Ms. Lively’s California Division of Civil Rights complaint, nor her federal complaint filed earlier today,” the statement said. “This case rests on the patently false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer et al was a ruse based on a choice ‘not to sue Baldoni, Wayfarer’ and that ‘the lawsuit was never her end goal.” As the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today shows, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false. While we will not argue this matter in the press, we encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s full complaint. We look forward to addressing each of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”
Justin Baldoni’s lawyer is speaking out again after Blake Lively filed a lawsuit accusing the It Ends With Us director and star of sexual harassment — and launching a “social manipulation” campaign against her to “destroy” her reputation. “TAG PR operates like any other crisis management firm when hired by a client experiencing (…)
Meanwhile, Baldoni’s attorney Brian Friedman promised to “take down” New York Times for his “vicious smear campaign,” he says Us Weekly.
“In this vicious smear campaign entirely orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, New York Times subject to the whims and caprices of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, flouting the journalistic practices and ethics once befitting a respected publication, using forged and manipulated texts and deliberately omitting texts that challenge their chosen PR narrative,” he said in a statement to us. “In doing so, they predetermined the outcome of their story and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revive Lively’s self-inflicted failing public image and counteract the organic basis of criticism among the online public.” The irony is rich.
He continued: “Make no mistake though as we all unite to bring down New York Times by no longer allowing them to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign for authenticity by also prosecuting those individuals who have abused their power to try to destroy the lives of my clients. While their side accepts partial truths, we accept the full truth – and we have all the communications to back it up. The public will decide for themselves as they did when this first started.
Lively made headlines when she sued Baldoni for sexual harassment in December 2024. In court documents obtained by Us Weekly after a report from TMZ and New York TimesLively also accused Baldoni of launching a campaign of “social manipulation” against her to “destroy” her reputation. The documents also claim that Lively was isn’t the only cast member to complain of Baldoni.
Baldoni denied the allegations through your lawyer, Brian Friedmanwho called the allegations “totally false, outrageous and deliberately obscene” in a statement us. The statement also claims that Lively filed the lawsuit to “repair her negative reputation” and “reframe the narrative” of the film’s production.
In a statement to New York Times on Saturday, Dec. 21 regarding her lawsuit, Lively said, “I hope my lawsuit helps pull back the curtain on these egregious retaliatory tactics to hurt people who speak up about wrongdoing, and helps protect others, which can be targeted.’
Prior to Baldoni’s filing, Daily Mail reported that the actor plans to file a countersuit and suggested that Lively’s publicist tried to tarnish his image by leaking stories to the press.
“I was contacted on August 11 by Sarah Nathan (Melissa Nathanthe sister of) forwarding an anonymous tip that Page six received, regarding allegations of complaints from HR of the Council It ends with us,” Lively’s representative, Leslie Sloan, said us in a statement. “I was then contacted by various media outlets asking about allegations of grievances from HR. When contacted, I responded to press inquiries by referring them to Wayfarer or Sony for information on HR complaints.”
Blake Lively is suing ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment. According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ and The New York Times, Baldoni’s alleged behavior caused Lively, 37, “serious emotional distress.” The lawsuit alleges that there was a meeting held to address Lively’s claims that there was “hostile (…)
Sloan added: “It is clear that Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer Associates are suggesting that I have created press stories about HR complaints on set, which is false. Please read Ms. Lively’s complaint and the complaint filed by Jonesworks LLC and Stephanie Jones, which provides details of the campaign against my client.”
In response to Daily Mail article, Friedman said Deadline: “I won’t say when or how many lawsuits we file, but when we do file our first lawsuit, it will shock everyone who has been manipulated into believing an obviously false narrative. It will be supported by real evidence and tell the real story. In over 30 years of practice, I have never seen such a level of unethical behavior deliberately fueled by media manipulation.”
