Celebs
Justin Baldoni claims that The Times defamed him and his team in an article about the actress Blake Lively’s allegations that she had been the victim of a smear campaign.
Justin Baldoni, the director and co-star of the film “It Ends With Us,” and his publicists sued The New York Times on Tuesday, claiming the news organization defamed them in a story about allegations by Blake Lively, his co-star, that she had been the victim of a smear campaign.
The lawsuit, which seeks $250 million in damages, accuses The Times of uncritically accepting a “self-serving narrative” by the actress that Baldoni, his production company and their public relations team worked to harm her reputation after she complained about misconduct during the film’s shooting. It asserts that the Dec. 21 article deliberately omitted portions of text exchanges and other information that contradicted the actress’ version of events.
“The article’s central thesis, encapsulated in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader, is that plaintiffs orchestrated a retaliatory public relations campaign against Lively for speaking out about sexual harassment — a premise that is categorically false and easily disproven,” the lawsuit said.
The suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing Baldoni and five others, including Melissa Nathan, a crisis management expert whom Lively accused of helping orchestrate a campaign to manipulate news coverage and social media against her.
In addition to alleging libel by the Times, Freedman asserted a counternarrative that Lively wrested control of the film from Baldoni and that her publicist later tried to plant stories to damage his reputation.
In a statement, the Times said: “We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the statement said. “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.”
In the article, the Times reported that Lively had filed a legal complaint with the California Civil Rights Department against Baldoni and his business partner, Jamey Heath; their studio, Wayfarer, and one of its co-founders, Steve Sarowitz; Nathan and a communications consultant she brought on, Jed Wallace; and Jennifer Abel, another public relations executive.
The complaint, which claimed sexual harassment and retaliation, included excerpts from thousands of pages of text messages and emails obtained through a subpoena, which were reviewed by the Times.
Lively had complained that the men had repeatedly violated physical boundaries and made sexual and other inappropriate comments to her during the shooting of the film. Their studio, Wayfarer, agreed to install safeguards on set, her legal complaint said. In a side letter to Lively’s contract, signed by Heath, the studio also agreed not to retaliate against the actress.
She alleged that as the release of the film approached in August 2024, fearful that her allegations would become public and taint them, Baldoni and Heath hired Nathan, a crisis public relations expert, and then Wallace, to smear Lively’s reputation instead.
The actress in her complaint cited text messages that show Nathan pushing to prevent print articles about Baldoni’s behavior from being published and reinforce negative ones about Lively. Other texts, she said, included references to Wallace, a self-described “hired gun,” leading a digital strategy that included boosting social media posts that could help their cause. For example, one of Nathan’s employees wrote in a group text message, “We’ve started to see shift on social, due largely to Jed and his team’s efforts to shift the narrative.”
Lively’s California complaint was a precursor to a lawsuit she filed Tuesday in federal court in the Southern District of New York. “Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court,” her attorneys said in a statement.
Last week, Stephanie Jones, a former publicist for Baldoni and Wayfarer, filed a lawsuit against them and others, alleging breach of contract and other claims. According to the lawsuit, the text messages and emails that Lively obtained through a subpoena came from a company phone used by Abel, one of Jones’ employees, that was returned when she was fired.
Since the Times article was published, the talent agency William Morris Endeavor dropped Baldoni as a client. Liz Plank, who has co-hosted the “Man Enough” podcast with Baldoni and Heath, announced she would no longer be appearing on the show.
Colleen Hoover, author of the book “It Ends With Us”; Jenny Slate and Brandon Sklenar, cast members of the movie; and Alex Saks, one of the producers, are among those who have publicly supported Lively.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Boston.com Today
Sign up to receive the latest headlines in your inbox each morning.