Justin Baldoni sues New York Times over Blake Lively's claims of sexual harassment

It Ends With Us director and actor Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times following the publication of Blake Lively's sexual harassment and smear campaign allegations.

Variety reported that Baldoni, along with 10 other plaintiffs, including publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, filed a $250 million (P14.5 billion) lawsuit against the news organization in Los Angeles Superior Court. 

They are suing NYT for libel and false light invasion of privacy over the Dec. 21 article titled "'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine," which composed of private messages that detailed an alleged campaign to tarnish Lively's reputation. The actress accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and creating a smear campaign against her.

"[The Times] cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful 'untouchable' Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative," Atty. Bryan Freedman, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, told Variety.

"In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively's self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public. The irony is rich," he continued. 

The suit stated that the news organization relied almost entirely on Lively's "unverified and self-serving narrative." Baldoni's camp also said the publication relied on "cherry-picked" and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.

"The Times story relied almost entirely on Lively's unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives." 

'Strategic and manipulative'

The 87-page complaint, which also accuses the Times of "promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract," rebutted Lively's accusations of sexual harassment from Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath.

Moreover, the lawsuit implied that Lively's husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, pressured Baldoni's agency, WME, to drop the director during the Deadpool and Wolverine premiere in July. 

However, as Variety reported, the agency brushed off the allegations, stating that Reynold and Lively did not pressure Baldoni to drop as a client. 

In terms of Lively's allegation of Heath showing her a video of his naked wife, the suit disputed that the video was "non-pornographic" and had "no sexual overtone."

"To distort this benign event into an act of sexual misconduct is outrageous and emblematic of the lengths to which Lively and her collaborators are willing to go to defame plaintiffs." 

It also clarified that the video in question was shown to Lively as part of a creative discussion regarding a birthing scene in the film.

'We embrace the full truth'

Freedman also urged the removal of The Times in a statement, stating that it "deceived" the public about the issue. 

"Make no mistake however, as we all unite to take down The NY Times by no longer allowing them to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also suing those individuals who have abused their power to try and destroy the lives of my clients,"

He continued, "While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth—and have all of the communications to back it. The public will decide for themselves as they did when this first began."