Justin Baldoni, the director and star of It Ends With Us, is suing The New York Times for libel over its reporting on the lawsuit filed against him by co-star Blake Lively.
Lively filed a suit last month accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the film. She also claimed he went on to try and undermine her career with rumors and blackballing efforts.
The actress alleges that Baldoni engaged in a “multi-tiered plan” to harm her reputation after she and her husband, A-list star Ryan Reynolds, met with Baldoni to discuss “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” against Lively.
The Times went on to publish a story on the lawsuit on December 21, but Baldoni claims the paper deliberately left out key information in its report that contradicts Lively’s claims.
“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,” Baldoni’s lawsuit alleges, the Times reported.
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, also claims that Lively attempted to wrest control of his client’s film and that Lively was the one who tried to plant stories to damage Baldoni’s reputation.
The Times released a statement saying that they intend to “vigorously defend” themselves in court.
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the Times said in a statement. “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.”
Lively alleges Baldoni discussed her weight with her trainer and pressured her into revealing her religious beliefs. The actress claims It Ends with Us producer Jamey Heath inappropriately showed her a video of his wife naked and giving birth.
Attorneys for both Baldoni and Heath have denied the allegations for their clients.
Lively’s complaint submitted text messages and other correspondence obtained via subpoena. Among them are alleged messages the two men sent to a crisis management expert.
“He wants to feel like she can be buried,” a publicist working with the studio and Baldoni reportedly wrote in an August 2 message to the crisis management expert, Melissa Nathan.
“You know we can bury anyone,” Nathan wrote.
Since Lively revealed her complaints against Baldoni, he was dropped by his talent agency, WME, the mega Talent agency that also reps Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds.
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