Actor Justin Badldoni, who also directed the hit Hollywood movie “It Ends with Us” is now suing The New York Times for $250M, launching a counter attack in an escalating controversy with his co-star, Blake Lively.
Baldoni and his team say the newspaper was party to a “vicious smear campaign “ by Lively who filed an earlier complaint accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on set and retaliation during the promotion of the film.
It is just the latest salvo in an ongoing dispute between the two actors that erupted during the production of the film, in which Baldoni plays Lively’s on-screen abusive husband.
The complaint filed by Baldoni and a total of ten plaintiffs, including his producing partners and publicist stated “the [New York] Times 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.”
Lively’s original complaint was filed with the California civil rights department almost two weeks ago and it was first obtained by The New York Times.
It alleges Baldoni and his team tried to destroy Lively’s reputation after she raised concerns “about repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing on-set behavior by Mr. Baldoni”.
The times published their article on December 21st highlighting excerpts from the civil rights complaint including messages from a crisis PR Manager for Baldoni that say “we can bury anyone”.
The New York Times stated that they will “vigorously defend against the law suit” saying “our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents including text messages and emails.”
Baldoni’s complaint alleges the paper omitted text messages to serve Lively’s narrative, saying ”the article’s central thesis, encapsulated in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader, is that the plaintiffs orchestrated a retaliatory public relations campaign against Lively for speaking out about sexual harassment”.
It further says “Lively’s cynical use abuse of sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production.” And that Lively’s public image suffered as a result of a series of high-profile blunders.
Attorneys for Blake Lively sent a statement to the press on Tuesday saying “nothing in this [Baldoni’s] lawsuit changes anything regarding her claims.”
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