After Justin Baldoni filed a lawsuit against the New York Times for their report centering his It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively’s allegations against him, his attorney says they will sue her.
Justin Baldoni is preparing for another legal battle.
Three days after the It Ends With Us star filed a lawsuit against The New York Times for their Dec. 21 report centering costar Blake Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation, his attorney confirmed that they “absolutely” plan to sue the actress.
“We plan to release every single text message between the two of them,” Bryan Freedman told NBC News in a Jan. 2 interview. “We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts.”
On Dec. 31, Baldoni sued the NYT for libel in a $250 million lawsuit obtained by E! News, which claimed if the outlet “truly reviewed the thousands of private communications it claimed to have obtained, its reporters would have seen incontrovertible evidence that it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign.”
The lawsuit argued that the newspaper’s allegations were “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” when publishing Lively’s California civil rights complaint that also accused the director of launching a “smear campaign” against her and creating a hostile work environment while filming the Colleen Hoover adaptation. However, their filing claimed more lawsuits against more individuals will be forthcoming.
“This lawsuit seeks to hold the Times accountable for its role in this defamation campaign, but Plaintiffs are not done,” Baldoni’s lawsuit obtained by E! News read. “There are other bad actors involved, and make no mistake—this will not be the last lawsuit.”
Freedman, who filed the suit on his behalf, told E! News in a statement Dec. 31 that the newspaper “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.”
His attorney stated that his team would “unite to take down” the NYT, accusing the outlet of embracing “partial truths.”
However, the newspaper vehemently denied the allegations brought against them by the Jane the Virgin actor.
“We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit,” the NYT said in a Jan. 1 statement. “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported.”
“It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents,” the statement continued, “including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article.”
Regarding the suit against the NYT, Lively’s attorney told E! News in a statement, “Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today.”
But the legal troubles from the set of It Ends With Us doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.
After Baldoni filed his suit against the NYT, Lively filed her own on the same day against her former costar, his company Wayfarer Studios, “crisis manager” Melissa Nathan and publicist Jennifer Abel—all of whom are listed in her complaint—for mental pain and anguish, severe emotional distress, and lost wages, according to documents obtained by E! News.
In Lively’s original complaint filed earlier last month, the Gossip Girl actress alleged that Baldoni sexually harassed her on set, including showing her “nude videos or images of women to Blake” and discussing alleged past “pornography addiction.” The filing also accused Baldoni of hiring a PR team that “engaged in a sophisticated, coordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan” to sway public opinion in his favor.
In response to the claim, Freedman denied the allegations to the NYT and accused Lively of filing a “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” complaint to “fix her negative reputation.”
In her own statement to the outlet, Lively said, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Leave a Reply