Justin Baldoni has filed a $250-million defamation suit against The New York Times after it published an article accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment based on the allegations made by Blake Lively. Baldoni filed a lawsuit on New Year’s Eve challenging the article titled ‘We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,’ published on December 21.
Baldoni and his team accused NYT of basing its story on incomplete information and “cherry picking” information to build a false narrative against him.
The lawsuit — which includes two co-plaintiffs publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel and producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz — being handled by Attorney Bryan Freedman, accuses Lively and the NYT of falsifying information and presenting insubstantial evidence to fabricate a “vicious smear campaign” against the well-known director.
Also Read: Justin Baldoni to file countersuit against Blake Lively, his lawyer claims it will ‘shock everyone’
In a report on USA Today, Freedman stated, “In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, The New York Times cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites… using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative.”
The lawsuit accuses Lively and NYT of making claims based on unverifiable information, while trying to frame Baldoni with false information. The complaint specifically highlights the discrepancies between text exchanges between Lively and Baldoni, when the two were working together. For instance, a June, 2023, chat between the co-actors had initially started on a professional and cordial tone but was distorted to be portrayed as “inappropriate behavior” according to The New York Times article.
The complaint furthers its claims by suggesting that the countless messages and interactions scanned and analysed by NYT entraps the It Ends With Us rather than disclosing the calculated measures carried out by Lively to run a “smear campaign” against the director.
Interestingly, Lively is not the defendant in the lawsuit as Baldoni and this team have pressed charges against NYT for defamation and libel.
Also Read: Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni: A timeline of the ‘It Ends With Us’ feud
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
