Daily Times

Justin Baldoni is taking legal action. Days after his It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively filed a complaint accusing him of sexual harassment and participating in a smear campaign against her, the actor-among a group of 10 plaintiffs-has filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times for their Dec. 21 report, which centered around Lively’s allegations.

Bryan Freedman, the attorney who filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court Dec. 31 on behalf of the plaintiffs, told E! News in a statement that the NYT “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.”

E! News has reached out to The New York Times for comment and has not heard back.

While Lively’s initial complaint-which listed Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer, colleague Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel and “crisis communications specialist” Melissa Nathan, among others, as defendants-was filed with the California Civil Rights Department, Lively’s legal team also filed a formal lawsuit against the parties in the Southern District of New York on Dec. 31. In response to the lawsuit against the NYT, attorneys for Lively told E! News, “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.”

“While we will not litigate this matter in the press, we do encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s complaint in its entirety,” the statement concluded. “We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”

Freedman, a lawyer for Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, previously denied Lively’s complaint allegations, calling it “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation.”

“These claims are completely false,” he continued, “outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”

In both of the Gossip Girl alum’s complaints-California Civil Rights Department complaint and her federal complaint-she detailed a meeting that took place in January 2024 to address “the hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production.”

According to the documents, obtained by E! News, parties present at the meeting, including Lively, husband Ryan Reynolds, Baldoni, as well as Wayfarer exec and producer Heath, among others, “discussed in detail the inappropriate conduct that Ms. Lively, her employees and other cast and crew experienced at the hands of Baldoni and Heath.”

Among those details, per the complaint, were “showing nude videos or images of women, including producer’s wife” to Lively or her employees, no more “mention of Baldoni’s or Heath’s previous ‘pornography addiction'” or mentioning actress’ late father Ernie Lively. As a result of the discussion, all parties present agreed that the “conduct would cease.” And filming was able to be completed the following month.

Lively’s complaints also allege that the smear campaign has impacted her family, including her and Reynolds’ four kids: James, 10, Inez, 8, Betty, 5, and Olin, born in 2023.

“Worst of all, however, has been the impact on their young children, who have been traumatised,” the complaint notes, “and emotionally uprooted in ways that have substantially impacted their well-being.”

“There are days when she has struggled to get out of bed and she frequently chooses not to venture outside in public,” the docs add of Lively. “While she has fought to maintain her personal life and business interests, behind closed doors she has suffered from grief, fear, trauma, and extreme anxiety.”