Justin Baldoni filed a $250M lawsuit against The New York Times over its Blake Lively harassment story

40-year-old Justin Baldoni has filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times following the publication of a detailed article accusing him of alleged misconduct toward 37-year-old Blake Lively during the filming of “It Ends with Us”.

Earlier, media reports suggested that the actor was preparing to sue Blake herself, as she was the first to voice the accusations. However, it has now emerged that Baldoni decided to take legal action against the press instead. The lawsuit was filed jointly by Baldoni, Jennifer Abel, and Melissa Nathan, both of whom were also mentioned in the article.

In a statement reported by Variety, Baldoni accuses The New York Times of deliberately presenting selective facts and omitting crucial context from the text messages provided as evidence. According to him, this was done to mislead the public.

For instance, the article stated that Justin frequently entered Blake’s trailer while she was undressed. In response, Baldoni released a screenshot of a text exchange with Lively, in which she wrote to him that she was relaxing in her trailer and invited him to stop by if he wanted to rehearse lines.

“The story by The New York Times relies entirely on Lively’s unverified claims, which portray her in a favorable light while ignoring substantial evidence that contradicts her allegations and reveals her true motives,” Baldoni’s lawsuit states.

The actor also points out in his filing that during a committee meeting convened at Blake’s request during the filming, Lively’s 48-year-old husband Ryan Reynolds insulted him. Additionally, another unnamed actor, according to Baldoni, pressured the talent agency WME to sever its ties with him.

Baldoni’s attorney further stated that The New York Times “bowed to the whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ members of Hollywood’s elite, thereby compromising journalistic ethics.” In response, the newspaper issued a statement asserting that it covered the topic thoroughly and responsibly, basing its report on an analysis of thousands of original documents, including text messages and emails cited directly in the article.

Furthermore, it was revealed that Blake had not actually filed a lawsuit against Baldoni but instead lodged a complaint with the California Department of Civil Rights.

Baldoni cites this fact as evidence that Lively was attempting to avoid a legal trial, which would have required her to answer questions under oath and potentially reveal her true intentions. However, on the same day Baldoni’s lawsuit was made public, Blake officially filed her lawsuit against him.

To recap, Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of harassment during the filming It Ends with Us. According to the actress, Baldoni deliberately added new intimate scenes to the script and excessively improvised during their filming.

She also claimed he entered her dressing room while she was breastfeeding, made inappropriate remarks about her, and showed her photos of his nude wife.

Additionally, he allegedly orchestrated a smear campaign against Blake with the help of his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR manager Melissa Nathan, who previously worked on Johnny Depp’s image during his legal battles with Amber Heard.