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Actor Justin Baldoni sued for $250 million The New York Times on Tuesday, alleging that the Gray Lady defamed him and his team when she covered his This Ends With Us co-star, alleging that Blake Lively had launched a “smear campaign” against her.
Lively previously sued Baldoni for sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and more. Lively also alleges that Baldoni conducted and participated in a campaign of “social manipulation” to destroy her career and reputation.
On December 21, The Times published a story titled “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside Hollywood’s Slander Machine,” which reported on private emails and text messages that reveal “a playbook for running a smear campaign that’s virtually undetectable in the digital age” about Lively. The 37-year-old actress is married to an actor Ryan Reynolds.
Actor Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times for defamation. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
However, Baldoni and other plaintiffs, including Hollywood PR gurus, claim that the Times article “deliberately omitted portions of the text exchanges and other information that contradicts the actress’ version of events.” They allege the Times defamed them in the process by omitting critical context from reports disputing many of Lively’s claims.
“The article’s central thesis, wrapped in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader, is that the plaintiffs mounted a public relations campaign to retaliate against Lively for making statements about sexual harassment—a premise that is categorically false and easily disproved.” — 87- A suit filed in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County by Atty By Brian Friedman, claims.
“The Times story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving account, quoting it almost verbatim, ignoring a wealth of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives,” the lawsuit said.
A freedman told Variety that the Times “bowed to the whims and whims of two powerful ‘out-of-touch’ Hollywood elites, flouting the journalistic practices and ethics that once belonged to a respected publication, using fake and manipulated texts and deliberately omitting texts that challenged their chosen PR narrative.”
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. (Getty Images)
The Times stands by its reporting.
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts wherever they lead. Our story was scrupulously and responsibly published. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails, which we accurately quote and detail in the article,” said Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha Fox News Digital.
“We published them full statement also in response to the accusations in the article, she continued. – We plan to resolutely defend against the lawsuit.”
The suit also alleges that the Times published its report before the deadline given by Baldoni’s representatives to respond, to “pay lip service to journalistic ethics and fundamental fairness,” but “never intended—or wanted—the plaintiffs to respond.”
According to the newspaper, talent agency William Morris Endeavor dropped Baldoni’s client after the Times article.
Friedman did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment about Baldoni’s claims to the Times. He previously told The Times that Lively’s initial claims were “completely false, outrageous and deliberately obscene to publicly offend and reframe the media narrative”.
LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 8: Blake Lively attends the British Gala Screening of It Ends With Us at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on August 8, 2024. in London, England. (Photo by Leah Tobey/Getty Images) (Leah Tobey/Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital’s Lauryn Overhaltz and Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.
