Justin Baldoni sues New York Times for $250 million for Live Story

It Ends With Us director and star Justin Baldoni filed a lawsuit against The New York Times following his report on costar Blake Lively after she sued him for sexual harassment.

Baldoni, 40, filed a $250 million lawsuit against Lively, 37, on Tuesday, December 31 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Us Weekly can confirm.

The actor is among a group of 10 plaintiffs, which also includes publishers Melissa Nathan a Jennifer Abel as well as It Ends With Us producers James Heath a Steve Saraowitzwhich started legal proceedings.

The plaintiffs are suing for libel and false light invasion of privacy and alleging that The New York Times “chosen” communications and omitting context in order to mislead readers in her article “We Can Bury Any: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”

The piece, written by Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire a Julie Tate Lively allegedly faced months of sexual harassment from Baldoni and it was announced on Saturday, December 21.

The lawsuit alleges that Lively pursued a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign against Baldoni (rather than the other way around), using “false”allegations of sexual harassment to demand unilateral control over all aspects of production.”

“The Times story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, quoting it almost verbatim while dismissing a wealth of evidence that contradicted her claims and revealed her true motives,” the legal case reads.

The lawsuit details the alleged inconsistencies and refutes the claims made in the article. Among these are the texts between publishers Nathan and Abel which celebrated the negative press against Lively, which the suit alleges omitted key context such as a text from Nathan reading, “Damn this is unfair because it’s not me either.”

The lawsuit also offers rebuttals to a number of other claims The New York Times article, including the suggestion that Baldoni would repeatedly enter Lively’s trailer while she was breastfeeding (The lawsuit presented a text from Lively to Baldoni that read “I’m pumping my trailer if you want to work out our lines.”)

The Times An article also accused Baldoni of showing Lively a “pornographic video” featuring his wife, which the lawsuit claims was “non-pornographic.”

“This claim is patently absurd,” the lawsuit reads. “The video in question was a (non-pornographic) recording of Heath’s wife during a home birth – a highly personal one with no sexual overtones. Distorting this benign incident into an act of sexual misconduct is outrageous and emblematic of the extent to which Lively and her colleagues are willing to go to defame plaintiffs.”

The lawsuit also claims that claims that Baldoni sexualized Lively during references to her character’s costumes are “exaggerated and misleading.”

The suit claims that Lively herself used similar terminology as she argued for making her character’s outfit “sexier” and claimed that Baldoni was following the tone set. One text reads, “It’ll show you both ways but a beanie is way sexier.”

The Times the article also reported that Lively filed an HR complaint during filming, with 30 items laid out and agreed to before she returned to the set. Among these was that an intimacy coordinator had to be present, “no more show Blake videos or nude images of women” and “no further mention of the genitalia of the cast and crew.”

The plaintiffs’ lawsuit alleges that no official complaint was ever made by Lively.

“Such a document was never presented to Baldoni, the Wayfarer team, or, as far as they know, anyone else – whether during that meeting or at any other time – and therefore, it could not have been agreed to,” it’ the lawsuit claims.

A New York Times the spokesman stood by his story in a statement to Us Weekly on Tuesday, December 31.

“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the statement read. “Our story was told carefully and responsibly. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails we quote accurately and extensively in the article. So far, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed out a single error. We also published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article.”

The spokesperson added, “We intend to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

In response to the filing, Lively’s attorney said Us on Tuesday, December 31 that the lawsuit was based on a “clearly false premise.”

“Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the allegations presented in Ms. Lively in California, or her federal complaint, which was filed earlier today,” the statement read. “This lawsuit is based on the patently false premise that Ms. Lively v. Wayfarer and others shamed based on the choice “not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,” and that “litigation was never the ultimate goal.” As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false. Although we will not litigate this issue in the press, we encourage people to read Ms complaint. Lively as a whole. We look forward to addressing each of Wayfarer’s claims in court.”

Meanwhile, Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman promised to “pull down” The New York Times about his “vicious smear campaign,” he said Us Weekly.

“In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times woven into the wishes and whims of two powerful “untouchable” Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics that once befitted the revered publication by using manipulated and manipulated texts and deliberately omitting texts that n disagree with their preferred PR narrative,” he said via a statement to Us. “In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own destructive PR smear campaign designed to revive Lively’s self-indulgent public image and counter the organic terrain of public criticism online. The irony is rich.”

He continued: “Make no mistake though, as we all unite to take it down The NY Times by no longer allowing them to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also suing those individuals who have abused their power to try to destroy the lives of my clients. While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth – and we have all the communications to back it up. The public will decide for themselves as they did when this started.”

Vibrant made headlines when she sued Baldoni for sexual harassment in December 2024. In the court documents, obtained by Us Weekly after reporting from TMZ a The New York TimesLively also accused Baldoni of launching a “social manipulation” campaign against her to “destroy” her reputation. The docs also claim that Lively not the only cast member to complain about Baldoni.

Baldoni deny the allegations through his lawyer, Bryan Freedmanwho called the accusations “absolutely false, outrageous and deliberately salacious” in a statement to Us. The statement also claimed that Lively filed the lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation” and “remake a narrative” about the film’s production.

In a statement to The New York Times On Saturday, December 21 regarding her lawsuit, Lively said, “I hope my legal action will help pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak out about misconduct and help protect others who may be targeted.”

Before Baldoni’s filing, the Daily Mail reported that the actor planned to file a countersuit and suggested that Lively’s publicist was trying to tarnish his image by leaking stories to the press.

“I was contacted on 8/11 by Sarah Nathan (Melissa Nathan‘ sister) forward an anonymous tip that Page Six received, regarding allegations of HR complaints on the set of It Ends With Us,” Lively’s rep, Leslie Sloan, say Us in a statement. “After that, various members of the press contacted me asking about allegations of HR complaints. When contacted, I responded to press inquiries by referring them to Wayfarer or Sony for information on HR complaints.”

Sloane added, “It is clear that Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer Associates imply that I made up stories in the press about HR complaints on set, which are false. Read Ms Complaint. Lively and the Complaint filed by Jonesworks LLC and Stephanie Jones, which details the campaign against my client.”

In response to the Daily Mail article, Freedman said Closing date: “I’m not going to speak to when or how many lawsuits we file but when we do file our first lawsuit, it’s going to shock everyone who has been manipulated into believing a false narrative obvious It will be supported by real evidence and tell the true story. In over 30 years of practice, I have never seen this level of unethical behavior deliberately induced by media manipulation.”