NEWSJustin Baldoni Files $250 Million Libel Lawsuit Against 'The New York Times' Over Blake Lively Article
Justin Baldoni sued 'The New York Times' over a recent Blake Lively story.
Days after Blake Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against It Ends With Us costar Justin Baldoni, the director has sued The New York Times over an article which detailed the actress' allegations against him.
The $250 million lawsuit was filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, December 31, by a group of 10 plaintiffs, including Baldoni and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel.
Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment.
The 87-page court document accused the outlet of using "'cherry-picked' and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead" for their story.
The plaintiffs' lawyer Bryan Freedom claimed the publication "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."
The legal filing further claimed that while Lively had been portrayed as a victim of months of harassment, it was allegedly the mother-of-four who had launched a "strategic and manipulative" campaign against him and attempted to use her accusations to "assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production," according to Variety.
The lawsuit also referenced Lively's allegations that producer Jamey Heath showed her a fully nude video of his wife giving birth without her consent.
"The Times compounded its journalistic failures by uncritically advancing Lively’s unsubstantiated claims of sexual harassment against Heath and Baldoni. … [with the] CRD complaint even labeling [that] footage as ‘pornography.’ This claim is patently absurd," the filing read. "The video in question was a (non-pornographic) recording of Heath’s wife during a home birth — a deeply personal one with no sexual overtone. To distort this benign event into an act of sexual misconduct is outrageous and emblematic of the lengths to which Lively and her collaborators are willing to go to defame plaintiffs."
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Blake Lively said she hoped her legal filing would help 'pull back the curtain' on 'sinister retaliatory tactics.'
As OK! previously reported, Lively filed her 80-page complaint against Baldoni on December 20.
"I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted," she said at the time.
Justin Baldoni's lawyer called Blake Lively's allegations 'categorically false.'
However, Freedman hit back with his own statement earlier this month, insisting her claims were "false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt" Baldoni.
