Baldoni Sues NYT for $250M

Lawsuit claims Blake Lively story was 'rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 1, 2025 10:24 AM CST
Baldoni, Lively File Lawsuits
Blake Lively poses for photographers upon arrival at the UK Gala Screening for the film 'It 'Ends With Us' on Thursday, Aug, 8, 2024 in London.   (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Two lawsuits were filed Tuesday in the dispute between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni—one from Lively, accusing Baldoni of harassment and a smear campaign, and one from Baldoni, accusing the New York Times of libel.

  • Baldoni's $250 million lawsuit alleges that a Dec. 21 Times story that sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry was "rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions" and "relied almost entirely on Lively's unverified and self-serving narrative," CNN reports. Lively said she was sexually harassed by director an co-star Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us and was targeted by a smear campaign after she raised concerns.

  • The lawsuit accuses Lively of carrying out her own smear campaign , claiming that her "cynical abuse of sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production was both strategic and manipulative." It accuses the Times of "disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives."
  • CNN reports that the suit includes a rebuttal to one of the claims in Lively's complaint to California's Civil Rights Department. She said Baldoni and co-producer Jamey Heath "entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding." The lawsuit includes a text message, apparently from Lively to Baldoni, that says, "I'm just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work out our lines."
  • "We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit," the New York Times said in a statement. "Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article."

  • Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Heath, his producing partner Steve Sarowitz, and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, Variety reports.
  • The lawsuit said Lively chose not to file lawsuits against any of the plaintiffs, which "spared her from the scrutiny of the discovery process, including answering questions under oath and producing her communications."
  • But that changed within hours. In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, Lively accuses Baldoni and others of carrying out "a carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out," the AP reports. Lively accuses Baldoni and the studio of launching a "multi-tiered plan" to damage her reputation after she and husband Ryan Reynolds held a meeting to address "repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior" from Baldoni and Heath.
(More Justin Baldoni stories.)

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