BY: Walker
Published 2 days ago
Justin Baldoni is firing back after being accused of sexual harassment by his co-star Blake Lively, filing a libel suit against The New York Times on Tuesday, claiming that the newspaper published an article “rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions” that relied on Lively’s “self-serving narrative.”
In the 87-page complaint filed on Tuesday, Dec 31. and obtained by PEOPLE, Baldoni and a group of nine other plaintiffs, including his production company Wayfarer Studios, business partners and public relations team, are suing the Times for $250 million. They allege libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract.
After Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, the Times published “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine” on Saturday, Dec. 21.
The plaintiffs, including Baldoni and It Ends With Us producers Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, along with Jed Wallace, and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, accuse the Times of using “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead” in the article.
In response, the New York Times defended its article as “meticulously and responsibly reported.”
“The Article’s central thesis, encapsulated in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader, is that Plaintiffs orchestrated a retaliatory public relations campaign against Lively for speaking out about sexual harassment—a premise that is categorically false and easily disproven,” read the complaint.
The complaint then lists multiple examples refuting claims that were allegedly made out of context.
For example, the Times article wrote that “[Baldoni] repeatedly entered [Lively’s] makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.”
However, Baldoni’s complaint shows alleged text messages from Lively that read, “I’m just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work out our lines.” Baldoni responded, “Copy. Eating with crew and will head that way,” which the lawsuit claims shows Baldoni did not enter uninvited.
The complaint also contains text messages between Baldoni’s PR team showing concerns over reports they were “planting stories.” The plaintiffs claim these exchanges disprove there they manufactured a smear campaign against the actress. The complaint claims that Baldoni “consistently expressed his desire to avoid harming Lively and protect the Film but also recognized a legitimate need for public relations protection in light of Lively’s false and damaging claims.”
“In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times 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,” Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement to PEOPLE.
Freedman continued: “In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively’s self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, a New York Times spokesperson said they plan to “vigorously” defend against Baldoni’s lawsuit.
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the Times spokesperson said. “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. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well.”
Lively’s 80-page complaint included allegations that Baldoni sexually harassed her and developed a retaliatory public smear campaign against her.
The actress alleged that she was caused “grief, fear, trauma, and extreme anxiety” as a result of Baldoni’s alleged behavior, including showing her explicit images and videos, asking her about her personal sex life and attempting to add intimate scenes to the film that she had not originally agreed to.
The actress also claimed that Baldoni, alongside his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis firm TAG PR’s Melissa Nathan, was attempting to manipulate social media and work alongside the press to “destroy” her reputation.
On Tuesday, Dec. 31, Lively’s attorneys filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios, Baldoni and other parties in the Southern District of New York.
“Ms. Lively previously sent her California Civil Rights Department Complaint in response to the retaliatory campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns,” Lively’s attorney said in a statement to PEOPLE. “Unfortunately, Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court. Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.”
Representatives for the actress did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
via: People
