The actor hit the New York Times with a $250 million defamation lawsuit
Actor Justin Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit The New York Times On Tuesday, he claimed that The Gray Lady’s “The End With Us” co-star Blake Lively had defamed him and his team while covering allegations that she had launched a “smear campaign” against him.
Lively previously sued Baldoni for sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and more. Lively also claims that Baldoni engaged in and executed a campaign of “social manipulation” to destroy her career and reputation.
On Dec. 21, The Times published a story titled “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside Hollywood’s Smear Machine,” in which private emails and text messages about Lively show a “playbook for running a largely undetected smear campaign in the digital age.” , the 37-year-old actress married an actor Ryan Reynolds.
Actor Justin Baldoni is suing The New York Times for defamation. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
However, other plaintiffs, including Baldoni and Hollywood PR groups, claim that the Times article “deliberately omitted portions of the text exchange and other information that contradicts the actress’ version of events.” They claim the Times defamed them in the process, leaving critical context out of communications that disputed many of Lively’s claims.
“The article’s central thesis, contained in a defamatory headline designed to immediately confuse the reader, is that the plaintiffs are waging a retaliatory public relations campaign against Lively for speaking out about sexual harassment—a proposition that is patently false and easily debunked,” 87- Freedman, a page lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by attorney Bryan, claims.
“The Times story was based almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, ignoring the overwhelming evidence that contradicts her claims and exposes her true motives,” he said.
Freedman told Variety “The Times has bowed to the whims and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics befitting a once-respectable publication, using falsified and manipulated texts, and deliberately omitting texts that challenge their preferred PR narrative.”
BLAKE LIVELY SUES JUSTIN BALDONI FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT, RETAIL AND EMOTIONAL DAMAGES.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. (Getty Images)
The Times stands by its report.
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts as they lead. Our story was presented carefully and responsibly. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails we quoted precisely. The article is long,” Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said Fox News Digital.
“We published them full statement In response to the allegations in the article, he continued: “We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
The suit also alleges that the Times published its report before a deadline for Baldoni’s representatives to respond to “promise journalistic ethics and basic fairness,” but “never intended or intended for Plaintiffs to respond.”
Talent agency William Morris Endeavor dropped Baldoni as a client on the back of the Times article, according to the paper.
Freedman did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on Baldoni’s allegations to the Times. He previously told The Times that Lively’s initial claims were “totally false, outrageous and deliberately insulting, clearly intended to offend and repeat a narrative in the media”.
LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 08: Blake Lively attends the UK Gala Screening of Break Up With Us at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on August 08, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Lia Toby/Getty Images) (Lia Toby/Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital’s Lauryn Overhultz and Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.
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