Justin Baldoni sues New York Times for $250 million for 'manipulative' piece on Blake Lively's sexual harassment claims

It Ends With Us star Justin Baldoni has filed a $250 million lawsuit over a New York Times article that put forward Blake Lively's sexual harassment claims.

Updated on: Jan 1, 2025, 08:47:46 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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Actor-filmmaker Justin Baldoni has sued the New York Times, demanding $250 million in damages. The suit is in response to a deep dive piece the newspaper had published backing Baldoni's It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively's sexual harassment allegations against him. Baldoni has called the article completely reliant on her 'self-serving narrative'. (Also read: Blake Lively sues Justin Baldoni for severe emotional distress, mental pain, anguish, and lost wages)

Justin Baldoni has sued the New York Times for $250 million over a piece that supported Blake Lively's sexual harassment allegations.

Justin Baldoni's suit

Variety reported on Tuesday that Baldoni has filed a $250 million lawsuit against the NYT in Los Angeles Superior Court. The plaintiffs in the suit also include publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, as well as It Ends With Us producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz, who are suing the newspaper for libel and false light invasion of privacy. The bone of contention is a December 21 article titled ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.

The lawsuit claims that the publication relied on “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.” The article had presented Blake Lively's version of events in her ongoing legal battle against Baldoni, wherein she has accused her co-star of sexual harassment and an alleged smear campaign against her. In his 87-page complaint, however, Baldoni has claimed that the smear campaign was orchestrated by Blake against him, calling the article manipulative.

New York Times responds

The New York Times has defended its article and vowed to fight the lawsuit. A New York Times spokesperson told Variety, “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. 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. We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

The article and the aftermath saw Baldoni being dropped by WME as a client. Blake had earlier filed a lawsuit of her own, accusing Baldoni of harassment. A new lawsuit adds ‘mental anguish’ to the charges as well. The two starred in the drama It Ends With Us, released last year. But it was a rocky collaboration with neither appearing alongside the other during promotions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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