Justin Baldoni is pushing back against the accusations made by his It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, December 31.
Baldoni, 40, is suing The New York Times for $250 million, alleging libel and false light invasion of privacy for a story the paper ran on December 21. The article, titled, “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” alleged that Baldoni sexually harassed Lively for months while on set.
Baldoni and his lawyers claim Lively pursued a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign against the actor, who also directed the film. (Lively also accused Baldoni of orchestrating a smear campaign against her.)
“The Times story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives,” the lawsuit reads
The lawsuit, obtained by Us Weekly, outlines Lively’s accusations and counters them with Baldoni’s interpretation of the events.
Lively’s attorney has already responded to the lawsuit, saying in a statement to Us that Baldoni’s claims change nothing about her accusations against him.
“Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today,” the statement read. “This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice ‘not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,’ and that ‘litigation was never her ultimate goal.’ As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false. While we will not litigate this matter in the press, we do encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s complaint in its entirety. We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”
Keep scrolling for every counterclaim in his lawsuit.
The ‘Smear Campaign’ Texts Allegedly Omitted Context
The Times highlighted an alleged effort from Baldoni’s publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel to generate bad press for Lively. The lawsuit, however, states that the story omitted key communications between them that paint a different picture.
The article shared a text in which Abel appears to congratulate Nathan on a negative story about Lively, but the lawsuit says it omits an upside down smiley face, often used to indicate sarcasm. Nathan’s reply seemed to show her taking credit for the story, but The Times left out a line that preceded the exchange, which could show Nathan was only joking.
“Damn this is unfair because it’s also not me,” she wrote in the omitted message.
Baldoni Says Blake Lively Invited Him Into Trailer During Breastfeeding Incidents
Lively has accused Baldoni of repeatedly walking in on her while she was breastfeeding. Baldoni, however, provided a text message from Lively in which she appears to invite him into her trailer.
“I’m just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work out our lines,” the message states.
“Copy. Eating with crew and will head that way,” Baldoni responded.