Fallout from an alleged campaign to smear Blake Lively over what went on during production of It Ends With Us has sparked another lawsuit — this time against The New York Times worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Actor and director Justin Baldoni has filed a $US250 million ($400 million) lawsuit against The New York Times for its reporting of Blake Lively’s legal complaint against him, AP has reported.
The suit, filed with Los Angeles Superior Court, reportedly accuses the newspaper’s reporters of teaming up with Lively’s PR team to push “a self-serving narrative” about what happened on set.
Shortly after the suit was filed, it was then reported that Blake Lively had filed a formal lawsuit against Baldoni for sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and lost wages.
The legal feud between the Hollywood actors erupted last week when legal complaints filed on behalf of Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation.
Having trouble keeping up with each complaint and what has been said?
Here is the latest on each.
Justin Baldoni sues the New York Times
On Tuesday morning US time, Justin Baldoni filed a US$250 million ($400 million) lawsuit against the Times in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
In the suit, Baldoni is among a group of 10 plaintiffs, including publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel who are suing the publication for libel and false light invasion of privacy.
False light invasion occurs when someone is portrayed in a false or misleading way that causes emotional distress or personal harm.
The suit alleges that in the December 21 article We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine, the Times “cherry-picked and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.”
Also named in the complaint were producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz.
The 87-page-long complaint refutes numerous claims made in Lively’s original complaint alleging Lively went on a smear campaign of her own against Baldoni.
It claims Lively used false “sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over every aspect of the production.”
Baldoni's lawsuit says the newspaper “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. But the Times did not care.”
Following the publication of the story, Baldoni was dropped from his agency WME and stripped of an award for Women’s advocacy.
The lawsuit also disputed one of the biggest alleged examples of the smear campaign which was a text chain between Abel and Nathan.
In the messages between the pair, they appeared to be praising each other for a news story about Lively's "tone deaf" promotion of It Ends With Us.
"You really outdid yourself with this piece," Abel wrote.
"That's why you hired me right? I'm the best," Nathan replied.
Baldoni's filing claims that The Times left out a text Nathan sent before this exchange which added needed context: "Damn this is unfair because it's also not me."
The suit also alleges Lively’s husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, allegedly berated Baldoni in an aggressive manner during a heated meeting at their Tribeca penthouse in New York, “accusing him of ‘fat shaming’” his wife.
A spokesperson for the Times, Danielle Rhoades, said in a statement that “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," the statement said.
Lively is not a defendant in the lawsuit.
Her lawyers said in a statement that “Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint.”
Formal lawsuit by Blake Lively
Shortly after Baldoni filed his complaint, Blake Lively formally sued him and his production company Wayfarer in a New York Federal court.
Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel are also named.
Baldoni is being sued for sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and lost wages, multiple US publications are reporting.
This suit formalised what was already detailed in her civil legal complaint filed last week with the California Civil Rights Department.
These types of complaints usually proceed a formal lawsuit.
"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 lawyers told multiple US publications in a statement.
"Unfortunately, Ms Lively's decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks.”
It alleges 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."
Justin Baldoni also sued by former publicist
Justin Baldoni and his production company are also being sued by his former publicist, Stephanie Jones.
The lawsuit, that was lodged last Tuesday in a New York court alleged that Baldoni, 40, and Wayfarer when the film was released, teamed up with publicists to try to “bury” and “destroy” Lively amid fears that allegations of misogynistic and toxic on-set behaviour as the romantic drama was made might harm his reputation and career.
Jones sought unspecified damages from the defendants, including Jennifer Abel, a former employee who she says carried out the campaign to damage Lively and muddy the reputation of Jones.
The lawsuit alleges that Abel was fired after Jones learned on August 21 that Abel had “stolen more than 70 proprietary and sensitive business documents and additional client leads” from Jonesworks as Abel prepared to leave the firm to start her own publicity company, taking along Baldoni and Wayfarer as clients.
The lawsuit also alleges that Abel teamed up with Melissa Nathan, a crisis management expert who in the past has represented actor Johnny Depp, in a quest to influence and control media content damaging to Lively and Jones.
Numerous text messages included in the lawsuit were extracted from the company phone that Abel returned to Jonesworks when she was fired, the lawsuit said.
In response to a request for comment on Wednesday, Abel sent an email that included screenshots of text messages between herself and Jones, along with a July 26 email she sent to Jones, two weeks after announcing her plans during a Zoom call to leave the company on August 23.
In the email, she wrote, in part: “I know this path won’t be easy, but I hope I can keep you in my life as a mentor, a friend and a close confidant because I truly view you as family and would be lost without your support. I want to assure you however I can, that unlike those who have burned you in the past, that there is not one ounce of ill will here.”
ABC/Wires
