It is just the first day of 2025, and the tussle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni has already taken a very dramatic turn. Hours after he was sued by Lively for sexual harassment, It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times for libel over its story on allegations that he harassed Lively and orchestrated a smear campaign against her to malign her reputation. 

Baldoni has sought $250 million from the publication as damages. The Blake Lively -Justin Baldoni tussle has been dominating the headlines for a while and Baldoni's new move is being considered as a significant step in the case. 

Through his lawsuit, Baldoni has alleged that the Times and Lively coordinated a smear campaign against Baldoni and his nine fellow plaintiffs.

The Times stood by its reporting and said it plans to “vigorously defend" against the lawsuit.

About The New York Times story

The plaintiffs include the film’s lead producer Jamey Heath, its production company Wayfarer Studios, and crisis communications expert Melissa Nathan, whose text message was quoted in the headline of the Dec. 21 Times story-  “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine."

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Written by Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire and Julie Tate, the story was published just after Lively filed a legal complaint that is usually a predecessor to a lawsuit at the California Civil Rights Department over her alleged treatment on the sets of It Ends With Us. 

Blake Lively sues It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment

Lively's complaint and the Times story alleged that Baldoni enlisted publicists and crisis managers in a plan to destroy Lively’s reputation if she went public with her on-set concerns. Lively had objected to Baldoni and Jamey Heath's on-set behaviour. 

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Justin Baldoni's publicist resigns from PR firm amid Blake Lively lawsuit

Now, 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."

The New York Times issues statement against Baldoni

A spokesperson for the Times, Danielle Rhoades, said in a statement that “our story was meticulously and responsibly reported."

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“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.

But the lawsuit says that “If the Times truly reviewed the thousands of private communications it claimed to have obtained, its reporters would have seen incontrovertible evidence that it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign."

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni and his production company along with Heath of sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign to destroy her reputation. 

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