It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times for US$250mil (RM1.11bil) on Tuesday (Dec 31) over its explosive report alleging a smear campaign against co-lead Blake Lively after she claimed she’d been harassed on set.
Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs, the suit alleges the NY Times took numerous texts and other communications out of context, relying on “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead,” according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by Variety.
Baldoni’s 87-page complaint gives examples of what Lively had called harassment in a Dec 20 filing with the California Human Rights Commission, calling her narrative “rife with blatant falsehoods and egregious misrepresentation” – including leaving out emojis indicating sarcasm in some of the communications.
Lively also filed suit on Tuesday, following up on her 80-page human rights commission complaint with a lawsuit in federal court in New York, TMZ reported. She’s also suing the crisis PR team Baldoni had hired in August, and Wayfarer Studios, which produced what turned out to be a blockbuster film, seeking monetary damages for severe emotional distress.
Talent agency WME dropped Baldoni hours after the Times published “'We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside A Hollywood Smear Machine,” written by Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire and Julie Tate, on Dec 21. His podcast co-host quit, and a women’s-rights nonprofit rescinded his advocacy award.
In one example cited in Baldoni’s suit, the Times story repeats Lively’s claim that Baldoni “repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.” Baldoni quotes a text Lively sent him that said she was pumping breastmilk in her trailer and would be willing to work on their lines. He agreed and arrived later.
Baldoni’s attorneys said the example was just one of many that soundly refute Lively’s allegations.
Also suing are publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel over their reported role in the alleged smear campaign, along with producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz, according to Variety. All are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
