Actor and director Justin Baldoni has filed a lawsuit against The New York Times following the publication of an article detailing allegations from his It Ends With Us co-star, Blake Lively. The suit, filed Tuesday, accuses the newspaper of libel and false light invasion of privacy, claiming the article misrepresented facts and misled readers.
The contested article, titled “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” was written by reporters Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire, and Julie Tate. It outlined Lively’s accusations of sexual misconduct against Baldoni and alleged that he orchestrated a campaign to damage her reputation. The article included purported email and text exchanges involving Baldoni’s publicists, Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan.
Baldoni’s lawsuit asserts that The Times “cherry-picked” and altered communications, stripping them of crucial context to support a false narrative. The complaint stated:
“The Article’s central thesis, encapsulated in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader, is that Plaintiffs orchestrated a retaliatory public relations campaign against Lively for speaking out about sexual harassment — a premise that is categorically false and easily disproven.”
Baldoni, seeking $250 million in damages, lists nine co-plaintiffs in the suit, including Wayfarer Studios LLC, which produced It Ends With Us, and his publicists, Abel and Nathan.
Brian Freedman, Baldoni’s attorney, criticized The Times for allegedly disregarding journalistic ethics, stating that the publication manipulated evidence to fit a predetermined narrative.
“They cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts,” Freedman said in a statement to Good Morning America.
He further accused the paper of aiding a campaign to revitalize Lively’s public image while countering criticism she faced online.
Freedman warned of additional lawsuits against individuals he claims abused their power to harm Baldoni and his co-plaintiffs. “While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth — and have all of the communications to back it,” the statement read. “The public will decide for themselves as they did when this first began.”
Baldoni’s lawsuit marks a high-profile legal battle, bringing attention to allegations of media manipulation and raising questions about the role of public relations in Hollywood disputes. Both The New York Times and Blake Lively have yet to comment publicly on the lawsuit.
