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Blake Lively has filed a formal lawsuit against her “It Ends with Us” co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, accusing him of harassment and orchestrating a campaign to damage her reputation.
This legal action follows Baldoni’s own libel lawsuit against The New York Times, alleging that the newspaper and Lively were engaged in a coordinated smear campaign.
Lively claims that Baldoni, along with the film’s production company Wayfarer Studios and others, devised a “coordinated, retaliatory scheme” aimed at silencing her and others who spoke out. She alleges that Baldoni and the studio launched a “multi-tiered plan” to tarnish her reputation after a meeting in which she and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, addressed accusations of “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath, who is also named in both lawsuits.
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, dismissed Lively’s claims as “completely false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious.” Regarding the New York Times lawsuit, Freedman accused the newspaper of yielding to the demands of “two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites” and claimed that their story was manipulated to help Lively’s public image while countering online criticism. He called the situation “ironic.”
However, The New York Times spokesperson, Danielle Rhoades, defended the publication, stating that their story was “meticulously and responsibly reported.”
