“It Ends With Us” director Justin Baldoni sued The New York Occasions for libel on Tuesday over its story on allegations that he sexually harassed and sought to smear the fame of the movie’s star, Blake Lively.
The lawsuit looking for at the very least $250 million was filed in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom, the subsequent main transfer in a rising story that has made main waves in Hollywood. It alleges the Occasions and Full of life coordinated a smear marketing campaign towards Baldoni and his 9 fellow plaintiffs.
The Occasions stood by its reporting and mentioned it plans to “vigorously defend” towards the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs embrace the movie’s lead producer Jamey Heath, its manufacturing firm Wayfarer Studios, and disaster communications professional Melissa Nathan, whose textual content message was quoted within the headline of the Dec. 21 Occasions story: “‘We Can Bury Anybody’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”
Written by Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire and Julie Tate, the story was printed simply after Full of life filed a authorized grievance that’s often a predecessor to a lawsuit with the California Civil Rights Division over her alleged remedy.
Each her authorized grievance and the Occasions story allege Baldoni enlisted publicists and disaster managers in a plan to destroy Full of life’s fame if she went public along with her on-set issues.
Baldoni’s lawsuit says the newspaper “relied virtually completely on Full of life’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it practically verbatim whereas disregarding an abundance of proof that contradicted her claims and uncovered her true motives. However the Occasions didn’t care.”
A spokesperson for the Occasions, Danielle Rhoades, mentioned in an announcement that “our story was meticulously and responsibly reported.”
“It was based mostly on a evaluation of hundreds of pages of authentic paperwork, together with the textual content messages and emails that we quote precisely and at size within the article. To this point, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the opposite topics of the article and their representatives haven’t pointed to a single error,” the assertion mentioned.
However the lawsuit says that “If the Occasions actually reviewed the hundreds of personal communications it claimed to have obtained, its reporters would have seen incontrovertible proof that it was Full of life, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear marketing campaign.”
Full of life will not be a defendant within the lawsuit. Her legal professionals mentioned in an announcement that “Nothing on this lawsuit adjustments something concerning the claims superior in Ms. Full of life’s California Civil Rights Division Criticism.”
The romantic drama “It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel, was launched in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. However the film’s launch was shrouded by hypothesis over discord between Full of life and Baldoni. Baldoni took a backseat in selling the movie whereas Full of life took centerstage alongside along with her husband Ryan Reynolds, who was on the press circuit for “Deadpool & Wolverine” on the similar time.
Full of life got here to fame by means of the 2005 movie “The Sisterhood of the Touring Pants,” and bolstered her stardom on the TV collection “Gossip Woman” from 2007 to 2012. She has since starred in movies together with “The City” and “The Shallows.”
Baldoni starred within the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 movie “5 Toes Aside” and wrote “Man Sufficient,” a ebook pushing again towards conventional notions of masculinity. He responded to issues that “It Ends With Us” romanticized home violence, telling the AP on the time that critics have been “completely entitled to that opinion.”
He was dropped by his company, WME, instantly after Full of life filed her grievance and the Occasions printed its story.
___
Related Press author Ryan Pearson contributed to this story.
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
