Blake Lively is standing firmly behind The New York Times as the publication fights to be removed from Justin Baldoni’s massive $250 million defamation lawsuit.
The outlet filed a motion in a New York federal court on Friday, defending its reporting on Lively’s accusations against Baldoni, according to Deadline.
The NYT maintains that its reporting on Lively’s sexual harassment claims against Baldoni was fair and accurate, while asserting that Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios’ ‘one-sided’ allegations have no relevance to the publication.
‘The Wayfarer Parties FAC tells a one-sided tale that has garnered plenty of headlines,’ the filing states, per the outlet. ‘But The Times does not belong in this dispute.’
A spokesperson for Lively also backed the motion, telling the outlet, ‘In its motion to dismiss, The New York Times correctly calls out Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit for what it is: a shameless PR document that has no business in a court of law.’
The rep added: ‘For years, Baldoni urged men to listen to and believe women. But when a woman spoke out about his behavior, he and his billionaire backer Steve Sorowitz used a social media combat plan’ to scorch earth and try to ‘bury’ and ‘destroy’ her, along with the media who reports on it.’
Blake Lively is standing firmly behind The New York Times as the publication fights to be removed from Justin Baldoni ’s massive $250 million lawsuit; (seen in February)
The outlet filed a motion in a New York federal court on Friday, defending its reporting on Lively’s accusations against Baldoni, 40, regarding alleged misconduct on the set of It Ends With Us, according to Deadline; (seen in 2023)
The rep continued, ‘These bullying tactics will not survive in court, and everyone should see their meritless claims for what they are.’
In a December 21 article titled We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine, The New York Times shed light on allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation made by Lively against Baldoni during the production of It Ends With Us.
Following this, Baldoni and his PR team filed a $250 million lawsuit against the Times on December 31.
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The 87-page libel complaint filed in LA Superior Court accused the NYT and its journalists of being in league with Lively with the December 21 article that ‘cherry-picked and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.’
While the initial lawsuit in California has been dropped, the Times has been added to Baldoni’s amended complaint in New York, which also names Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist Leslie Sloane.
‘Over the course of their 224-page First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) (plus an added 168-page timeline), the Wayfarer Parties breathlessly tell their side of an ongoing Hollywood drama involving actors Blake Lively (“Lively”) and Justin Baldoni (“Baldoni”), the stars of the film It Ends With Us,” the New York Times’ court filing submitted on Friday reads, per the outlet.
‘The FAC has, to some extent, achieved its obvious purpose; the Wayfarer Parties’ story has been reported by countless news outlets during the last few weeks. What the FAC has not done, however, is plead a viable claim against The Times.’
Per Deadline, the memorandum accompanying the dismissal motion added: ‘Throughout their blunderbuss complaint, the Wayfarer Parties seek to drag The Times into their larger feud with Lively.
A spokesperson for Lively also backed the motion, telling the outlet, ‘In its motion to dismiss, The New York Times correctly calls out Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit for what it is: a shameless PR document that has no business in a court of law,’ (Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds in August)
‘But the only thing The Times is, in fact, alleged to have done is engage in newsgathering and publishing an Article and Video about the Wayfarer/Lively dispute.’
The publication contends that its involvement was limited to standard newsgathering and reporting on Lively’s complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department, per Deadline.
Addressing allegations of collusion with Lively’s team and biased reporting, the Times’ legal team asserted, ‘Despite the Wayfarer Parties’ hundreds of pages of screengrabs, outrage, and rhetoric, this is a very simple case: the Article is absolutely privileged as a fair report, and the Wayfarer Parties’ defamation claim fails.’
No hearing date has been set for the motion to dismiss.
Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for the Times, told Deadline, ‘As our motion shows, this case should never have been brought against The New York Times.
‘Blake Lively raised serious concerns about the way she was treated on the set and after the movie’s release. We did exactly what news organizations should do: we informed the public of the complaint she filed with the California Civil Rights Department.
Mr. Baldoni’s misbegotten campaign against the Times—questioning our ethics, attempting to discredit our reporting, filing a baseless lawsuit—will not silence us.’
Blake’s support of the NYT’s legal move comes hours after it was reported that she hired Nick Shapiro, the CIA’s former deputy chief of staff, to serve as her PR crisis manager amid her escalating legal battle with Baldoni.
Lively accused Baldoni of repeatedly crossing boundaries during their intimate scenes, including improvising kisses that had not been previously rehearsed or discussed
‘The litigation team for Ms. Lively retained Mr. Shapiro to advise on the legal communications strategy for the ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit occurring in the Southern District of New York,’ Lively’s legal team confirmed to DailyMail.com on Friday.
Shapiro has more than two decades of crisis management and was the CIA’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Director.
News of Lively hiring Shapiro come after a judge blocked her efforts to make Baldoni surrender more than two years’ worth of texts and call data.
Lively had subpoenaed the actor for ‘documents concerning ingoing and outgoing calls or text messages … within the time period of December 1, 2022 to the present’.
The itemized demands included ‘call logs, text logs, data logs, and cell site location information.’
A New York court agreed with Baldoni, however, the her discovery request was ‘overly intrusive and disproportionate’ in a ruling on Friday.
Federal Judge Lewis Liman said the trove of data would be so vast it could include communications with nonparties or sensitive information related to doctors and psychologists.
He also questioned why Lively needed texts dating back more than two years to prove that Baldoni and staff from his Wayfarer production company started to harass her in 2024.
Lively and Baldoni, whose 2024 adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s acclaimed novel It Ends With Us a box office hit, are months into the bitter legal war; seen last year
‘Lively mainly argues that the Subpoenas will help to identify “the larger network of individuals” who perpetuated a negative media campaign against her,’ he remarked.
‘But according to Lively’s complaint, this negative campaign did not begin until approximately August 2024 … it is therefore unclear how communications to and from Wayfarer Parties in 2022 and 2023 would reveal individuals who participated in the campaign.’
Judge Liman told mom-of-four Lively to rework her subpoenas but didn’t quash them entirely.
Baldoni’s lawyers wanted to stop her from asking third parties for similar discovery materials but Liman tossed that argument.
‘The Wayfarer Parties may assert a privacy interest in their own phone records, but they have not provided any basis for asserting an interest in the communications of non-parties,’ he said in a six-page filing.
Lively and Baldoni, whose 2024 adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s acclaimed novel It Ends With Us a box office hit, are months into the bitter legal war.
Lively kicked off hostilities with a California civil rights complaint and subsequent federal lawsuit, claiming he had entered her trailer while she was topless, showed her graphic video of his wife giving birth and bit and sucked on her lips during an improvised kissing scene.
She further accused her co-star of smearing her reputation when she objected to the abuse, citing a text message from Baldoni’s publicist Melissa Nathan which read: ‘We can bury anyone.’
Lively’s bombshell claims made global headlines thanks to the near-simultaneous publication of a 4,000-word New York Times expose that quoted heavily from the civil rights complaint.
Baldoni countersued Lively and her Hollywood actor husband Reynolds, turning the spat on its head by claiming it was their team doing the smearing and asking for $400 million in damages.
He accused her of twisting the meaning of his texts and emails and working in tandem with Leslie Sloane, a powerful Hollywood publicist, to plant damaging stories about him in the media.
It was all a ploy, Baldoni argued, to rebuild Lively’s reputation after she came in for criticism for being prickly and difficult in interviews and promotional events.
Any negative publicity surrounding his blonde leading lady had arisen ‘organically’, his suit contends.
Lively’s bombshell claims made global headlines thanks to the near-simultaneous publication of a 4,000-word New York Times expose that quoted heavily from the civil rights complaint; pictured in 2024
Baldoni’s team earlier this month released a website which includes private communications such as text messages that were included in court filings detailing his interactions with the Hollywood power couple over the making of romantic drama.
He claimed in court filings they made efforts made to usurp and undermine his input as the director of It Ends with Us.
Baldoni’s team previously said that the communications shared in court filings on the website – which already has fans talking – makes things clear about the motives of both parties, marking the latest chapter in the feud between the It Ends with Us headliners.
The website, which is live online at thelawsuitinfo.com, comes amid a spate of high-profile litigation between the collaborators on the film, which was a hit at the box office last August.
The site went live days prior to the first hearing, ahead of a trial with a starting date of March 9, 2026.