Justin Baldoni Files Libel Lawsuit Against New York Times Over Blake Lively Story

Fallout from an alleged campaign to smear Blake Lively over the filming of It Ends With Us has sparked another lawsuit, this time against The New York Times for libel.

Justin Baldoni, in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, accuses the Times of conspiring with Lively’s public relations team to advance an “unverified and self-serving narrative” while ignoring evidence that contradicted her claims.

Baldoni’s complaint follows a separate complaint from Stephanie Jones, a former publicist for Baldoni, who accused the actor and director of breaching their contract after she was allegedly forced out of representing him and his production company amid concerns that Lively would go public with her accusations. It was filed days after a legal action from Lively with the California Civil Rights Department, believed to be a precursor to a lawsuit, against Baldoni; his film studio, Wayfarer and the public relations representatives, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, both of whom are alleged to have helped orchestrate a smear campaign against the actress.

The dispute has ensnared the who’s who of the Hollywood public relations machinery. Lively’s complaint included troves of excerpts of text messages and emails that she obtained through a subpoena of Jonesworks. The messages came from a company phone used by Abel, who left the company earlier this year to start her own operation.

The messages between Abel and Nathan included a key exchange where Abel pushes the crisis team, “I think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios. [Baldoni] wants to feel like she can be buried.” To which Nathan replied, “Of course — but you know when we send over documents we can’t send over the work we will or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble. We can’t write we will destroy her. Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands. You know we can bury anyone.”

More to come…