Actor Justin Baldoni filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against Hollywood stars Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of sexual harassment against the actress and then accusing him of retaliating against her through a smear campaign. He claimed that he was trying to destroy him.
The suit is the latest in a feud related to the 2024 film “It Ends with Us,” starring Ms. Lively and Mr. Baldoni, who also directed it.
The 179-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York names Lively and her husband, Reynolds, as well as publicist Leslie Sloan and her company, Vision PR, as defendants. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Mr. Baldoni. Jamie Heath is the film's lead producer. Their production company, Wayfarer Studios. and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel. They are seeking $400 million in damages.
Representatives for Ms. Lively's team did not respond to requests for comment.
The New York Times published an article on December 21 about Lively's allegations against Baldoni. She claimed in a complaint filed the day before with the California Department of Civil Rights that she began the campaign after accusing Mr. Baldoni of sexual harassment while filming “Endless Us.”
The Times report cited private text messages and emails that Lively obtained through a subpoena and were included in the complaint.
The complaint alleges that messages show Mr. Baldoni and his business partner, Mr. Heath, fearing that allegations of wrongdoing will become public and are working with crisis public relations experts to try to damage Mr. Lively's reputation. It is claimed that there is. Ms. Lively sued Mr. Baldoni and others on December 31 in federal court in New York City.
The same day, Mr. Baldoni filed a defamation suit against the New York Times in Los Angeles, accusing the paper of relying on Mr. Lively's “unverified and self-serving stories.” He reiterated some of the claims against the publication in a lawsuit he filed Thursday.
The Times said it intended to vigorously defend Mr. Baldoni's claims against the paper. “The allegations against The New York Times in this new lawsuit are without merit and are consistent with similar claims in a lawsuit filed against The Times in California,” Times spokeswoman Daniel Rhodes Herr said in a statement Thursday. “This is a reuse of a claim that was never made.”
In his countersuit against Lively, Baldoni alleges that the actress used her star power to take over “every aspect” of her film, and that later, when her public reputation suffered during the film's promotion. said she tried to blame Mr. Lively for the choices she made. put it on the market. He accused her of trying to cast him as “the real-life villain in her story” and of colluding with the Times to “prepare a false and harmful narrative.”
“This is a case about how two of the world's most influential stars used their enormous power to steal entire films from the hands of directors and production studios,” the lawsuit states. “Then, when Lively and Reynolds' efforts failed to win them the praise they believed they fully deserved, they turned their anger on their self-selected scapegoats.”
Mr. Baldoni denied the sexual harassment allegations against Ms. Lively or the smear campaign against her, saying he was the victim of such a campaign.
