Blake Lively has filed a fresh lawsuit against Justin Baldoni after he sued the New York Times for libel.
The actress has been embroiled in a legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star, having made a legal complaint against him just two weeks ago, which was released to the public via the New York Times.
The 37-year-old has followed up the original complaint, which was filed with the California Civil Rights Commission, by formally suing Baldoni in federal court in New York.
There were rumours that Baldoni was already preparing his own complaint against Lively after she accused him of sexual harassment and attempting to ‘destroy’ her reputation, which has now come to fruition, as he seeks $250 million from the New York Times.
The Gossip Girl star claimed that Baldoni had led a ‘social manipulation’ campaign against her, alleging that he caused her ‘severe emotional distress’ behind-the-scenes.
Baldoni denied the claims made in Lively’s first lawsuit, which also accused him of sexually harassing her.
The second lawsuit from Lively is more formal, and was filed yesterday (31 December), claiming that her co-star aimed to tarnish her reputation as part of a team, including publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR Melissa Nathan.
The latter is best known for working with Johnny Depp, while the former has denied being part of a ‘smearing campaign’.
The trio are defendants in the lawsuit, which also includes Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios.
LADbible has reached out to Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal teams and Wayfarer Studios for comment.
In her second suit, Lively is demanding ‘punitive’ and ‘compensatory’ damages as well as a jury trial, as she has again accused the defendants of causing her ‘mental pain and anguish’.
She added that they also caused ‘severe and serious emotional distress’ and ‘lost wages’.
Her attorneys provided a statement to Daily Mail.com, alleging that there has been ‘further retaliation and attacks’ since she has spoken out against her co-star.
It read: “Earlier today (31 December), Ms. Lively filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios and others in the Southern District of New York.
“Ms. Lively previously sent her California Civil Rights Department Complaint in response to the retaliatory campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Unfortunately, Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks.”
Her legal team went on: “As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court.”
“Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law,” they concluded.
This follows a $250 million lawsuit brought against the New York Times, with the plaintiffs including Nathan, Abel, and Baldoni among seven others, alleging libel and false-light invasion of privacy.
They claimed that the information in the lawsuit published by the newspaper was ‘cherry-picked’ and stripped of context to ‘mislead’.
Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s legal representative, previously said that the lawsuit would ‘shock everyone’ who had ‘been manipulated’ into believing the narrative.
“I will be supported by real evidence and tell the true story,” he claimed to Deadline.
He claimed: “In over 30 years of practicing, I have never seen this level of unethical behavior intentionally fueled through media manipulation.”
Leslie Sloane, Lively’s publicist, also spoke about the counter-lawsuit, denying that she ‘tried to smear Baldoni by planting stories with numerous news organisations.’
Speaking to Us Weekly, she stated that she was contacted by ‘various press outlets’ about HR complaints, adding: “It’s clear that Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer Associates are suggesting that I originated press stories about HR complaints on set, which is false. Please read Ms. Lively’s Complaint and the Complaint filed by Jonesworks LLC and Stephanie Jones, which provides the details of the campaign against my client.”
Speaking on the suit from Baldoni earlier this week, a New York Times spokesperson said: “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well. We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
