Reports have been circulating that actor-director Justin Baldoni has sued The New York Times (NYT), leaving many wondering why. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on December 31 by Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs, alleges that the NYT committed promissory fraud and breached an implied-in-fact contract by publishing one of its articles.
Justin Baldoni sues New York Times over Blake Lively story
Justin Baldoni has filed a $250 million lawsuit against the NYT. The lawsuit concerns the publication’s December 21 article, ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine. The article was published one day after actress Blake Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation.
Blake Lively collaborated with Justin Baldoni on It Ends with Us (2024). On December 20, she submitted her complaint to the California Civil Rights Department. Her complaint also named Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, along with several individuals involved with the film.
The NYT article reported that Baldoni and lead producer Jamey Heath hired crisis management expert Melissa Nathan. This reportedly happened after Lively claimed men on set made inappropriate remarks and violated her physical boundaries multiple times. Nathan’s clients include well-known figures like Johnny Depp, Drake, and Travis Scott. The article claimed that Lively obtained documents through a subpoena, which allegedly exposed a smear campaign against the Gossip Girl star.
In their complaint, Baldoni and other plaintiffs accused the NYT of misusing selected communications. They alleged the messages were “stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead” readers.
An NYT spokesperson stated, “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead.” They claimed that the story was “meticulously and responsibly reported,” based on “a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails accurately quoted at length in the article” (via Variety).
The spokesperson further noted that Baldoni, his production company, and others had not yet highlighted any factual errors in the article. “We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well,” the statement added. “We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
