Justin Baldoni has filed a $250 million libel suit against The New York Times for the Blake Lively story “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Campaign”.

The suit claims The New York Times failed to meet standards of journalistic integrity.

A spokesperson for The New York Times said they plan to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

Blake Lively’s attorneys filed a federal complaint on Tuesday, which reiterates the sexual harassment complaint but with the addition of “severe emotional distress and pain” seeking damages.

Actress and producer of It Ends With Us, Lively, took legal action against Justin Baldoni, the director and lead actor, and Jamey Heath, the lead producer, for sexual harassment in December.

Lively filed a complaint on November 9 2023, claiming Baldoni discussed his sex life – including his porn addiction and encounters where he may not have received consent – and improvised physical intimacy on set, including biting her lip.

They had a meeting at which Wayfarer Studios agreed to comply with Lively’s requests, including having a full-time intimacy coordinator on January 4 2024.

Heath signed a contract not to retaliate against her.

Attorney for Baldoni and representatives, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement: “due to multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening not to promote the film… if her demands were not met.”

One of her demands was for neither Baldoni nor Heath to come into her dressing room whilst she was naked and for Baldoni to stop mentioning her recently deceased father.

On December 21, 2024, The New York Times posted a 4,000-word feature containing several text messages from the PR crisis team and the document filings.

The lawsuit states, “The article’s central thesis [is] encapsulated in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader.”

The headline comes from a text message Melissa Nathan sent, obtained through a subpoena.

Nathan is a public relations expert best known for her previous client, Johnny Depp.

She founded her company, TAG PR, with Scooter Braun, a majority stakeholder on June 20 2024.

Freedman filed the lawsuit on behalf of ten plaintiffs, including Baldoni and Heath, Wayfarer Studios, and Nathan and Jennifer Abel from TAG PR.

Wayfarer Studios was the production company for It Ends With Us, with Sony as the film distributor.

Baldoni co-founded the production company in 2019.

Lively’s attorneys said in a statement: “Nothing in the lawsuit changes anything” about Lively’s claims.

Since then, The New York Times has posted Freedman’s statement and a response story by Megan Twohey and Mike McIntire.

Before shooting resumed on January 5 2024 after the SAGA writer’s strike, Lively objected to several sex scenes that did not appear in Colleen Hoover’s original novel.

The alleged changes by Baldoni were a scene for Lively to orgasm on-camera and the younger actress, Isabela Ferrer, to have a detailed scene of the character losing her virginity.

In the complaint filed by Lively, after shooting the sex scene with young Lily he said: “I know I’m not supposed to say this, but that was hot”.

Another cast member lodged a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni.

Many cast members unfollowed Balondi before the film’s release and informed Sony they would not appear in marketing or on the red carpet alongside him.

Ryan Reynolds, Lively’s husband, blocked Baldoni on Instagram and was present on set following the January meeting as Lively’s representative.

Many media outlets reported this as creative differences before the social media campaign around Lively’s behaviour.

Sara Nathan, sister of Melissa Nathan, wrote an article called “Blake Lively approved final cut of ‘It Ends with Us’ amid feud with co-star director Justin Baldoni” for Page Six.

A message from the subpoena by one of the employees from TAG PR wrote: “We’ve started to see a shift on social due largely to Jed and his team’s efforts to shift the narrative.”

Attorney for Baldoni and representatives, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement: “The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity.”

As all three sides prepare for further legal proceedings, the case underscores the complexities of media reporting and the powerful narrative against women in Hollywood.

A narrative that Baldoni has spent his career pushing against.

In 2017, he presented a TED Talk titled “Why I’m Done Trying to be ‘Man Enough’ “and created a podcast titled “Man Enough.”