Justin Baldoni sues The New York Times for $250 million for Blake Lively story

[KENNEDY FELTON]

And the saga continues… Blake Lively says she was sexually harassed by her co-star, Justin Baldoni, on the set of “It Ends With Us” as we reported to you last week.

But now, Baldoni is suing the New York Times for $250 million, claiming its recent article painted him in a deliberately misleading light.

In an exclusive from Variety, Baldoni filed the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court. His new 87-page complaint argues Lively’s claims were distorted by “cherry-picked” texts.

Among those texts from Lively’s original suit was from a publicist working with Baldoni that stated his intention to “bury” Lively, in which crisis management expert Melissa Nathan replied, “You know we can bury anyone.”

Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs, including Nathan and publicist Jennifer Abel, say the Times “deliberately spliced” communications to mislead readers.

While Lively’s suit alleges Baldoni and his team set out on a smear campaign against her, Baldoni says it was Lively who embarked on a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign to gain unilateral control over every aspect of the production.

Baldoni believes Lively used her influence against him, while he says her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, confronted him at their penthouse and accused him of fat-shaming Lively. For context, Lively’s suit reveals a meeting was held to address Baldoni’s actions. Attendees included Lively’s husband, so Reynolds was involved in the overall situation in some aspect.

Furthermore, the lawsuit states Reynolds pressured Baldoni’s WME talent agent to drop him as a client, even before he sought crisis management. WME did, in fact, end up parting ways with Baldoni hours after the Times article was published.

In this $250 million lawsuit, Baldoni hopes to refute the article’s allegations of sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign. In another exclusive, this time by TMZ, Lively has reportedly filed a lawsuit making a formal demand for more money, suing Baldoni and others for mental pain, anguish, emotional distress, and lost wages.