Blake Lively‘s legal team is backing The New York Times in its effort to remove itself from the ongoing legal dispute between Lively and Justin Baldoni.
In a filing on Friday (via Deadline), the paper said that it “does not belong” in the legal dispute between Lively and Baldoni after it was included in Baldoni’s lawsuit for an article published in December 2024 detailing Lively’s initial complaint against Baldoni.
“The Wayfarer Parties’ FAC tells a one-sided tale that has garnered plenty of headlines,” the company’s filing said. “But The Times does not belong in this dispute.”
What did Blake lively say about Justin Baldoni and the NY Times?
Speaking on the matter, a spokesperson for Lively agreed with the Times, saying that they are correctly calling out Baldoni and his lawsuit for what it is, nothing but “a shameless PR document.”
“In its motion to dismiss, the New York Times correctly calls out Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit for what it is: a shameless PR document that has no business in a court of law. For years, Baldoni urged men to listen to and believe women. But when a woman spoke out about his behavior, he and his billionaire backer Steve Sorowitz used a social media combat plan’ to scorch earth and try to ‘bury’ and ‘destroy’ her, along with the media who reports on it. These bullying tactics will not survive in court, and everyone should see their meritless claims for what they are.”
Lively’s initial complaint alleges that Baldoni created a hostile work environment
All of this stems from a formal complaint that Lively made against Baldoni in December. In it, she states that things got so bad during the filming of It Ends With Us that an all-hands-on-deck meeting was called in response to her claims of a hostile work environment. During the meeting, Lively asked that Baldoni stop showing her nude videos or images of women, that he stop mentioning his pornography addiction to her, that Baldoni stop discussing sexual experiences in front of her, and that he also stop mentioning Lively’s weight.
The complaint also claims that an agreement was made between production company Wayfarer Studios and the cast in which the promotion of the movie would focus “more on [Lively’s character’s] strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence.” However, Lively claims that Baldoni would renege on that and instead spoke in interviews about the film’s serious story.
Lively also claimed that Baldoni and his PR manager, Melissa Nathan, discussed ways to start a social media campaign to harm her reputation. The filing by Lively includes 22 pages of texts between Baldoni’s publicist and Nathan, in which they discuss wanting to have Lively “buried.”
(Source: Deadline)
