Actor Justin Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit in opposition to The New York Occasions on Tuesday, claiming the Grey Girl defamed him and his staff when overlaying his “It Ends with Us” co-star Blake Vigorous’s declare he launched a “smear campaign” in opposition to her.
Vigorous beforehand filed a lawsuit in opposition to Baldoni for sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional affliction of emotional misery, negligence and extra. Vigorous additionally claims that Baldoni executed and took part in a “social manipulation” marketing campaign to destroy her profession and popularity.
The Occasions revealed a December 21 story headlined, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” which reported personal emails and textual content messages that present a “playbook for waging a largely undetectable smear campaign in the digital era” about Vigorous, a 37-year-old actress married to actor Ryan Reynolds.
Actor Justin Baldoni is suing The New York Occasions for defamation. (Nathan Congleton/NBC through Getty Pictures)
Nevertheless, Baldoni and different plaintiffs, together with Hollywood public relations gurus, assert that the Occasions article “deliberately omitted portions of text exchanges and other information that contradicted the actress’s version of events.” They declare the Occasions defamed them within the course of, leaving out crucial context from communications that dispute lots of Vigorous’s claims.
“The article’s central thesis, encapsulated in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader, is that plaintiffs orchestrated a retaliatory public relations campaign against Lively for speaking out about sexual harassment — a premise that is categorically false and easily disproven,” the 87-page lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket by lawyer Bryan Freedman, claims.
“The Times story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives,” the go well with continues.
Freedman advised Selection that the Occasions “cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative.”
Blake Vigorous and Justin Baldoni. (Getty Pictures)
The Occasions stands by its reporting.
“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,” Occasions spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha advised Fox Information Digital.
“We revealed their full assertion in response to the allegations within the article as properly,” she continued. “We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
The lawsuit additionally claims the Occasions revealed its report earlier than the deadline that was given to Baldoni’s reps to reply as a way to “pay lip service to journalistic ethics and fundamental fairness” however “never intended—or wanted—for Plaintiffs to respond.”
Expertise company William Morris Endeavor dropped Baldoni as a shopper on the heels of the Occasions piece, based on the paper.
Freedman didn’t instantly reply to a request for added remark about Baldoni’s claims in regards to the Occasions. He beforehand advised The Occasions that Vigorous’s preliminary claims have been “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 08: Blake Vigorous attends the UK Gala Screening of “It Ends With Us” on the Odeon Luxe Leicester Sq. on August 08, 2024 in London, England. (Picture by Lia Toby/Getty Pictures) (Lia Toby/Getty Pictures)
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Fox Information Digital’s Lauryn Overhultz and Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.
