CNN
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Justin Baldoni is hitting back after being accused of sexual harassment by his co-star Blake Lively. He filed a defamation lawsuit against the New York Times on Tuesday, claiming the newspaper published an article “rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations and omissions” about Lively’s “self-serving narrative.”

Lively filed a complaint with the California Department of Civil Rights in December, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation. In the bombshell complaint, Lively claimed that after she raised concerns about sexual harassment on the set of her film “It Ends With Us,” Baldoni and his team retaliated against her and released unflattering press information in an attempt to ruin her professional reputation.

Lively’s complaint was first reported in The New York Times, which published an article on December 21 titled “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Libel Machine.” The 4,000-word article included content from the Department of Civil Rights’ complaint. which generally remain confidential.

Following the New York Times article and Lively’s complaint against Baldoni, he was fired from the talent agency WME, which also represents Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds. Lively received rapid support across Hollywood. SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, released a statement in their support. Sony, the studio behind It Ends With Us, also released a statement regarding Lively.

Now Baldoni claims Lively fabricated false sexual harassment allegations to seize control of the film and then launched a campaign in the New York Times at Baldoni’s to “recast her public persona” with “salacious, headline-grabbing Accusations.” Expense.

“Lively’s cynical misuse of the sexual harassment allegations to gain unilateral control over every aspect of production was both strategic and manipulative,” Baldoni’s lawsuit states. “At the same time, her public image suffered from a series of high-profile blunders that she tried to stave off by blaming the plaintiffs for the public’s prying interest in the foibles of an A-list celebrity. This is nothing more than an excuse. Fame is a double-edged sword, but Lively’s tactics here are ruthless.”

The lawsuit alleges that The New York Times neglected its “journalistic integrity” in investigating Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation allegations, noting that the newspaper “relied almost exclusively on Lively’s uncorroborated and self-serving narrative, almost recanted verbatim, ignoring a wealth of evidence.” This contradicted her claims and revealed her true motives.”

A spokesperson for The New York Times told CNN that the publication plans to “vigorously defend itself against the lawsuit.”

“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday. “Our story has been reported carefully and responsibly. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and extensively in the article. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article, and their representatives have not identified a single error. We have also published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article.”

Lively’s lawyers told CNN in a statement that “nothing in this lawsuit changes anything” about Lively’s claims.

While Lively initially filed a complaint against Baldoni and his Wayfarer production company with the California Department of Civil Rights, the actress’ lawyers filed a federal complaint on Tuesday.

“We look forward to addressing each of Wayfarer’s allegations in court,” Lively’s lawyers said.

Baldoni’s lawsuit was filed by attorney Bryan Freedman in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of a total of ten plaintiffs, including Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, his producing partner Jamey Heath, who Lively also accused of sexual harassment, and Baldoni’s publicist and crisis manager Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan.

Baldoni co-starred with Lively in and directed It Ends With Us, based on the book of the same name about a couple and domestic violence in their relationship. Wayfarer Studios acquired the booking rights and produced the film, which became a box office success.

Lively’s complaint included screenshots of text messages and correspondence that Lively’s team alleged showed orchestrated attempts by Baldoni’s public relations representatives to damage her reputation in the media as part of a “social manipulation campaign.”

Baldoni’s lawsuit contains pages of text messages that Freedman told CNN are evidence that the text messages released in Lively’s original complaint were “manipulated and manipulated.” In his complaint, he alleges that the Times “intentionally” omitted text that “challenged” Lively’s narrative.

“If the Times had actually looked through the thousands of private communications it allegedly received, its reporters would have seen irrefutable evidence that Lively, not plaintiffs, waged a calculated smear campaign,” Baldoni’s lawsuit says.

One of the most egregious allegations in Lively’s complaint was that Baldoni and Heath “uninvited entered her makeup trailer while she was undressed, even if she was breastfeeding.”

Baldoni’s lawsuit refutes that specific claim and shows a text that appears to be from Lively to Baldoni that reads, “I’m just pumping up my trailer if you want to elaborate on our text.”

(CNN has not verified the authenticity of any of the text messages. The text message in which Lively supposedly invites Baldoni to her trailer is marked as sent in June 2023.)

After Lively’s complaint was filed, a snowball effect occurred with both sides calling each other names, raising questions about how those private text messages were obtained. A later lawsuit filed by Baldoni’s former publicist Stephanie Jones alleged that these text messages came from the phone of her former employee Abel – Baldoni’s current publicist – who was among the people who accused Lively of orchestrating a smear campaign against her to have.

Baldoni, Heath, Abel, Nathan and Wayfarer all denied Lively’s original claims and claimed that Lively was the one who leaked negative press about Baldoni.

“These allegations are completely false, outrageous and deliberately salacious with the intent to publicly offend and rehash a narrative in the media,” Freedman said in a statement to CNN when Lively’s complaint was first filed.

On Tuesday, Freedman told CNN that Lively, her team and The New York Times conducted a “vicious smear campaign.”

“In doing so,” Freedman said, “they predetermined the outcome of their story and aided and abetted their own disastrous public relations smear campaign aimed at revitalizing Lively’s self-inflicted, faltering public image and the organic groundswell of criticism online to counteract.” publicly. The irony is rich.”

“While their side advocates partial truths, we advocate the full truth,” Freedman added. “And have all the communications to support that.”

CNN’s Brian Stelter contributed to this report.