Justin Baldoni sued the New York Times for $250 million

American actor and director Justin Baldoni and his collaborators are demanding compensation of 250 million dollars, or about 242 million euros, from The New York Times newspaper for defamation. They tell about it, for example CNN and The New York Times.

The lawsuit is related to the newspaper’s December 21 publication to the articlewhich discussed Baldoni and the actor Blake Livelyn tensions and disputes between It Ends with Us – during and after the shooting of the film. In particular, the article described the work of the PR agency hired by Baldon. The article was published a day after Lively had started legal proceedings against Baldoni and his collaborators.

Baldoni and Lively star in the domestic violence blockbuster, which opened in theaters in August 2024 and is now streaming. The Finnish name of the film is It ends with us.

Blake Lively started the legal process in December first as a complaint For the Civil Rights Department of California, whose authority could be compared to, for example, Finland’s regional administrative agency.

The actual lawsuit was filed on New Year’s Eve in federal court in New York. In her lawsuit, Lively accuses Baldon and his collaborators of sexual harassment during the filming and of organizing a smear campaign after the filming to smear Lively’s reputation.

The New York Times article extensively cites Lively’s lawsuit and the evidence it contains. This includes, for example, a lot of internal communication of the PR company hired by Baldon in the summer. Baldon’s lawyer by hiring a reputation management company was deemed necessary due to Lively’s demands and threats during filming.

In his submission to The New York Times in return Baldon’s lawyer says that the messages quoted in the lawsuit and in the article were ideas that are part of the normal working method of PR agencies, which aims to prepare for various situations that may come up. According to the defendant, the messages also do not show that Baldon’s film studio representatives actively tried to smear Lively.

Baldoni and her collaborators justify their lawsuit against The New York Times by the fact that, according to them, the article has deliberately quoted internal communications in such a way that it supports the claims of Lively’s own lawsuit, while at the same time omitting materials that do not support them. A recent lawsuit by Baldon and partners the whole text you can read about it first on Variety’s website.