Justin Baldoni accuses Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds of civil extortion, defamation and other charges in a lawsuit filed Thursday.
In a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York and obtained by Fox News Digital, Baldoni accused Lively of tormenting him, his family and his co-workers. The actor requested a jury trial and a $400 million judgment.
Ms. Lively first accused Ms. Baldoni of sexual harassment after the two co-starred in Colleen Hoover's film “The End of Us.'' Ms. Lively had accused Ms. Baldoni of engaging in a deliberate smear campaign to damage her reputation since the film's premiere in August.
But Baldoni, along with Wayfarer Studios, Jamie Heath and others, tells a different story with the actor's own lawsuit.
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Justin Baldoni filed a lawsuit on January 16th, accusing Blake Lively of civil extortion, defamation, and other charges. (Getty Images)
“Plaintiffs have no choice but to fight back armed only with the truth and concrete evidence disproving Lively's claims,” court documents say.
“It is heartbreaking that many years ago Baldoni set out to tell and celebrate the stories of victims of domestic violence, with the noble goal of making a positive impact on the world. The movie that I had envisioned was now unrecognizable because of Lively's actions and atrocities alone.” ”
Baldoni's lawyers argued that there was no evidence of an intentional smear campaign against Lively, but rather that she sought to restore her reputation by accusing Lively and others of sexual harassment.
Blake Lively's IT END WITH US co-stars Brandon Slenor and Jenny Slate praise her courage amid lawsuit
“But Lively could not for one moment accept that her public image had been tarnished, much less accept that it was entirely of her own making,” the suit says. There is. “She needed a scapegoat, and rather than acknowledge and take responsibility for her accident, she chose to maliciously and inexcusably publicly blame the plaintiff.”
“When she and Reynolds couldn't get Baldoni and Wayfarer to read the statement they had made to force Baldoni and Wayfarer to 'take accountability' in defense of Lively's actions, she spent months… She waited and prepared to publicly attack Baldoni, falsely claiming that “he had sexually harassed her.'' ”
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on the set of “It Ends with Us” on January 12, 2024. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer Griffin/GC Images)
Justin Baldoni says Blake Lively's claims are 'false and destructive', lawyer says new lawsuit will reveal truth
Baldoni's legal team included text messages and emails as “unaltered evidence” to support the Jane the Virgin star's claims.
“This lawsuit alleges the duplicity of Blake Lively and her team in their efforts to destroy Justin Baldoni and her team and their respective companies by disseminating heavily redacted, unsubstantiated, new and falsified information to the media. “This case is based on an overwhelming amount of unaltered evidence detailing the attempt,” Baldoni's attorney Brian Friedman said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Based on our full willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence shared in real time between the parties, we believe this is a battle she cannot win. , it's clear that Blake Lively was either horribly misled by the team or deliberately and deliberately misrepresented the truth.
“Never again will Mr. Lively be allowed to continue exploiting real victims of real harassment just to advance his personal reputation at the expense of those less powerful,” the statement continued. “Remember, Ms. Lively and her team tried to ruin reputations and livelihoods for nefarious and selfish reasons through their own dangerous media manipulation, before actually taking legal action. We know the truth, and now the public knows it. Justin and his team have nothing to hide and there are no lies in the documents.”
Representatives for Lively and Reynolds did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
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Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment. (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
Details of graphic sexual harassment allegationsretaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence, Baldoni and film producer Jamie Heath allege in a complaint first filed with the California Department of Civil Rights and later in federal court.
According to the complaint obtained by Fox News Digital, the actress called an “all hands on deck” meeting on January 4, 2024 regarding Baldoni and Heath's alleged conduct, which was also attended by her husband, Reynolds.
“Ms. Lively was forced to directly address concerns about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath's misconduct, and began doing so several months before filming began,” the suit says. “The concerns she raised were not only for herself, but also for other female cast and crew members, some of whom spoke out.”
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Justin Baldoni has sued The New York Times for defamation in the wake of Blake Lively's sexual harassment lawsuit. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
In the wake of Lively's lawsuit, Baldoni also sued the New York Times For defamation.
But Lively's team noted that her claims are “supported by concrete facts.”
“This is not a 'feud' arising out of 'creative differences' or a 'he said/she said' situation,” her attorney told FOX News Digital. “As alleged in Ms. Lively's complaint and as we prove in our lawsuit, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in illegal, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively, who was simply trying to protect herself and others on the set of a movie. And their response to this lawsuit has been to launch further attacks against Ms. Lively since her lawsuit was filed. ”
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