Blake Lively files formal lawsuit against Justin Baldoni while he sues newspaper for $250 million over sexual harassment allegations

Blake Lively has filed a formal lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni, while he has filed a lawsuit of his own against the New York Times.

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have both filed lawsuits. Credit: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images

The pair have been at loggerheads recently over claims of sexual harassment on the set of the Coleen Hoover book adaptation.

Lively, 37, filed a suit on Tuesday in New York federal court for alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and lost wages against Baldoni, 40, according to reports from Page Six.

The allegations made in the lawsuit mirror that of the complaint Lively filed last week with the California Civil Rights Department, claiming that Baldoni sexually harassed her on set and allegedly hired a crisis management team to destroy her reputation after they'd held a meeting to address his alleged behavior.

Lively is also suing Baldoni's crisis manager, Melissa Nathan, as well as his publicist Jennifer Abel, and Wayfarer Studios, which produced the movie.

The actress's attorneys told the outlet in a statement: "Earlier today, Ms. Lively filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios and others in the Southern District of New York.

"Ms. Lively previously sent her California Civil Rights Department complaint in response to the retaliatory campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns."

The actress claimed a meeting had to be held on the set of It Ends With Us addressing Baldoni's alleged behavior. Credit: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Sony Pictures

The statement continued: "Unfortunately, Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court."

In the suit, Lively claimed that an "all-hands" meeting had to be called during the filming of It Ends With Us regarding Baldoni's alleged behavior on set, in which he was allegedly told to stop showing her "nude videos or images of women," mentioning his past “porn addiction” and speaking about the “cast and crew’s genitalia," the outlet reports.

Lively also claimed that Baldoni was behind much of the negative stories that began circulating about her in the press shortly after he'd retained his crisis team, accusing them of "social manipulation" in an attempt to "destroy" her reputation.

According to the outlet, the filing included an alleged text message from Abel stating that Baldoni "wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried," to which Nathan allegedly replied: "You know we can bury anyone."

The actress claimed that Baldoni and Wayfarer "retained subcontractors … who weaponized a digital army around the country from New York to Los Angeles to create, seed and promote content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums."

Baldoni is suing The New York Times, which was the publisher to break the story. Credit: John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images

According to the filing, they "would then feed pieces of this manufactured content to unwitting reporters, making content go viral in order to influence public opinion and thereby cause an organic pile-on."

His attorney, Bryan Freedman, rebutted the claims, calling it "another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film, interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions."

He also accused Lively of using her publicist to plant negative stories about Baldoni, claiming his representatives did not retaliate to those reports, adding: "There were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise, just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize, which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals."

The New York Times had been the first to report on the allegations, with Lively telling the outlet: "I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted."

She also denied that her team had planted any negative stories about Wayfarer or Baldoni.

Baldoni and several others, including Wayfarer Studios, Nathan, and Abel, also filed their own $250 million lawsuit on Tuesday against the New York Times for alleged libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud, and breach of contract.

Freedman told Page Six in a statement: "In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times 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.

"In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively’s self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public. The irony is rich."

The co-stars (pictured on the set of It Ends With Us) have each filed formal lawsuits in court on Tuesday. Credit: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images

He added: "Make no mistake, however, as we all unite to take down the NY Times by no longer allowing them to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also suing those individuals who have abused their power to try and destroy the lives of my clients.

"While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth — and have all of the communications to back it. The public will decide for themselves as they did when this first began."

The New York Times said in a statement: "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.

"To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well.

"We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit."

Featured image credit: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images