Blake Lively officially filed a lawsuit against the film’s director Never againJustin Baldoni.
The popular actress began legal action last December, claiming that the director, with whom she co-stars in the film, sexually harassed her in addition to having orchestrated a defamation campaign in order to sully her reputation.
It all came to fruition in a federal court in New York on Tuesday.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, The suit alleges that the actor, his studio and his public relations agents carried out this smear campaign in revenge after the publication of an explosive article in the New York Times in which Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of sexual misconduct on set.
The actress claims she complained to the film’s producers that Baldoni improvised intimate scenes without rehearsal or the presence of an intimacy coordinator and that he allegedly tried to add a sexual sequence to the script without discussing it.
The actor’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, had already denied all of these accusations before the lawsuit was filed.
Baldoni continues New York Times
Around the same time, Justin Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs initiated legal action against the New York Times.
The plaintiffs, who are seeking $250 million, accuse the newspaper of defamation and invasion of privacy in connection with the article that revealed Blake Lively’s allegations. They claim journalists “cherry-picked” information and “edited communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately assembled to mislead.”
The New York Times intends to defend itself “vigorously” and says the story was reported “meticulously and responsibly.”
