(Updated 4:46 pm PT with Blake Lively declaration) The New York Times‘ December 21 exposé headlined “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine” showed up the warmth on Justin Baldoni and his public relations group over unwanted sexual advances and revenge claims made by Blake Lively bordering the production of It Ends With Us
Now, countless web pages of lawful filings later on and with a test day established for March 29, 2026 in New York, the Times is creating a various sort of tale. “The Wayfarer Parties’ FAC tells a one-sided tale that has garnered plenty of headlines,” the media firm proclaimed in a declaring Friday asking to be gotten rid of from Baldoni’s $400 million claim. “But The Times does not belong in this dispute.”
Blake Lively concurs with her fellow offender.
“In its motion to dismiss, the New York Times correctly calls out Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit for what it is: a shameless PR document that has no business in a court of law,” a Lively speaker stated.
The Lively representative included: “For years, Baldoni urged men to listen to and believe women. But when a woman spoke out about his behavior, he and his billionaire backer Steve Sorowitz used a social media combat plan’ to scorch earth and try to ‘bury’ and ‘destroy’ her, along with the media who reports on it. These bullying tactics will not survive in court, and everyone should see their meritless claims for what they are.”
The Times was very first demanded $250 million by Baldoni, press agents Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel and others on New Year’s Eve, the exact same day Lively took legal action against Baldoni and buddies. That West Coast NYT situation has actually given that been gone down, as it was disclosed in a February 3 hearing in New York City. Instead, the Times was included previously this month to the Jane the Virgin alum’s instead big changed problem versus his IEWU co-star, Ryan Reynolds, their press agent Leslie Sloane and her Vision PUBLIC RELATIONS.
America’s leading paper has actually constantly urged it performed itself appropriately in their text-message-rich coverage of what dropped throughout the production of IEWU and its results. Unsurprisingly, the NYT currently desires out of the stretching claims that Lively and Baldoni have actually released upon each various other and their corresponding groups.
“Over the course of their 224-page First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) (plus an included 168-page timeline), the Wayfarer Parties breathlessly inform their side of a continuous Hollywood dramatization entailing stars Blake Lively (“Lively”) and Justin Baldoni (“Baldoni”), the celebrities of the movie It Ends With Us,” the Times‘ Davis Wright Tremaine attorneys created. “The FAC has, to some extent, achieved its obvious purpose; the Wayfarer Parties’ story has been reported by countless news outlets during the last few weeks. What the FAC has not done, however, is plead a viable claim against The Times.”
In prose extra sharp than typically shows up in the paper beyond the NYT Opinion area, the memorandum coming with the termination movement includes: “Throughout their blunderbuss complaint, the Wayfarer Parties seek to drag The Times into their larger feud with Lively. But the only thing The Times is, in fact, alleged to have done is engage in newsgathering and publishing an Article and Video about the Wayfarer/Lively dispute.”
Facing off versus claims that it was in cahoots with Lively’s group over her December 20 unwanted sexual advances and declared defamation of character problem to California’s Civil Rights division, which they shortchanged Baldoni’s side, the Times’ attorneys reduced to the chase in the 36-page memorandum, creating, “Despite the Wayfarer Parties’ hundreds of pages of screengrabs, outrage, and rhetoric, this is a very simple case: the Article is absolutely privileged as a fair report, and the Wayfarer Parties’ defamation claim fails.”
There was no reaction from Crisis public relations principal Nathan and lead Baldoni legal representative Bryan Freedman today over the Times‘ termination movement.
The typically somber Times, on the various other hand, was fairly sincere.
“As our motion shows, this case should never have been brought against The New York Times,” the paper’s Danielle Rhoades Ha informed Deadline today after the declaring. “Blake Lively raised serious concerns about the way she was treated on the set and after the movie’s release. We did exactly what news organizations should do: we informed the public of the complaint she filed with the California Civil Rights Department. Mr. Baldoni’s misbegotten campaign against the Times — questioning our ethics, attempting to discredit our reporting, filing a baseless lawsuit — will not silence us.”
No day for a hearing on the NYT‘s dismissal motion has been set. However, as today’ s combined judgment on telecommunications subpoenas by Judge Lewis J Liman explained, it’s a lengthy means to test.
