5 big takeaways from Justin Baldoni's lawsuit against The New York Times over its Blake Lively story

Lively's California Civil Rights Department complaint, as reported by the Times, said Baldoni used PR pros Nathan and Abel to spread negative content about Lively with the press, fearing that she would come forward with complaints about Baldoni and lead producer Jamey Heath, CEO of their production company, Wayfarer Studios.

The Times story included a text exchange that was part of Lively's complaint. In the texts, Nathan and Abel discussed a Daily Mail story that described Lively's promotion of the domestic violence-themed film as "tone deaf."

"You really outdid yourself with this piece," Abel wrote, to which Nathan replied: "That's why you hired me right? I'm the best."'

The libel suit said the Times omitted a text from Nathan preceding the exchange where she said she was uninvolved in the story's publication, writing, "Damn this is unfair because it's also not me."

The suit said the Times also didn't include Abel's use of the upside-down smiley face emoji when she wrote, "You really outdid yourself." The suit said the emoji showed that the writer was being sarcastic.

In his statement to the Times, Baldoni's lawyer called the reporting cherry-picked.

The suit claimed that the backlash against Lively was due to "her own tone-deaf messaging."

The libel suit accused the Times of "uncritically advancing Lively's
unsubstantiated claims of sexual harassment against Heath and Baldoni."

The Times story said, for example, that Heath had shown Lively a video of his naked wife. The Baldoni suit said the video depicted a home birth that was discussed in connection with a scene in the movie.

The libel suit also denied that Baldoni and Heath repeatedly entered Lively's trailer uninvited while she was undressed and while she was breastfeeding, and that she considered certain sex scenes gratuitous, as the Times story reported, citing the CRD complaint.

Baldoni's suit said Lively breastfed in their presence. It also shared a text message she sent before production suggesting she wasn't in a hurry to meet with the film's intimacy coordinator, in which she wrote: "I feel good. I can meet her when we start :) thank you though!"

The Times reported that Lively presented a letter to the movie's producers in November 2023 that sought safeguards on the set before shooting would begin.

Baldoni's suit said that the letter wasn't presented to Wayfarer.

"No such document was ever presented to Baldoni, the Wayfarer team, or, to their knowledge, anyone else — whether during that meeting or at any other time — and therefore, could not have been agreed to," the suit said.

Lively's CRD complaint said Baldoni "abruptly pivoted away from the film's marketing plan" days before its release as part of a "multi-tiered plan" using "social manipulation" to ultimately "destroy" her public reputation.

Baldoni said it was the other way around. He said in the suit — as well as in a statement to the Times — that he and his company hired a PR firm to protect himself, with Lively's PR going on the attack against him. The libel suit claimed that Lively's PR hire, Leslie Sloane, planted stories critical of Baldoni, including one that said he made Lively uncomfortable on set.

The libel suit described multiple alleged confrontations between Baldoni and Lively's husband, "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds.

The suit said Reynolds "aggressively berated" Baldoni and accused him of "fat shaming" Lively during a meeting at the couple's penthouse in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York.

Baldoni's suit said he had asked his trainer about Lively's weight because he had back injuries and wanted to determine if he could safely lift her as directed in a scene. The trainer later shared Baldoni's inquiry with Lively, the suit said.

"The confrontation that followed was so aggressive that Baldoni felt compelled to offer repeated apologies, despite his question being entirely reasonable and made in good faith," Baldoni's suit said.

In another meeting at the penthouse, the suit alleged, Reynolds "blindsided" Baldoni by berating him over a list of grievances and became "enraged" when Baldoni didn't apologize. Baldoni later called it a "traumatic" encounter and said others left the meeting in "shock," according to his suit.

Baldoni's suit further claimed that Reynolds pressured Baldoni's agency, WME, to drop Baldoni. (Both Lively and Reynolds are repped by WME.)

"The wielding of power and influence became undeniable," the suit said. "Baldoni and Wayfarer grew increasingly fearful of what Lively and Reynolds were capable of, as their actions seemed aimed at destroying Baldoni's career and personal life."