Blake Lively has filed a fresh lawsuit against Justin Baldoni after he sued the New York Times for libel.
The Gossip Girl star has been embroiled in a legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star, having made a legal complaint against him just two weeks ago, which was released to the public via the New York Times.
Baldoni denied the claims made in Lively's first lawsuit, with his lawyer, Bryan Freedman, calling the claims 'categorically false'.
There were rumours that Baldoni, 40, was preparing his own complaint against Lively after she accused him of sexual harassment and attempting to 'destroy' her reputation, which she alleged had caused her 'severe emotional distress' behind-the-scenes.
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The 37-year-old has since followed up the original complaint, which was filed with the California Civil Rights Commission, by formally suing Baldoni in federal court in New York.
The second lawsuit from Lively is more formal, and was filed yesterday (31 December), where the actor is demanding 'punitive' and 'compensatory' damages as well as a jury trial.
She added that they also caused 'severe and serious emotional distress' and 'lost wages'.
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Her attorneys provided a statement to The Daily Mail, alleging that there has been 'further retaliation and attacks' since she has spoken out against her co-star.
It read: "Earlier today (31 December), 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.
"Unfortunately, Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks."
Her legal team went on: "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.
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"Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law."
This follows a $250 million lawsuit brought against The New York Times, with the plaintiffs including Baldoni, publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel among seven others, alleging libel and false-light invasion of privacy, Variety reports.
They claimed that the information in the lawsuit, which included text messages and emails, published by the newspaper was 'cherry-picked' and stripped of context to 'mislead'.
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Freedman told Variety that The New York Times had allegedly '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'.
Speaking on the suit from Baldoni earlier this week, a New York Times spokesperson said: “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.”
Attorneys for Blake Lively said to LADbible regarding the NYT lawsuit: “Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today.
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“This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice 'not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,' and that 'litigation was never her ultimate goal.'
“As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false. While we will not litigate this matter in the press, we do encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s complaint in its entirety. We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”
LADbible has reached out to Justin Baldoni's legal team, Wayfarer Studios and The New York Times for further comment.
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Celebrity, TV and Film
Joshua Nair