The New York Times, which had a hand in igniting the public war of words between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni by publishing a story over alleged misconduct in the filming of It Ends With Us, has moved to dismiss a defamation lawsuit accusing it conspiring with the actress’ public relations team to advance a distorted narrative.
The Times, in a motion filed in New York federal court on Friday, defends its reporting, arguing that allegedly defamatory statements Baldoni has taken issue with are true and fair characterizations of the events that unfolded on the set of the movie.
“Throughout their blunderbuss complaint, the Wayfarer Parties seek to drag The Times into their larger feud with Lively,” states the filing. “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.”
Baldoni’s lawsuit revolves around the article “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” written by Megan Twohey. It explored a sexual harassment and workplace retaliation complaint Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department and included internal communications between Baldoni, his publicist Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, a crisis public relations specialist.
The Times‘ filing details Twohey’s reporting of the story. It says that she contacted Baldoni and his team, all of whom were invited to talk on the record, on Dec. 20 seeking comment on the claims made in Lively’s complaint and asked to notify her of any inaccuracies. Two hours later, Abel sent Twohey a 307-word denial of all allegations, attributed to Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer.
No one requested any additional information or more time to respond, according to the Times. The article was published the next day and quoted extensively from that response, with a link to the full statement. Baldoni said that an assertion in a video accompanying the article that “the men [Baldoni and Heath] … hired a crisis PR manager [Nathan] who orchestrated a smear campaign against Lively” is defamatory.
In response, the Times argues that it’s protected by fair report privilege, which protects outlets from libel when accurately reporting on official documents, because the story relied on the complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department. It points to language in the article, including “according to a legal complaint” and “it claims,” used to describe Lively’s allegations. “And the Article quotes extensively from texts and emails between Baldoni, Heath, Nathan, and Abel that are reproduced in CRD Complaint,” the filing states.