The New York Times has now filed suit against Justin Baldoni!
The publication is suing the It Ends With Us star to recover legal costs, over three months after the director’s defamation suit against the newspaper was dismissed by a judge, according to The Wrap.
Keep reading to find out more…
The NYT filed a lawsuit on Tuesday (September 30) in New York Supreme Court, seeking both “compensatory and punitive damages from Baldoni’s Wayfarer Productions to cover the costs of defending the defamation claims.”
“The District Court’s opinion makes clear that Wayfarer and its affiliates both commenced and continued the lawsuit against The Times without a substantial basis in fact and law,” reads the filing, which adds that “any statements in the article and video reporting on the alleged sexual misconduct experienced by [Blake] Lively were not actionable because they were based on the CRD complaint and therefore were subject to New York’s fair report privilege and separately ‘were not plausibly made with actual malice.’”
“It is clear from the district court’s opinion that the claims against The Times lacked any basis in fact or law,” reads the complaint, filed by the New York Times‘ in-house counsel David McCraw. “Under such circumstances, New York’s anti-SLAPP law requires that The Times be awarded its costs and attorney’s fees and such other compensatory damages as the court deems just and proper.”
Justin filed a libel lawsuit against the Times back at the end of December 2024, claiming the paper “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.”
A month later, he amended the lawsuit around the same time the publication fired back over his claim they had “early access” to Blake‘s complaint.
Just last month, Blake also filed a motion for Justin to pay her a “multi-million dollar award” for having to fight against his claims in the defamation lawsuit.
Recently, Justin added a prominent new lawyer to his team…
Source: justjared.com