Synopsis
The legal battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively is escalating with new claims regarding metadata from the New York Times. Baldoni has accused Ryan Reynolds of bullying him through fictional characters, intensifying the already heated dispute.Key Takeaways
- Justin Baldoni updates lawsuit against Blake Lively.
- New allegations involve New York Times metadata.
- Baldoni accuses Ryan Reynolds of bullying.
- The lawsuit claims defamation and misrepresentation.
- Metadata supports Baldoni's case, according to his legal team.
Los Angeles, Feb 2 (NationPress) The legal confrontation between actor-director Justin Baldoni and actress Blake Lively is escalating and becoming increasingly contentious. Justin has revised his lawsuit against Blake, introducing new allegations regarding New York Times metadata.
He has also accused her spouse, Ryan Reynolds, of “bullying” him through the character of Nicepool in 'Deadpool & Wolverine', as reported by Variety.
Baldoni’s legal team submitted an amended lawsuit comprising 224 pages on Friday night (Pacific Standard Time) and has launched a website to host the complaint alongside an additional 168-page timeline.
According to Variety, Baldoni directed and co-starred with Blake Lively in 'It Ends with Us', resulting in a significant legal and public relations struggle over the past six weeks.
Among the fresh allegations, Baldoni’s legal representatives assert that metadata on the Times’ website indicates that the newspaper had access to Blake Lively’s civil rights complaint at least 11 days prior to its explosive December 21 report. The article, titled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” accused Baldoni and his publicists of attempting to damage Blake Lively’s reputation in apparent retaliation for her allegations of sexual harassment on set.
Baldoni has filed a defamation lawsuit against Reynolds, Lively, and the Times, claiming that they defamed him by misrepresenting and taking his text messages out of context. The revised complaint claims that the Times first published a version of Lively’s civil rights complaint against him on December 10. The lawsuit also contends that additional metadata suggests the Times was investigating the story even before that, potentially as early as October 31.
The Times contested the “inaccuracies” in the complaint, while Baldoni’s team maintained that the metadata serves as validation.
“This new evidence supports our long-held belief that due to purely egotistical motivations, Lively and her entire team conspired for months to ruin reputations through a sophisticated web of falsehoods, unfounded claims, and the manipulation of unlawfully obtained communications,” stated Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s attorney, to Variety.
The lawsuit further alleges that a video accompanying the Times’ article was produced on December 12, nine days before the publication date. According to Baldoni’s claims, the Times first attempted to gather comments from his side on the evening of December 20, setting a deadline of noon the following day, approximately 14 hours later. Ultimately, the article was published at 10:11 a.m. on December 21 with a comment from Freedman.
The metadata concern was initially raised by online investigators. In a response on Saturday, the New York Times stated that the information is inaccurate.
In defending against the defamation lawsuits, both the Times and the Lively/Reynolds parties may invoke legal privileges that protect the rights of the parties involved in litigation and the media's right to report on legal matters.
