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As the new year begins, a pair of lawsuits from former It Ends With Us<\/em><\/a> collaborators Blake Lively<\/strong> and Justin Baldoni<\/strong> are making waves across Hollywood.<\/p>\n Baldoni, director and colead of the big-screen adaptation<\/a> of Colleen Hoover<\/strong>\u2019s 2016 bestseller, is suing The New York Times<\/em><\/a> for libel and false-light invasion of privacy over a December 21 article titled \u201c\u2018We Can Bury Anyone\u2019: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.\u201d<\/a> The piece reported that Baldoni sexually harassed Lively<\/a> and then hired a crisis PR firm to enact a smear campaign against her. Lively initially filed a complaint<\/a> against Baldoni, his Wayfarer production company, and others allegedly involved in the smear campaign, with California\u2019s Civil Rights Department. And on Tuesday, the day Baldoni filed his $250 million libel suit against the Times,<\/em> Lively filed a suit in New York federal court as well.<\/p>\n The latest litigation arrives after previous rumors of discord between Lively and Baldoni<\/a>, who did not complete any joint press obligations during the August rollout for It Ends With Us.<\/em> The film ultimately grossed more than $350 million worldwide. Conversation about the costars\u2019 relationship had quieted until about December, when The New York Times\u2019<\/em> report<\/a> came out, detailing text messages and emails Lively\u2019s team had obtained via subpoena that appeared to show a coordinated plan to plant stories about Lively that would tarnish her reputation.<\/p>\n In a written statement shared with media, including with Vanity Fair,<\/em> Lively said: \u201cI hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.\u201d<\/p>\n Lively\u2019s claims focused on Baldoni, as well as It Ends With Us<\/em> producer Jamey Heath;<\/strong> Wayfarer Studio cofounder Steve Sarowitz;<\/strong> Baldoni\u2019s publicist, Jennifer Abel;<\/strong> and Melissa Nathan,<\/strong> the crisis PR manager Baldoni hired as the film was being released. Those five are now suing the Times,<\/em> claiming the idea that they \u201corchestrated a retaliatory public relations campaign against Lively for speaking out about sexual harassment\u2026is categorically false and easily disproven,\u201d according to the suit<\/a> filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.<\/p>\n As first reported by Variety<\/em><\/a> on December 31, Baldoni\u2019s suit claims that the Times<\/em> \u201crelied almost entirely on Lively\u2019s unverified and self-serving narrative,\u201d alleging that the digital correspondence the report quotes were \u201ccherry-picked\u201d and \u201cstripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.\u201d The suit also accuses the outlet of not giving Baldoni and his team sufficient time to respond to Lively\u2019s allegations ahead of the story\u2019s publication, which allegedly occurred nearly two hours earlier than expected and 14 hours after they were first contacted by the paper.<\/p>\n \u201cThe role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,\u201d a spokesperson for The New York Times<\/em> said in a statement to press. \u201cOur story<\/a> 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. We published their full statement<\/a> in response to the allegations in the article as well. We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.\u201d In an email to Vanity Fair, a<\/em> Times<\/em> spokesperson disputed the claim that the newspaper did not provide a sufficient time to respond to the allegations and said that \u201cBaldoni, Wayfarer, and the other subjects chose not to have any conversations with the Times<\/em> or address any of the specific text messages or documents.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n