On December 31, 2024, a notable legal battle unfolded as Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and several other entities, including Heath, Sarowitz, Nathan, TAG, Abel, RWA Communications, Wallace, and Street Relations, launched a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times. This group of plaintiffs took issue with the newspaper’s portrayal of a supposed retaliatory smear campaign allegedly orchestrated against actress Blake Lively.

The lawsuit, accessed by E! News, accuses The New York Times of multiple offenses, including libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud, and breach of an implied-in-fact contract. The contentious article in question detailed allegations that these parties retaliated against Lively after she expressed concerns about alleged misconduct occurring on set.

The plaintiffs firmly deny the accusations outlined in the report, describing the article as “false” and based largely on Lively’s complaint to the CRD. They argue that the messages referenced in both the article and the complaint were misrepresented and taken out of context.

In their legal filing, the plaintiffs assert that The New York Times heavily relied on an unverified account from Lively, which they claim was self-serving. “Despite its assertion of having ‘reviewed these along with other documents[,]’ the Times adopted Lively’s narrative nearly word for word, ignoring substantial evidence that undermined her claims and revealed her actual intentions,” the lawsuit contends. This case adds another layer of complexity to the ongoing discourse surrounding accountability and accurate reporting in media coverage.

“Despite its claim to have ‘reviewed these along with other documents[,]’ the Times relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative,” the lawsuit said, “lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives.”

They alleged “it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign.” She denied this.

The New York Times said it planned to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” it stated to E!. “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.”