The New York Times allegedly began preparing a report on Blake Lively’s sexual harassment claims against Justin Baldoni at least five days prior to her lawsuit becoming public, as claimed recently.

An image composite featuring the co-stars of It Ends with Us, which was created for an article titled ‘We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,’ contains a URL with a date of December 16, 2024, as disclosed by DailyMail.com.

This detail could indicate that employees of The New York Times were aware of Lively’s complaint in advance and had a story prepared for release when she officially lodged the complaint with the California Civil Rights Department on December 20. The report from The New York Times was ultimately published on December 21.

Any such coordination on the actress’s part would undermine her central claim that it was Baldoni who was scheming with his media partners to trash her reputation, rather than the other way around.

It could also hand the dishy actor-director more ammunition against The Times after he sued the Gray Lady for $250million claiming its reporting was ‘rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions’.

The astonishing data clue was first spotted by TikTok creator goojiepooj who noticed that the URL for the composite image reads ‘2024-12-16-lively-topper’. Several more photos are dated between December 18 and 20.

Justin Baldoni earlier this month launched a $250 million libel action against the New York Times – who was the first to report on Blake Lively’s first complaint against her co-star on December 21

Lively and her Hollywood megastar husband Ryan Reynolds have asked the court to slap a protective order on Baldoni’s lawyers to stop them making ‘harassing and retaliatory’ comments to the media.

Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman opposes the attempted takedown on the grounds that it’s ‘grossly unfair’ to bar the dad-of-two from putting his side in the public domain weeks after Lively used the New York Times to present hers.

Lively, 37, and Baldoni, 40, gelled beautifully on screen for the 2024 adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s acclaimed novel exploring domestic violence and emotional abuse.

It became a surprise hit at the box office, grossing $351million on a budget of $25million.

But dueling lawsuits have since revealed how relations soured as Lively allegedly fought Baldoni for greater artistic control and started to feel increasingly uncomfortable during their intimate scenes.

Lively was the first to sue in December, alleging that Baldoni entered her trailer while she was topless, showed her graphic video of his wife giving birth and bit and sucked on her lips during an improvised kissing scene.

The URL for the image used in the NYT’s bombshell report shows a December 16, 2024 date embedded in its URL, DailyMail.com can reveal

The composite image of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni used in the NYT report 

The astonishing data clue was first spotted by TikTok creator goojiepooj who noticed that the URL for the composite image reads ‘2024-12-16-lively-topper’

She further accused him of conspiring to smear her reputation, citing a text message from Baldoni’s publicist Melissa Nathan which read: ‘We can bury anyone.’

Her sexual harassment claims made global headlines thanks to the near-simultaneous publication of the New York Times’ story, which stretched to 4,000 words and quoted heavily from the complaint, which typically remains confidential.

Baldoni sued the Times, claiming it failed to vet Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation allegations and ‘relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims.’

The newspaper plans to ‘vigorously defend against the lawsuit,’ per its spokesman.

Next, Baldoni countersued Lively and Reynolds, turning the narrative on its head by claiming it was their team doing the smearing and asking for $400million in damages.

He accused her of twisting the meaning of his texts and emails and working in tandem with Leslie Sloane, a powerful Hollywood publicist, to plant damaging stories about him in the media.

Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman has claimed that text screenshots shared by the New York Times in Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni were presented without context

It was all a ploy, Baldoni argued, to rebuild Lively’s reputation after she came in for criticism for being prickly and difficult in interviews and promotional events.

Any negative publicity surrounding his blonde leading lady had arisen ‘organically’, his suit contends.

The feud took yet another explosive twist when DailyMail.com published previously unseen raw video footage of Baldoni and Lively filming a romantic dance scene as their characters Lily Bloom and Ryle Kincaid.

Lively’s suit alleges that Baldoni ‘leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, it smells so good’ during the interaction.

In the footage obtained by DailyMail.com the pair are seen engaging in what appears to be playful but professional banter between takes.

In the pivotal moment, Baldoni asks Lively if he’s ‘getting beard’ on her. ‘I’m probably getting spray tan on you’ she replies. That prompts Baldoni to say ‘it smells good’ before they both laugh.

Freedman flagged the footage as proof that his client behaved appropriately and had ‘nothing to hide’. Lively countered that it confirmed her claims of harassment.

‘Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning,’ her legal team shared in a statement with DailyMail.com.

They claim the video ‘shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character.’

DailyMail.com has reached out to Blake Lively for comment.