The attorney for "It Ends with Us" actor and director Justin Baldoni said they "absolutely" plan to sue co-star Blake Lively after having already filed a libel lawsuit against the New York Times for a story alleging that Baldoni orchestrated a smear campaign against Lively.
Attorney Bryan Freedman said in an exclusive interview with NBC News correspondent Liz Kreutz that aired on TODAY on Jan. 3 that the legal action against the New York Times "will not be the last lawsuit" in his client's legal battle with Lively.
He was asked if they plan to file a lawsuit against Lively.
"Absolutely," he said.
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His comments echoed court documents in the libel lawsuit in which Baldoni’s attorneys stipulate that “this will not be the last lawsuit” and that there are “other bad actors involved.”
Freedman also responded to a federal complaint filed on Jan. 1 by Lively that alleges a coordinated campaign by Baldoni and his public relations team to smear Lively's reputation during the promotion of "It Ends with Us." Freedman was asked if there was any type of organized campaign to damage Lively's public image.
“One hundred percent no,” Freedman said. “Justin Baldoni from from the moment, from the get go, said, ‘I don’t want to do anything negative toward her. I don’t want to hurt her.’”
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The New York Times story published on Dec. 21 includes text messages and emails between public relations experts working for Baldoni that allegedly suggest she was the target of a smear campaign.
The Times story was published the day after Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department, saying he repeatedly harassed her on the set of the film and crossed boundaries during intimate scenes.
Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs — including Wayfarer Studios president Jamey Heath, crisis communications expert Melissa Nathan and publicist Jennifer Abel — responded by suing The New York Times for libel in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Dec. 31, according to court documents. The lawsuit seeks $250 million in damages and accuses the publication of defaming Baldoni and stated more lawsuits are to come.
The New York Times said in a statement that it plans to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the statement continued. “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.”
Baldoni’s attorneys allege in court documents that it was “readily apparent that the Times had been quietly working in concert with Lively’s team for weeks or months” on the disputed story.
They assert that the accusations outlined in The New York Times story regarding a “retaliatory public relations campaign” against Lively are “categorically false and easily disproven.”
They also allege in the lawsuit that text messages between Baldoni’s publicist, Jennifer Abel, and crisis communications representative Melissa Nathan that are highlighted in Lively’s sexual harassment complaint were “unscrupulously altered and selectively edited” and allege the newspaper endorsed the “criminal alteration” of the text messages by Lively.
"We plan to release every single text message between the two of them," Freedman said on TODAY. "There is nothing that in any way is a concern about this entire situation from our perspective, and we want the truth to be out there."
We plan to release every single text message between the two of them.
Justin Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman
Lively also alleges in her federal complaint that Baldoni would enter her trailer on the set of the film "uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding." A text exchange in Baldoni's libel lawsuit appears to show Lively inviting Baldoni to go over lines in her trailer while she was pumping breast milk.
Lively did not respond to a request for comment by NBC News but previously released a statement statement after the sexual harassment complaint was filed.
"I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct," she said.
Freedman was asked if there was any behavior on the set of "It Ends with Us" by Baldoni that could have made Lively or other cast members uncomfortable.
"I think there’s some behavior always that you make people uncomfortable," Freedman said. "I don’t think anybody has the intention to do that. The question really, in this case, is does it rise the level of sexual harassment?"
Baldoni's lawsuit against The New York Times also alleges that Lively's husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, at one point berated Baldoni in a meeting at their New York penthouse and accused him of fat-shaming Lively.
Reynolds and Lively have not responded to that specific allegation from Baldoni.
Lively’s sexual harassment complaint said Baldoni “routinely” criticized her “body and weight.” The complaint said Baldoni called Lively’s fitness trainer concerned about picking Lively up in a scene, but there “was no such scene.”
Baldoni’s lawsuit addresses his concerns about picking Lively up in an unspecified but “physically demanding” scene. The lawsuit said Baldoni asked a fitness trainer about Lively’s weight to “ensure he could safely perform the lift” because he suffers from back injuries.
In her lawsuit against Baldoni, Lively is seeking compensation for what she says have been lost wages as well as mental pain she's endured.
On Dec. 31, the same day Baldoni's legal team filed the libel lawsuit, Lively filed a formal lawsuit in federal court in New York against Baldoni, Heath, Abel and Nathan.
Baldoni's libel lawsuit alleges that rather than an orchestrated smear campaign, the backlash against Lively was an "inevitable fallout of her own tone-deaf messaging and self-promotional tactics."
Lively’s attorneys responded to Baldoni’s lawsuit in a statement Dec. 31 to NBC News.
“Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today,” the statement reads. “This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice ‘not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,’ and that ‘litigation was never her ultimate goal.’ As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false. While we will not litigate this matter in the press, we do encourage people to read Ms. Lively’s complaint in its entirety. We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
