Justin Baldoni is fighting back over the bombshell New York Times report that accused him and his team of creating a smear campaign to tarnish his This Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively's reputation after she accused him of sexual harassment.

Baldoni filed the $250 million lawsuit on Dec. 31 in Los Angeles Superior Court. Variety reports that Baldoni is among a group of 10 plaintiffs that also includes publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel who are suing the newspaper for libel and false light invasion of privacy over the Dec. 21 article titled "'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine." The plaintiffs claim the newspaper "'cherry-picked' and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead."

The New York Times responded to the lawsuit with a statement to Variety.

"The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported," the statement reads. "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. To date, Wayfarer Studios, Mr. Baldoni, the other subjects of the article and their representatives have not pointed to a single error. We published their full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well. We plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit."

Baldoni's suit also names Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds. According to Variety, the suit says that Reynolds pressured his agency, WME, to drop him during the "Deadpool and Wolverine" premiere in July, well before they ended up dropping him just hours after the New York Times published their bombshell article. WME denies, however, that Reynolds pressured them to do so. The suit also claims that Reynolds berated Baldoni and accused him of "fat shaming" Lively.

Attorney Bryan Freedman, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, tells Variety that the Times "cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful 'untouchable' Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative."

"The Times story 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 and exposed her true motives," the suit also says.

Meanwhile, Lively's lawsuit claims she endured inappropriate behavior on set, including an unsolicited kiss from Baldoni and persistent comments about her appearance. When she raised concerns, she alleged Baldoni retaliated by hiring Nathan to tarnish her reputation. Lively's team believes that a coordinated effort was made to flood the media with damaging stories about her professionalism and character. The New York Times' article supported her lawsuit, publishing text messages from Baldoni and Abel seemingly confirming they were plotting on destroying her reputation through targeted online attacks.

Baldoni has already faced serious consequences after the New York Times article was published. He was dropped by WME and Vital Voices also revoked their Voices of Solidarity Award bestowed upon him. Liz Plank, the longtime co-host of Baldoni's The Man Enough Podcast, also stepped down from the show amid the allegations against him.

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Blake Lively