This legal action follows an article by the publisher titled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” which suggests that Baldoni, along with nine other plaintiffs, was involved in libel and false light invasion of privacy.
An incident from January 4, 2024, has been highlighted in the lawsuit, involving Baldoni, fellow producers of It Ends With Us, and a Sony representative.
This group was reportedly invited to the home of Lively and Reynolds, expecting to discuss the next day’s filming, armed with production materials.
However, the lawsuit alleges that they were instead ‘caught off guard’ by the couple.
The Hollywood duo reportedly presented “a list of grievances that were both unexpected and concerning.”
The lawsuit claims: “Reynolds launched into a tirade, berating Baldoni in what Baldoni later described as a ‘traumatic’ encounter, stating he had ‘never been spoken to like that in his life’.”
Reynolds is alleged to have demanded an apology from Baldoni to his wife for actions that the lawsuit describes as ‘mischaracterized’ and ‘false’.
“When Baldoni resisted apologizing for what he had not done, Reynolds became further enraged. Everyone, including the producer Lively had asked production to engage and a representative of Sony that was in attendance, left that ‘meeting’ in shock. The producer offered that in his 40-year career he had never seen anyone speak to someone like that,” the lawsuit states.
These allegations against Reynolds and Lively are part of Baldoni’s claims that The New York Times selectively used communications between himself and his co-star to mislead readers.
The New York Times article was reportedly prompted by a lawsuit from Lively, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her.
In response to Baldoni’s suit, a spokesperson for The New York Times told Variety: “The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead. 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.
“To date, [production company] 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.”