Blake Lively's Bombshell Sexual Harassment Report Against Justin Baldoni 'Was Prepped for Print By New York Times at Least 5 DAYS Before It Went Public'
Blake Lively's bombshell sexual harassment report against Justin Baldoni was in the hands of the New York Times five days before it was made public, according to new claims.
Jan. 29 2025, Published 3:20 p.m. ET
The New York Times prepared Blake Lively's bombshell sexual harassment report against Justin Baldoni five days before her lawsuit was made public, it has been claimed.
RadarOnline.com can reveal a composite image of the It Ends with Us co-stars created for the article – We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine – has a December 16, 2024 date embedded in its URL.
If the claims are true, they undermine Lively's claim Baldoni was the one scheming with his media partners to trash her reputation, rather than the other way around.
That might suggest that Times staffers had advance knowledge of Lively's complaint and had a story ready for publication when she filed it with the California Civil Rights Department on December 20. The Times report was 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 Baldoni more ammunition against The Times after he sued the publication 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.
Lively and her 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.
Baldoni is alleged to have entered Lively's 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.
Lively, 37, and Baldoni, 40, appeared to gel 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.
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."
Lively and Reynolds have been countersued by Baldoni who claims it was their team doing the smearing and asking for $400million in damages.
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The newspaper plans to "vigorously defend against the lawsuit," according to 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.
