Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni file separate 'smear campaign' lawsuits as 'harassment' row rages

Blake Lively has filed a formal lawsuit against her It Ends with Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni, alleging harassment and a coordinated campaign to attack her reputation.

It came hours after Baldoni sued The New York Times for libel over a story on her allegations, saying the newspaper and the star were conducting a coordinated smear campaign.

Lively claims that Baldoni, the film's production company Wayfarer Studios and others conducted "a carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out."

She accuses Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a "multi-tiered plan" to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, addressed alleged "repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior" by Baldoni and a producer Jamey Heath, who is also named in both lawsuits.

The plan allegedly included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign and place news stories critical of Lively.

Lively previously alleged that Baldoni subjected her, along with the cast and crew, to “invasive, unwelcome, unprofessional and sexually inappropriate behavior”.

He is claimed to have “improvised physical intimacy” without Lively’s consent, including a kissing scene where he “bit and sucked on [her] lower lip” then insisted on shooting the scene repeatedly.

Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman has called Lively’s allegations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious”.

Of the New York Times lawsuit, he said the newspaper “cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful 'untouchable' Hollywood elites."

"In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively's self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public," he added. "The irony is rich."