Justin Baldoni filed a $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times last week, and while we knew a second lawsuit against Blake Lively would be coming…we’ve learned some more information.
If you don’t know, Blake accused Justin of sexual harassment and starting a smear campaign against her. Justin filed a lawsuit against the New York Times for their reporting of Blake‘s filing.
Moments after it was revealed that Justin filed a $250 million libel lawsuit against the Times, Blake‘s team announced that she had moved forward with an official lawsuit against Justin and his production company Wayfarer Studios.
Now, in a new Forbes article about Steve Sarowitz, some new info was divulged. Steve co-founded Wayfarer with Justin Baldoni, by the way, and he’s mentioned a few times in Blake‘s filing.
Keep reading to find out more…
In one part of Blake‘s filing, they allege he “provide[d] input and ideas on ways to negatively influence the narrative against Ms. Lively and her family.”
Steve also provided his first comment about the situation to Forbes, saying, “the actual harassment and smear campaign both occurred and continues to occur against us,” and he also claimed Blake is sharing “vicious lies about my business partners.”
Lawyer Bryan Freedman, who also represents Justin, told Forbes “his client is prepared to spend whatever necessary to defend Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and himself.” Bryan also shared that Steve was allegedly “barely involved with the film besides providing its funding, only visited the set twice and was not involved in the PR for the film.” By the way: Steve is a billionaire.
In another part of the Forbes article, they shared, “According to Wayfarer’s attorney, it has a second lawsuit forthcoming, this time against Lively and her team, which it could file as soon as later today.”
Blake‘s legal team released the following statement in response to Forbes’ reporting: “While we go through the legal process, we urge everyone to remember that sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry. A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied. We will continue to prosecute her claims in federal court, where the rule of law determines who prevails, not hyperbole and threats.”
Read through every text message that Justin already released in his lawsuit against the Times.
