Justin Baldoni Sues New York Times for $250 Million Over Blake Lively Story

Justin Baldoni is suing The New York Times for $250 million over the publication's bombshell article, in which they alleged the actor and others coordinated a smear campaign against his "It Ends with Us" costar, Blake Lively.

Baldoni, who directed and starred in the romance drama with Lively, was accused of sexual harassment by the actress in a legal complaint -- and subsequent lawsuit -- which was featured heavily in The Times' piece.

However, according to Variety, Baldoni has now accused the paper of libel, invasion of privacy, promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract over the article ... alleging the Times "cherry-picked" details and altered key communications to "deliberately" mislead readers.

Baldoni isn't alone in suing the Times ... he is one of 10 plaintiffs, which includes publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, who were mentioned at length in Lively's complaint and in the paper's story.

Per the outlet, Lively was painted as the victim in The Times' retelling of the "It Ends with Us" drama ... which Baldoni and other plaintiffs are now alleging was not an accurate representation of what went down.

They say Lively was actually the one leading a smear campaign ... which they call "strategic and manipulative."

Baldoni and the other plaintiffs allege that Lively used false sexual harassment accusations to take control of their movie. The actor/director also calls out Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, who he says aggressively reprimanded him for allegedly "fat shaming" BL.

Baldoni claims Reynolds even pressured his agent to drop him this summer at the "Deadpool & Wolverine" premiere ... long before the drama made headlines and he enlisted a crisis PR team.

According to the docs obtained by Variety, the Times "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 lawsuit also states Lively's PR rep planted stories that were critical of Baldoni ... something the paper allegedly overlooked.

In a statement to TMZ, Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman said ... "In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York 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. 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. The irony is rich. Make no mistake however, as we all unite to take down The NY Times by no longer allowing them to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also suing those individuals who have abused their power to try and destroy the lives of my clients. While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth - and have all of the communications to back it. The public will decide for themselves as they did when this first began."

In a statement to TMZ, a New York Times spokesperson said ... "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, 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."