Justin Baldoni sues Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for defamation and asks for 400 million dollars

On Thursday, Justin Baldoni, co-star and director of the film Breaking the Circle, sued his co-star Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for defamation and extortion.

Baldoni is claiming $400 million in damages after the actress accused him in December of sexual harassment and defamation.

The actor, 40, filed a complaint in a New York court against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, his manager, Leslie Sloane, and the PR firm, alleging that the actress, 37, took steps to take control of the film.

In a statement, reviewed by AFP, Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman accuses Blake and his team of carrying out an attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni by disseminating information he described as "grossly edited, unsubstantiated and manipulated."

In late December, the actress filed a lawsuit against Baldoni and the film's producer, Jamey Heath, for sexual harassment and defamation.

In her lawsuit filed in California, Lively alleges that the two behaved in an unacceptable manner during the making of the film.

The actress charged that Baldoni allegedly spoke inappropriately about her sex life and attempted to modify the film to include sex scenes that were neither in the script nor agreed upon.

She also accused Heath of seeing her partially nude during a make-up session, despite Lively's request that she leave.

According to the actress, there was an alleged publicity campaign to destroy her reputation and divert attention over comments she made about the alleged behavior of both men who hired a publicity team that amplified and posted negative stories about the actress on social media.

Baldoni had also suedThe New York Times on Dec. 31 over an article, in which he claimed the New York paper took statements about Lively's complaint out of context to "mislead."