USA - Shortly after Blake Lively (37) sued her "Just One More Time" co-star Justin Baldoni (40) for sexual harassment , the latter has now filed a lawsuit against a newspaper himself.

Baldoni is accusing the New York Times of fraud and breach of an implied contract and is demanding 250 million dollars (around 240 million euros) in damages, as reported by the New York Post .

In an article in the New York Times, Lively was portrayed as the victim of months of sexual harassment by Baldoni. It was also claimed that she was confronted with a smear campaign after voicing her concerns.

In his 87-page statement of claim, Baldoni accused the newspaper of deliberately defaming him. The article also led to him being dismissed by his artist agency just a few hours after its publication.

One of the newspaper's central allegations was that Baldoni repeatedly entered Lively's trailer on the set of the film unannounced while she was unclothed - including while she was breastfeeding her child.

However, the 40-year-old claimed that the actress had known about his visits and had asked him to come over to work on texts together.

The lawsuit further states that Lively allegedly initiated a "strategic and manipulative smear campaign" to "gain control of the production with false allegations of sexual harassment".

Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds (48), was also mentioned in the lawsuit. He is accused of having pressured the artist agency to drop Baldoni last June. However, a representative of the agency denied these allegations and stated that neither Lively nor Reynolds had exerted any pressure on the agency.

A spokesperson for the New York Times defended the reporting, stating that it is the job of an independent news organization to "follow facts wherever they lead." The story had been researched "carefully and responsibly".

The newspaper announced that it would defend itself vigorously against the lawsuit.