Blake Lively faces a second defamation lawsuit after the actor alleged she was sexually harassed while making the movie “It Ends With Us” and subsequently targeted by a coordinated smear campaign.
Jed Wallace, the owner of crisis public relations firm Street Relations, filed the complaint against Lively Tuesday in federal district court in Texas. It claimed Wallace suffered “millions of dollars in reputational harm” as a result of Lively’s widely-reported legal battle with Justin Baldoni, who directed and starred opposite her in the film. Wallace is seeking at least $6 million in damages.
Lively named both Wallace and Street Relations in an initial civil rights complaint that she filed in California before ultimately suing Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios in New York federal court at the end of last year.
Her complaint and lawsuit accused Wallace and his firm of participating in a retaliation scheme to intentionally damage Lively’s reputation and disincentivize her from speaking out — allegations Wallace formally denied in his defamation action this week. Neither Wallace nor the firm are defendants in Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni.
“Wallace and Street were widely reported to be defendants in the Formal Lawsuit although they were not, the confusion having been sown by the Precursor,” the defamation lawsuit read.
In her New York lawsuit, Lively alleged that Baldoni’s public relations team hired Wallace and Street Relations to orchestrate a digital campaign in order to turn public opinion against her. It suggested Wallace “weaponized a digital army around the country from New York to Los Angeles to create, seed, and promote content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums,” with the intention “to eviscerate Ms. Lively’s credibility.”
On Jan. 21, Lively filed a petition for deposition in Hays County, Texas, against Wallace alleging that she believe he was a subcontractor for a PR firm Baldoni is accused of hiring for the alleged smear campaign against her.
Wallace’s lawsuit said that Lively later filed to dismissed the petition because “she knew of no facts to support the allegations against Wallace or Street.”
CBS News has reached out to Lively for comment.
Lively first came forward with sexual harassment allegations against Baldoni in a December interview with The New York Times. Baldoni has since sued the publication and Lively for defamation. The latter sought $400 million from Lively and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy, while again attacking the Times.
“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” said Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, in a statement to CBS News after filing the second suit.
A spokesperson from the New York Times called Baldoni’s allegations “meritless” in a separate statement and “recycled from equally baseless claims” included in Baldoni’s earlier complaint against the newspaper.
Lively’s legal team characterized Baldoni’s counter lawsuit as “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
“This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender,” the team said in a statement. “In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and issues involving social and criminal justice. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
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