Another lawsuit is running after ‘It Ends With Us’ star Blake Lively after she was sued for defamation by a crisis PR firm whom she had accused in a complaint she previously filed against her co-star and the film’s director, Justine Baldoni.
Jed Wallace from Street Relations, Inc., a crisis management company, filed the lawsuit on February 5. Wallace’s claim stemmed from Lively’s complaint to the California Civil Rights Department back in December where the actress alleged that Baldoni’s PR team hired Wallace to trigger a smear campaign against her. Lively’s claim stated that 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.”
Apart from Lively’s civil rights complaint, Wallace also divulged that the lawsuit was a corollary from when the actress submitted a petition last January 21 asking for a deposition from Wallace, which was eventually withdrawn on February 4.
Wallace asserted that he had “nothing to do” with Lively’s accusation regarding the smear campaign. As a result, Wallace and the PR company claimed a minimum of 7 million dollars or 406 million pesos in damages, paired with “a court order stating that he didn’t engage in harassment or retaliation against the actress.”
The camp of Wallace maintained their position that Lively had no factual grounds with the allegations she hurled toward Wallace and Street Relations. Wallace also claimed that he suffered reputational harm upon the disclosure of his name in Lively’s complaint and court order even though he did not commit any retaliation or harassment against the actress.
Following the legal battle Wallace’s team had put forward, Lively’s camp released an official statement, “Another day, another state, another nine-figure lawsuit seeking to sue Ms. Lively ‘into oblivion’ for speaking out against harassment and retaliation.” Lively’s legal team was confident that the lawsuit would be dismissed and Wallace to be accountable in federal court after he “finally emerged from the shadows.”
Wallace’s recent lawsuit marked the fifth case entangled within the messy legal battle between Lively and Baldoni since December of 2024 wherein the conflict was ignited when Lively filed a sexual harassment case against Baldoni.
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