{"id":4062,"date":"2025-02-06T19:13:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T19:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/pr-firm-alleges-defamation-in-blake-lively-justin-baldoni-legal-feud-justia-news-february-6-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-02-06T19:13:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T19:13:26","slug":"pr-firm-alleges-defamation-in-blake-lively-justin-baldoni-legal-feud-justia-news-february-6-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/pr-firm-alleges-defamation-in-blake-lively-justin-baldoni-legal-feud-justia-news-february-6-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"PR Firm Alleges Defamation in Blake Lively\/Justin Baldoni Legal Feud \u2014 Justia News \u2014 February 6, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The legal battle surrounding the film \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d continues to escalate as actress Blake Lively faces yet another lawsuit, this time from a Texas crisis communications specialist. This latest development adds another layer of complexity to the ongoing feud between Lively and her co-star and director, Justin Baldoni.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On February 4, 2025, Jed Wallace, the owner of the crisis PR firm Street Relations, filed a defamation lawsuit against Lively in Texas federal court. The $7 million lawsuit alleges that Lively falsely accused Wallace and his company of participating in a smear campaign against her, which has led to significant reputational damage for Wallace and his firm. Wallace is not named as a defendant in Lively\u2019s suit against Baldoni, but is named in court papers and the related New York Times story.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lively\u2019s legal team responded by dismissing the lawsuit as an act of retaliation, stating, \u201cWhile this lawsuit will be dismissed, we are pleased that Mr. Wallace has finally emerged from the shadows, and that he too will be held accountable in federal court.\u201d Seeking to depose Wallace, Lively alleged that he was involved in efforts by Baldoni\u2019s publicists to \u201ccreate, seed, manipulate, and advance disparaging content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wallace\u2019s lawsuit follows Lively\u2019s own legal actions against Baldoni and his associates, in which she alleged sexual harassment and workplace safety violations during the production of \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d and an orchestrated public relations attack against her thereafter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lively\u2019s lawsuit in New York federal court followed an earlier complaint she had filed with the California Civil Rights Department, in which she claimed Baldoni had invaded her privacy by entering her makeup trailer uninvited and had pressured her to lose weight months after giving birth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In response, Baldoni countersued Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, her publicist Leslie Sloane, and Sloane\u2019s PR firm, accusing them of defamation and of launching a smear campaign against him. Baldoni\u2019s legal team argued that Lively had fabricated allegations to damage his career and control the film\u2019s production.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the lawsuits have continued, both sides have been accused of trying to sway public opinion. On February 1, 2025, Baldoni\u2019s team launched a website detailing his version of events, including alleged communications with Lively. His attorneys claim this evidence proves Lively\u2019s allegations were exaggerated or false. Meanwhile, Lively\u2019s team has criticized Baldoni\u2019s strategy, calling it an \u201cendless stream of defamatory and extrajudicial media statements.\u201d New York federal judge Lewis J. Liman recently warned both parties that if they continued to litigate in the press, the trial \u2014 currently scheduled for March 2026 \u2014 could be moved up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Additional Reading<\/b><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-lawsuit-caf151c4f67b1661fc664186aa616e75\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blake Lively is sued by Texas crisis specialist in latest \u2018It Ends With Us\u2019 lawsuit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AP News <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(February 5, 2025)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/maryroeloffs\/2025\/02\/05\/justin-baldoni-vs-blake-lively-feud-explained-lively-sued-by-pr-firm-for-alleged-defamation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Justin Baldoni Vs. Blake Lively Feud Explained: Lively Sued By PR Firm For Alleged Defamation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Forbes <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(February 5, 2025)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justia.com\/injury\/defamation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Defamation Law<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Justia<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Image Credit: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bella1105 \/ Shutterstock.com<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\n            var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n            if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n            js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n            js.src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.11&appId=1639788792774312&autoLogAppEvents=1\";\n            fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n        }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The legal battle surrounding the film \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d continues to escalate as actress Blake Lively faces yet another lawsuit, this time from a Texas crisis communications [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1796,4556,4554,720,4522,4557,184,309,136,4555,310],"class_list":["post-4062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-alleges","tag-baldoni","tag-blake","tag-defamation","tag-february","tag-feud","tag-firm","tag-justia","tag-legal","tag-livelyjustin","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}