Latest news with #StreetRelations
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Blake Lively alleges Justin Baldoni made other women uncomfortable on set
Blake Lively was not alone in her feelings about Justin Baldoni's alleged conduct while making the film "It Ends with Us," according to the amended complaint filed Tuesday in New York. The actor alleged that her costar and the film's director made other women uncomfortable on set and their concerns were documented, the complaint said. The amended complaint from Lively's legal team included new allegations against Baldoni and his business partner, Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Health. It described an alleged incident in 2023 — after Lively said she reported experiencing "unwelcome and uncomfortable behavior" to various leads on the movie — where another woman in the cast "reported her own concerns regarding Mr. Baldoni's unwelcome behavior" and the ways in which she saw it hurting the film. Baldoni apparently responded to the cast member, whose name doesn't appear in the lawsuit, soon afterward, according to the document. He apparently acknowledged in writing his awareness of the cast member's concerns and indicated things would change, but according to the amended lawsuit they didn't. The complaint referenced another woman in the cast who later told Lively she felt uncomfortable on set, too. "Ms. Lively was not alone in raising allegations of on-set misconduct more than a year before the Film was edited," said Lively's attorneys, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, in a statement. The attorneys said their amended complaint contains evidence to support that accusation "as well as evidence detailing the threats, harassment, and intimidation of not just Ms. Lively, but numerous innocent bystanders that have followed defendants' retaliatory campaign." Lively and Baldoni have been embroiled in a widely publicized legal battle since December, when the New York Times published her sexual harassment allegations against Baldoni. She also alleged that Baldoni retaliated after she spoke up about what happened on set. Baldoni has since sued the newspaper and Lively for defamation, seeking $400 million from her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, alleging extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy. Lively's accusations against Baldoni have partly centered on his alleged use of retaliation tactics to discourage the actor from speaking up by turning public opinion against her. The amended complaint suggested the retaliatory efforts have devolved into "dangerously extreme" acts of cyberbullying, harassment and intimidation, allegedly directed not only toward just Lively, but also toward her family, others in the cast of "It Ends with Us" and some witnesses. "The culture of fear, intimidation, harassment and threats is the predictable result of an incessant digital campaign to turn social media sentiment as dark and negative as is humanly possible," a spokesperson for Lively said in a statement Wednesday. Jed Wallace, the owner of crisis public relations firm Street Relations, was also introduced as a defendant in Lively's lawsuit in the amended version. Wallace, who was named in an initial civil rights complaint Lively filed in California prior to suing Baldoni, has been accused of helping orchestrate an alleged smear campaign to damage Lively's reputation and disincentivize her from speaking out. He has denied Lively's allegations and recently filed a defamation suit of his own against her. Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, characterized the amended complaint from Lively as "unsubstantial hearsay of unnamed persons." "Since documents do not lie and people do, the upcoming depositions of those who initially supported Ms. Lively's false claims and those who are witnesses to her own behavior will be enlightening. What is truly uncomfortable here is Ms. Lively's lack of actual evidence," Freedman told CBS News in a statement. Lively's attorneys said they would work to dismiss both defamation suits against her. The first trial with Baldoni is set for March 2026. Trump administration fires thousands of U.S. Forest and National Park Service workers DOGE "receipts" show approved spending, not evidence of fraud New York Gov. Hochul vows to protect congestion pricing after Trump moves to end it
CBS News
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Blake Lively alleges Justin Baldoni made other women uncomfortable on set of "It Ends with Us"
Blake Lively was not alone in her feelings about Justin Baldoni's alleged conduct while making the film "It Ends with Us," according to the amended complaint filed Tuesday in New York. The actor alleged that her costar and the film's director made other women uncomfortable on set and their concerns were documented, the complaint said. The amended complaint from Lively's legal team included new allegations against Baldoni and his business partner, Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Health. It described an alleged incident in 2023 — after Lively said she reported experiencing "unwelcome and uncomfortable behavior" to various leads on the movie — where another woman in the cast "reported her own concerns regarding Mr. Baldoni's unwelcome behavior" and the ways in which she saw it hurting the film. Baldoni apparently responded to the cast member, whose name doesn't appear in the lawsuit, soon afterward, according to the document. He apparently acknowledged in writing his awareness of the cast member's concerns and indicated things would change, but according to the amended lawsuit they didn't. The complaint referenced another woman in the cast who later told Lively she felt uncomfortable on set, too. "Ms. Lively was not alone in raising allegations of on-set misconduct more than a year before the Film was edited," said Lively's attorneys, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, in a statement. The attorneys said their amended complaint contains evidence to support that accusation "as well as evidence detailing the threats, harassment, and intimidation of not just Ms. Lively, but numerous innocent bystanders that have followed defendants' retaliatory campaign." Lively and Baldoni have been embroiled in a widely publicized legal battle since December, when the New York Times published her sexual harassment allegations against Baldoni. She also alleged that Baldoni retaliated after she spoke up about what happened on set. Baldoni has since sued the newspaper and Lively for defamation, seeking $400 million from her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, alleging extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy. Lively's accusations against Baldoni have partly centered on his alleged use of retaliation tactics to discourage the actor from speaking up by turning public opinion against her. The amended complaint suggested the retaliatory efforts have devolved into "dangerously extreme" acts of cyberbullying, harassment and intimidation, allegedly directed not only toward just Lively, but also toward her family, others in the cast of "It Ends with Us" and some witnesses. "The culture of fear, intimidation, harassment and threats is the predictable result of an incessant digital campaign to turn social media sentiment as dark and negative as is humanly possible," a spokesperson for Lively said in a statement Wednesday. Jed Wallace, the owner of crisis public relations firm Street Relations, was also introduced as a defendant in Lively's lawsuit in the amended version. Wallace, who was named in an initial civil rights complaint Lively filed in California prior to suing Baldoni, has been accused of helping orchestrate an alleged smear campaign to damage Lively's reputation and disincentivize her from speaking out. He has denied Lively's allegations and recently filed a defamation suit of his own against her. Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, characterized the amended complaint from Lively as "unsubstantial hearsay of unnamed persons." "Since documents do not lie and people do, the upcoming depositions of those who initially supported Ms. Lively's false claims and those who are witnesses to her own behavior will be enlightening. What is truly uncomfortable here is Ms. Lively's lack of actual evidence," Freedman told CBS News in a statement. Lively's attorneys said they would work to dismiss both defamation suits against her. The first trial with Baldoni is set for March 2026.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Blake Lively Declares Other Women Justin Baldoni Made 'Uncomfortable' On ‘It Ends With Us' Will Testify At Trial; Defamation Claim Added To Suit
With minutes to spare before a court imposed deadline of midnight ET, lawyers for Blake Lively have just filed an amended complaint against Justin Baldoni in the Gossip Girl vet's sexual harassment and smear campaign action on her It Ends With Us co-star and director. On a legal and cultural landscape where the blast radius from this battle was already pretty large, things just got a whole lot bigger More from Deadline Justin Baldoni's Team Squabble With Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds' Lawyers Over Subpoenas As Filing Deadline Approaches Brandon Sklenar Says He's "Team It Ends With Us" After Gayle King Asks Where His Loyalties Lie In Lively-Baldoni Legal Battle 'SNL50': Decades Of Political Satire & POTUS Mocking Noticeably Absent From Anniversary Special Also, with a settlement nowhere in sight, mediation rejected by all sides, and contested telecomm subpoenas, this saga of alleged misconduct, money, astroturfing and career crash and burning now finds Lively adding a defamation claim and civil conspiracy in her 141-page FAC (First Amended Complaint) There are also two new, but not unexpected defendants, in Crisis PR firm Street Relations and its founder Jed Wallace. Perhaps more importantly, this time, in a complaint 48 pages longer than the New Year's Eve complaint Lively first filed, there are other women cited. Other women that supposedly suffered at the hands and actions of Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath. Individuals whose names are left out of the document now, but intend to be witnesses in the trial starting next year in federal court in NYC. Seeking to see Baldoni's own amended complaint tossed out, Lively's amended complaint puts new emphasis on the harassment and the retaliation that she detailed in previous filings. It states: The dangerous climate of threats, harassment, and intimidation fueled by the Defendants' retaliation campaign has required Ms. Lively to alter her personal and professional life, and to take steps to protect innocent bystanders rather than exposing them to further harm. Thus, this Amended Complaint does not refer to certain witnesses by name, nor does it provide screen shots of their text messages. Importantly, however, these witnesses have given Ms. Lively permission to share the substance of their communications in this Amended Complaint as contained herein, and they will testify and produce responsive documents in the discovery process. Naming distributor Sony's Ange Gianetti as being aware of the uneasy she and other potentially corroborating women allegedly felt on IEWU, Livley's new filing goes on to say: More importantly, the Defendants' false narrative crumbles under the indisputable truth that Ms. Lively was not alone in complaining about Mr. Baldoni and raised her concerns contemporaneously as they arose in 2023, not in connection with some imagined power play for control of the Film in 2024. The experiences of Ms. Lively and others were documented at the time they occurred starting in May of 2023. Importantly, and contrary to the entire narrative Defendants have invented, Mr. Baldoni acknowledged the complaints in writing at the time. He knew that women other than Ms. Lively also were uncomfortable and had complained about his behavior. Also, with many meetings, instances and reproduced text messages repeated from Lively's first court filing at the end of last year (such as the apparent derailment of 'the long-planned launch of her haircare line, Blake Brown' because of the alleged online smear campaign) today's amended complaint seeks to illustrate the stakes in some very real and potentially frightening ways: The Defendants' actions have created such a toxic climate of online vitriol against Ms. Lively, her family, other members of the cast, and various fact witnesses, that all of the above have received disturbing threats. One fact witness known to publicly support Ms. Lively recently received a written threat indicating that the witness's family would be sexually assaulted and killed unless the witness agreed to 'make a statement and give the truth.' This type of climate was the predictable, if not inevitable, result of the retaliatory campaign launched by the Baldoni-Wayfarer parties, both before and after the litigation the January 31 FAC that Baldoni and crew filed against Lively and Ryan Reynolds for defamation and extortion, replacing their initial $400 million complaint of January 16, Tuesday's paperwork from Lively supplants her NYE suit that followed the December 20 filing in California's Civil Rights department. In both Baldoni's FAC and Lively's FAC new defendants were added. It was the New York Times in the move by the Jane the Virgin actor, after suing them individually on December 31 for $250 million. Tonight, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants actress brought onboard Street Relations chief and alleged social media manipulator Wallace along with previous defendants Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios, its CEO and its moneyman, plus publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, and Nathan's The Agency Group. The inclusion of Wallace and Street Relations was anticipated over the past few weeks. However, with a desired protective order against lead Team Baldoni lawyer Bryan Freedman coming up short with Judge Lewis J. Liman in the case's first actual hearing earlier this month, the defamation claim now takes on an even more pointed role – with the former Megyn Kelly lawyer named very specifically. 'The statements Wayfarer, Baldoni, and Heath, through their agents, including Bryan Freedman, published about Ms. Lively are reasonably understood to state and imply that Ms. Lively fabricated claims of harassment and filed false claims of harassment with the Civil Rights Department of the State of California and with this Court,' the section on the defamation claim says. After the FAC was put in the court docket just before Wednesday ET, Lively's main attorneys Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb outlined for Deadline where things, are and where they see this all going: Ms. Lively has filed an amended complaint today that provides significant additional evidence and corroboration of her original claims. That evidence includes previously undisclosed communications involving Ms. Lively, representatives of Sony and Wayfarer, and numerous other witnesses. The complaint includes significant contemporaneous evidence that Ms. Lively was not alone in raising allegations of on-set misconduct more than a year before the Film was edited; as well as evidence detailing the threats, harassment, and intimidation of not just Ms. Lively, but numerous innocent bystanders that have followed defendants' retaliatory campaign. The amended complaint has also added a new claim for defamation based on the repeated false statements the defendants have made about Ms. Lively since she filed her original complaint, and adds Jed Wallace and his company as defendants. Over the next several weeks, we will move to dismiss the utterly meritless lawsuits brought against Ms. Lively and Mr. Reynolds, and we will move full speed ahead with discovery that we expect will reveal shocking details about the depth to which the Defendants have sunk in their unending efforts to 'bury,' 'ruin,' and 'destroy' Ms. Lively and her family. Representatives for Baldoni and the other defendants, Freedman and Sony did not respond to request for comment from Deadline on Lively's amended complaint. If any of them do, this post will be updated. With more than a year to go before the whole thing actual starts a trial on March 29, 2026, it is very likely (like certain) that there will be many more filings to come. Future filings here don't even include the other lawsuits orbiting what went on during production of IEWU and the retaliation Lively alleges she was subjected to online last summer by Baldoni's publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel and self-described 'hired gun' Wallace. Lively's team recently pulled a deposition demanding filing in Texas against Wallace as a prelude to putting his name and that of his company in this amended complaint. On February 5, after Wallace denied he had anything to do with any smear campaign despite what seem like references to him by Baldoni flacks in text messages, the Texas-based entrepreneur sued Lively for $7 million. The action came out of Wallace asserting that his name being in Lively's CRD complaint and coming up again and again in the matter since has caused him 'millions of dollars in reputational harm with a projected loss to his company that exceeds another million.' It should be noted that Nathan and Abel have also said that they never actually activated any attacks on Livley in the lead-up tp the August 2024 release of hit IEWU, 'because the internet was doing the work for us,' as Abel exclaimed in a now deleted Facebook post just before Christmas. Now, just days after Lively and Reynolds walked the red carpet at 30 Rock and participated in the SNL50: The Anniversary Special, the internet will get busy in some way or another again and Wallace has now been hauled into the big show. A show that is sure to get a lot wilder before next year's trial start date comes around. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 2025 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Tonys, Guilds & More How To Watch Sunday's 'SNL50: The Anniversary Special' Online & On TV
MTV Lebanon
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- MTV Lebanon
Blake Lively is sued by Texas crisis specialist in latest ‘It Ends With Us' lawsuit
A Texas crisis communications specialist has sued Blake Lively for defamation after the actor pulled him into her legal fight with co-star and director Justin Baldoni over their film, 'It Ends With Us.' Jed Wallace and his company, Street Relations, filed the $7 million lawsuit in federal court in Texas on Tuesday. It says he had nothing to do with any campaign to harm Lively's reputation as she alleged in a court filing. Wallace is not among the defendants in Lively's federal lawsuit against Baldoni, his production company and publicists, in which she alleges sexual and other harassment during the production and a campaign to smear her after it. The crisis specialist is named in the court papers and the New York Times story published on the day the series of legal battles began in December when Lively filed a complaint. Lively's lawyers said in a statement that Wallace's lawsuit 'is not just a publicity stunt.' 'It is transparent retaliation in response to allegations contained within a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint that Ms. Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department,' the statement said. 'While 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.' In a filing last week in Hays County, Texas, that seeks a deposition from Wallace, Lively alleges he was used by publicists working with Baldoni to weaponize 'a digital army around the country, including in New York and Los Angeles, to create, seed, manipulate, and advance disparaging content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums.' Wallace's lawsuit says neither he nor his company 'had anything to do with the alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate or aiding and abetting the alleged harassment or alleged retaliation.' It says the actor's Texas filing 'conceded that Lively has no facts supporting the allegations she made against Wallace and Street,' which is why she now seeks to investigate the extent of his conduct. After Lively sued Baldoni, he filed his own federal lawsuit against her and her husband, 'Deadpool' star Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion and seeking at least $400 million in damages. Baldoni had already sued The New York Times for libel, and his former publicist filed a lawsuit taking Lively's side. 'It Ends With Us,' an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a domestic total of nearly $150 million. The success was followed by near constant turmoil over its production and promotion.
See - Sada Elbalad
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- See - Sada Elbalad
Blake Lively Sued by Crisis PR Firm for Defamation
The owner of a crisis mitigation firm who was accused of launching a 'digital army' against Blake Lively has sued the actress for defamation. Jed Wallace, owner of Street Relations, filed a multi-million dollar suit against Lively on Tuesday in federal court in Texas. Wallace was accused in Lively's lawsuit and civil rights complaint of working as part of Justin Baldoni's online smear campaign against her, which she claimed came in retaliation for her complaints of sexual harassment on the set of 'It Ends With Us.' In his lawsuit, Wallace states that he had 'nothing to do with' the alleged retaliatory effort. He also argues that he has "suffered millions of dollars in reputational harm due to being named in the complaint". This marks the fifth lawsuit filed in connection with the Baldoni-Lively scandal. Baldoni's other publicists, Jen Abel and Melissa Nathan, previously joined a similar defamation complaint against Lively and others, alleging that their lives had been turned 'upside down' and that they had become 'objects of public scorn' due to being accused of orchestrating the anti-Lively smear effort. In response to Wallace's suit, Lively's legal team stated it simply furthers the retaliatory campaign against Lively. 'Another day, another state, another nine-figure lawsuit seeking to sue Ms. Lively 'into oblivion' for speaking out against sexual harassment and retaliation,' they said. 'This is not just a publicity stunt — it is transparent retaliation in response to allegations contained within a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint that Ms. Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department. While 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.' The evidence of Wallace's involvement stems from August text messages between Nathan and Abel, which were obtained by Lively's attorneys. In one message, Nathan reports that 'we are crushing it on Reddit,' and attributes the information to 'Jed.' Another message from a member of Nathan's team to Abel confirms 'a shift on social, due largely to Jed and his team's efforts to shift the narrative…'. 'Jed' is also named in a couple of other messages. 'Mr. Wallace has described himself as a 'hired gun' and claimed a 'proprietary formula for defining artists and trends,'' Lively's attorneys stated in her lawsuit. Wallace was named as a respondent in Lively's civil rights complaint but was not named as a defendant in her lawsuit. On January 21, Lively's attorneys filed a notice in Hays County, Texas, indicating they would ask a court to allow them to depose Wallace. That petition was dropped on Tuesday. Wallace's attorneys argue that Lively should not be protected by litigation privilege because her attorneys gave her civil rights complaint to 'many media outlets,' which created 'headlines around the world.' The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment absolving Wallace of liability in the matter, as well as damages for defamation, including at least $6 million in punitive damages.
