Topics: Hollywood, News, Celebrity, Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively
The It Ends With us drama doesn't look to be ending anytime soon as Blake Lively has been handed a new lawsuit.
In December 2024, Lively filed suits that claimed that she was sexually harassed while filming It Ends With Us, as well as being subjected to a smear campaign by her co-star, Justin Baldoni.
Baldoni – who has denied the allegations – has since filed a countersuit, with his company wanting $400 million from Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds in damages.
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Baldoni has made a flurry of accusations against the celebrity pair, as well as their publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane's PR firm, Vision PR, including civil extortion, defamation, and false light invasion of privacy, which Lively's team have also denied.
There's been much back and forth between the pair and their legal teams ever since, with Baldoni and his lawyers seemingly leaking text and voice note exchanges between him and Lively.
Elsewhere in the whirlwind of lawsuits, Jed Wallace and Street Relations had been named in a civil suit filed by the Gossip Girl alum, which accused Wallace and his firm of curating a smear campaign against her and to 'disincentivize her from speaking out', reported CBS News.
Wallace has denied the allegations against him and Lively has since dropped the petition that saw her call for him to be deposed.
Now Wallace, a Texas crisis communications specialist, and Street Relations has filed a $7,000,000 lawsuit against the star seeking damages and a court order stating that he didn’t engage in harassment or retaliation against Lively, The Hollywood Reporter says.
The suit was filed in federal court in Texas on Tuesday (February 4), and says neither Wallace or Street 'had anything to do with the alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate or aiding and abetting the alleged harassment or alleged retaliation' as presented in Lively's lawsuit.
Meanwhile, the suit also accuses Lively of defamation after the actor's lawyers had claimed in the now-rescinded civil suit that Wallace 'weaponized a digital army around the country from New York to Los Angeles to create, seed and promote content that appeared to be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,' PEOPLE reports.
Wallace's suit also claims that Lively's legal team 'has no facts supporting the allegations she made against Wallace and Street in the Precursor, which 'made headlines around the world', further alleging that The Age of Adaline star was 'apparently under the threat of sanctions from one of Plaintiffs’ attorneys, sought to 'investigate the scope of Mr. Wallace’s conduct'.
In response to the newly filed suit, Lively's legal team have said in a statement (via The Independent): "Another day, another state, another nine-figure lawsuit seeking to sue Ms. Lively 'into oblivion' for speaking out against sexual harassment and retaliation."
It went on: "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."
UNILAD has contacted Lively's representatives for further comment.
