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Another shot has been fired in the ongoing Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni legal battle.
A PR firm representing Baldoni has now filed a defamation lawsuit against Lively seeking punitive damages in an amount of “not less than $6,000,000.”
The suit alleges that Lively damaged the reputation of CEO Jed Wallace and his crisis management firm, Street Relations Inc., when she mentioned them in her initial civil complaint against Baldoni.
As Fox News points out, Lively did not name the parties in her formal lawsuit.
But Wallace claims that the actress’ decision to name Wallace and Street Relations in her initial complaint with the State of California Civil Rights Department did sufficient damage.
The Latest Allegations
“Neither Wallace nor Street had anything to do with the alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate or aiding and abetting the alleged harassment or alleged retaliation,” the lawsuit reads.
“Neither could they have breached a contract with Lively because no such contract exists.”
The suit goes on to allege that Lively’s claims “made with either negligence or ‘actual malice’” have caused “millions of dollars in reputational harm including both general and special damages through emotional harm (Wallace), actual damages and real and projected loss of business (Wallace and Street) in an amount that exceeds $1,000,000.”
An Ongoing Battle
The legal wrangling began in December when Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment.
Baldoni quickly filed a countersuit accusing Lively of defamation.
The actress responded by alleging that Baldoni was trying to silence her through legal action.
Blake’s attorneys continued that line of attack today, accusing Street and Wallace of attempting to score a victory in the court of public opinion.
“Another day, another state, another nine-figure lawsuit seeking to sue Ms. Lively ‘into oblivion’ for speaking out against sexual harassment and retaliation,” reads a statement from Lively’s legal team.
“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.”
Needless to say, it seems that the war between these former co-stars is just beginning.
We’ll have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
Blake Lively Hit With $6 Million Defamation Lawsuit From Justin Baldoni’s PR Firm was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.