What does a smear campaign mean? Inside Justin Baldoni's alleged PR strategy aimed at Blake Lively amid lawsuit filing

Blake Lively's lawsuit accusing Justin Baldoni of s*xual harassment and more has been in the news since the time the actress filed it on Friday, December 20, 2024. As per In Touch Weekly, Lively's lawsuit alleged that Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, ran a "smear campaign" to "destroy her reputation."

Blake Lively addressed Justin's alleged smear campaign, which, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, refers to actions intended to "harm the reputation of a person." The actress also shared screenshots and other supporting evidence to back her claims.

According to The New York Times, Blake Lively also included a thread of private messages between Baldoni and his PR team as proof. One of the messages highlighted in the lawsuit was from August 4, 2024, where Baldoni shared a screenshot of a post on X titled "Hailey Bieber's history of bullying many women." After sharing it, he allegedly wrote:

“This is what we would need.”

According to Blake Lively's lawsuit, the screenshot was shared with his PR executive Jennifer Abel, who responded to the message:

“Yes, I literally just spoke to Melissa Nathan about this on the break about what we discussed last night for social and digital. Focus on Reddit, TikTok, IG [Instagram].”

The New York Post also mentioned that Melissa Nathan is a crisis PR manager whom Justin employed over the summer as the release of It Ends With Us approached.

The outlet also said that the lawsuit by Blake supposedly claims that Baldoni sharing news about Hailey Bieber was an example of the smear campaign he was trying to run against Lively.

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More details explored as Blake Lively alleged in her lawsuit that she missed out on hosting the Saturday Night Live season 50 premiere

Blake Lively alleged that Justin Baldoni often made her uncomfortable by discussing his s*x life and describing his genitalia. She also claimed that his actions smeared her name, due to which she lost many opportunities, including the opportunity to host Saturday Night Live's season 50 premiere episode.

As per Variety, her complaint reads:

“The effects on Ms. Lively’s professional life were immediate and substantial. Given the ongoing nature of the campaign and the associated negative public sentiment, Ms. Lively did not believe she could proceed with public appearances or events without being forced to openly discuss what happened on set.”

It continued:

“For example, Ms. Lively cancelled a critical Target corporate event for her hair care company, and she backed out of her scheduled role to host the premiere episode of the 50th anniversary season of ‘Saturday Night Live’ in September 2024.”

However, Justin Baldoni allegedly denied all the claims made by the Gossip Girl actress. According to ABC News his lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement:

“It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real-time and unedited.”

Blake Lively lodged a detailed 10-point complaint against Justin Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, on Friday, December 20, 2024. The complaint alleges a "hostile work environment" that reportedly came close to disrupting the film's production.

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It Ends With Us, released in August 202,4, and stars Baldoni and Lively with Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate, and Hasan Minhaj.