Blake Lively says a 'smear campaign' has hurt her business in a new lawsuit

Blake Lively has filed a new complaint against her “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldonistating that his alleged “smear campaign” was hurting her businesses.

The actress claims that her publicist and crisis PR specialist Baldoni staged a reputational attack that caused sales of her brands to drop by up to 78%.

Justin Baldoni has since denied the allegations, and his lawyer has revealed plans to release conversations between Blake Lively and the actor, disputing her allegations of harassment.

As previously reported An explosionLively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and creating a toxic work environment on set.

According to Daily mailin her latest lawsuit, Lively is seeking “punitive damages,” alleging that Baldoni orchestrated a smear campaign that seriously affected her businesses.

In her original complaint, the 37-year-old actress alleged that Baldoni, working with her publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR expert Melissa Nathan, deliberately tried to damage her reputation.

On New Year's Eve, Lively stepped up her legal battle by filing a more formal complaint doubling down on her allegations.

While her first complaint was filed with the California Commission on Civil Rights, her latest lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York.

Lively claims the alleged campaign to tarnish her image has caused ongoing “financial harm.”

She specifically cites the backlash as a direct cause of the decline in sales of her hair care line Blake Brown Beauty and her beverage brands Betty Buzz and Betty Booze.

In Lively's lawsuit, she claims sales of her hair care brand, Blake Brown, have dropped by as much as 78% after what she describes as a “campaign of social manipulation.”

The filing states, “Based on internal sales projections, the sudden and unexpected negative media campaign launched against Ms. Lively reduced Blake Brown's retail sales by 56-78 percent.”

It goes on to say: “This dramatic decline was in stark contrast to the high satisfaction scores Blake Brown's products received in significant pre-launch consumer testing or their initial post-launch success.”

Lively's complaint also alleges that around the same time as the “social manipulation campaign,” Lively's brands' social media accounts were “inundated with hateful comments that began to reverberate through other social and traditional media outlets.”

According to Daily mailin the new lawsuit, Lively is seeking “punitive damages” and a “money judgment representing damages, lost wages, earnings and all other monetary amounts,” as well as “interest” on the aforementioned “amount proven in court.”

She is also asking for “a monetary award for mental pain and suffering, as well as severe and serious emotional distress, to be proven at trial.”

Lively's latest complaint was filed Dec. 31, the same day Baldoni launched a $250 million defamation suit against The New York Times over its report covering the actress' original allegations.

In response, the publication issued a statement standing by the reporting and refuting the claims made in Baldoni's lawsuit. The publication said it plans to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

Meanwhile, Baldoni's attorney, Brian Friedman, revealed that the actor plans to sue Lively directly.

Talking to NBCFreedman stated, “We intend to release every text message between the two of them (sic). We want the truth out there.”

He added: “We want the documents out there. We want people to make a decision based on the receipts.”

Lively's lawsuit included screenshots of text messages involving Baldoni, Abel and Nathan, which may mark a coordinated PR effort to undermine the actress.

However, Friedman criticized the release of “leaked personal text exchanges”, saying they lacked “critical context”.

In a television interview, he also announced that he and Baldoni plan to release the full history of text messages between Baldoni and Blake Lively.

One example cited in the case is a screenshot of an alleged conversation in which Lively informs Baldoni that she's pumping breast milk in her trailer and invites him to join her to rehearse their lines.

According to Daily mailin exchange, Lively reportedly texted: “I'm just pumping in my trailer if you wanna work out our lines”, to which Baldoni replies: “Copy. Eating with the crew and going that way.”

Friedman claims that this interaction contradicts Lively's claims that Baldoni entered her trailer “uninvited while she was undressed, including while breastfeeding.”