Blake Lively has claimed that she has suffered $161million (£122.30million) in actual damages from the smear campaign around It Ends With Us.
Ahead of her trial against co-star and director Justin Baldoni next March, a disclosure from Lively’s attorneys has been made public, alleging that the actress lost around $56.2million (£42.69million) in past and future earnings from acting, producing, speaking engagements and endorsements.
Additionally, it is alleged that she lost $49million (£37.22million) from her beauty brand, $22million (£16.71million) due to harm around her image and $34million (£25.83million) in reputational harm from 65 million negative social media impressions (via Variety).
Her attorneys are set to seek at least three times that amount in punitive damages. However, the actual damages figure is preliminary and will be subject to proof with expert testimony.
The legal battle began when Lively sued Baldoni last December, accusing him of “inappropriate and unwelcome behaviour” and seeking to “destroy” her reputation.
He denied the claims and countersued Lively, husband Ryan Reynolds and publicist Leslie Sloane for $400million (£295million), with claims that Lively tried to extort him. However, this was dismissed in June. Baldoni was also dropped by his talent agency last December and had a women’s solidarity award rescinded.
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The story gained more public attention when Baldoni named Taylor Swift, a close friend of Lively’s, as a witness and alleged that the singer was present for discussions between Baldoni and Lively about a scene at the start of It Ends With Us.
In September, a judge denied a last-minute bid by Baldoni to depose Swift for the upcoming trial, with U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman saying Baldoni and his co-defendants at Wayfarer Studios waited too long to seek her deposition. The judge further granted Lively a 10-day extension to take Baldoni and two others’ depositions.
Baldoni’s lawyer previously claimed that Swift “agreed” to appear but was unable to do so before October 20, and requested an extension to accommodate her schedule. However, Swift’s lawyer refuted these claims, saying that she has “no material role in this action” and that she “did not agree to a deposition”, adding that if she was “forced” she had informed Baldoni’s team that she was too busy to accommodate it before October 20.
Back in May, Swift’s legal team called for Baldoni’s subpoena to be thrown out, saying the star and her team had nothing to do with the issues of the suit.
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