Blake Lively claims Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Productions’ “Mean Girls” smear campaign cost her nearly $300 million in profits and potential revenue.
The Gossip Girl actress claims she suffered significant financial damages of “approximately $36.5 million to $40.5 million” as a result of Baldoni’s alleged use of “retaliatory terms such as ‘tone-deaf,’ ‘bully,’ and ‘slut'” in an attempt to damage her reputation, according to court documents filed April 17.
Citing her own expert, Dr. Ashley Humphries, professor of marketing communications at Northwestern University, Lively alleges that Baldoni’s attorney Brian Friedman’s “retaliatory” comments made during the tense “this is it” feud cost her “an estimated $24,375,267.”
Humphreys arrived at the calculated damages by quantifying the reach of the statement through online impressions and offering “specific damages.”
As for her income, she claims estimated damages between $34.3 million and $87.8 million, FOX News reported.
Her experts argue that most of the loss in revenue, which includes studio films, independent projects and limited TV series, is the result of missed opportunities from August 2024 to August 2029.
She also claims that her company, Betty Booze and Blake Brown, lost between $39.6 million and $143.5 million in profits as a result of the legal battle.
Additionally, the actress is seeking damages between $250,000 and $400,000 for the “pain and suffering, physical suffering and humiliation” she allegedly suffered as a result of the smear campaign.
Lively is seeking damages totaling more than $290 million, a significant jump from her November 2025 claim that the alleged defamation campaign cost her $161 million.
Baldoni’s lawyers countered Lively’s claims in an April 17 filing, arguing that the accusations surrounding Lively’s character were “widely circulated even before Baldoni and Wayfarer began working,” and that Lively’s online labels such as “‘mean girl,’ ‘bully,’ hard to work with, and ‘tone-deaf'” “did not further damage her existing reputation.”
Representatives for Lively and Baldoni did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
The judge in charge of their case dismissed 10 of Lively’s 13 claims, but they are scheduled to go to trial on May 18th on three remaining claims: breach of contract, retaliation, and aiding and abetting retaliation.
