Blake Lively claims she suffered $161 million in damages due to a smear campaign waged against her during the release of It Ends With Us.
Lively’s lawyers claim she has lost at least $56.2 million in past and future income from her acting, producing, speaking and sponsorship work. It also claims that her beauty brand, Blake Brown, suffered a loss of $49 million, and that her beverage company, Betty Buzz/Betty Booze, suffered a loss of $22 million due to damage to her image.
Lively is scheduled to go to trial next March in her lawsuit against co-star and director Justin Baldoni, producer Jamie Heath, studio president Steve Sarowitz, and their publicist. She claims she was targeted with online criticism in retaliation for raising a complaint of sexual harassment on set.
Her lawyers claim she has suffered at least $34 million in reputational damage based on 65 million negative impressions generated about her on social media.
In the lawsuit, which was first filed on Dec. 31, 2024, Lively’s attorney said only that her damages exceeded $75,000. But in a disclosure document filed with the defense in July and made public Wednesday, she claimed to have suffered actual damages of at least $161 million. Her lawyers also plan to seek punitive damages of at least three times that amount.
Lively’s disclosure states that her damages are preliminary and may be proven through expert testimony at trial.
“These are wish list numbers,” said Gregory Doll, an attorney at Dole Amir Ely in Los Angeles. “They probably want to settle the matter by putting up a number big enough to cause concern to the other side.”
Baldoni’s team had claimed that the defamatory and false allegations against him had cost him $400 million in damages. The suit was dismissed in June after a judge ruled that Baldoni could not sue for defamation over the allegations raised in the legal claim.
Lively’s disclosure also includes a long list of Hollywood celebrities and executives who may have information related to the case, but few, if any, of them are actually scheduled to testify. The list includes Taylor Swift, Emily Blunt, Scooter Braun, Hugh Jackman, Gigi Hadid, Ari Emmanuel, Sony Pictures Chairman Tony Vinciquerra, and Sony Pictures Head Tom Rothman.
Numerous lawsuits have been filed over Swift’s possible involvement, with the Baldoni camp making ultimately futile efforts to secure her affidavit.
