As the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni case continues, it will all come to a head at their March 2025 trial. More information has been made public, and this week, a judge unsealed documents, giving a glimpse into the expensive, strategic inner workings of Hollywood.
Per Page Six, last week, Lively’s attorneys filed over 60 exhibits obtained through discovery with the New York federal court. In August 2024, Baldoni’s publicist, Melissa Nathan, introduced Jed Wallace, a PR contractor and the owner of Street Relations, to Baldoni’s business partner, Jamey Heath.
Wallace’s LinkedIn profile reportedly described him as a “hired gun” with a “proprietary formula for defining artists and trends.” His LinkedIn has since been deleted.
Nathan explained that Wallace and his team would be assisting “on all social activity based on our own conversations as well as their digital plan you are in receipt of.” She also praised his work, saying they “worked on some of the most monumental [behind the scenes] projects globally”
His services aren’t cheap either. According to the Daily Mail, Nathan reportedly discussed the quote in a text to Heath. “Quote two $25k per month — min 3 months as it needs to seed same as above — this will be for creation of social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change narrative and stay on track,” Nathan reportedly wrote, describing the services as “most importantly untraceable.”
A source told the Daily Mail, “quote two” was in reference to Wallace and Street Relations. The insider claimed the strategy meant Wallace’s team would use anonymous accounts to argue with Lively fans online and push anything pro-Baldoni online.
The receipts include an August 2024 email from Nathan’s employee, Katie Case, laying out a “social and digital mitigation and remediation” strategy. The goal was to do it all “without fingerprints” and detailed monitoring forums and sites “working against Wayfarer Studios, Justin, and the overall narrative,” pushing up positive PR on search results, and even nuking entire Reddit communities if they became a problem.
They also wanted to spark new threads with approved theories to steer conversations back in Baldoni’s favor. And while so much energy went into plotting out covert strategies, they claimed the backlash against Lively grew all on its own, “organic,” from real accounts and fan communities.
In private chats, Nathan and her team slammed Lively’s decision to promote It Ends With Us with a cheery “wear your florals” message, even though the movie deals with domestic violence. “Like, come on,” Case wrote. “We had NOTHING to do with that.” Another person chimed in, “This is crazy. She doesn’t have a good reputation. All of this is organic stuff from real people making TikToks — not bots.”
Taylor Swift was also once again brought into the mess. Case was worried Lively could “activate the Taylor Swift fan base,” which she called a “major concern.” Because of the increase in online chatter, she said the monthly fee would jump to $30,000.
© GettyIn February 2025, Wallace filed a complaint in Texas federal court accusing her of defamation. He has denied the alleged smear campaign and use of fake accounts, and is seeking at least $7M in court.
Lively told The Daily Mail, “There is an overwhelming amount of evidence documenting the smear campaign instigated by Justin Baldoni, Melissa Nathan, Jed Wallace, and the rest of the Wayfarer Parties.” “All you need to do is look at Melissa Nathan’s texts, Baldoni’s responses, and Jed Wallace’s ‘services.’”
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