Another lawsuit has been filed in connection with the ongoing legal battle between actress Blake Lively and her co-star Justin Baldoni.

Crisis communications specialist Jed Wallace filed a $7m (£5.6m) defamation suit against Lively after he was named in court papers, as part of her legal fight against an alleged smear campaign to harm her reputation.

It is the latest in a series of developments after both actors filed lawsuits against each other following an initial legal complaint from Lively, after the pair worked together on the film It Ends With Us.

The dispute between them has been ongoing since December last year – and is pretty complicated.

So here is everything you need to know about Hollywood’s latest legal off-screen drama, and how it has unfolded so far.

Film’s release overshadowed by speculation

The release of It Ends With Us in August 2024 was somewhat overshadowed by speculation about discord between its two main actors.

The film is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel and follows Lively’s character, Lily Bloom, as she navigates an abusive relationship with Baldoni’s character, Ryle Kincaid.

Baldoni took a backseat in promoting the film, even though he also directed and produced the project, while Lively took centre stage along with husband Ryan Reynolds, who was on the press circuit for Deadpool & Wolverine at the same time.

Baldoni also did not pose for photos with other actors at the premiere and fans noticed that he was not followed by Lively or co-star Jenny Slate on Instagram.

Lively appeared to take the brunt of negative media attention around the same time the film was released, with some also criticising her for promoting her own businesses – beverage company Betty Buzz and hair care brand Blake Brown – at the same time.

In an interview with NBC News’ Today programme, Baldoni touched on the online speculation by broadly saying making a movie involves “navigating complex personalities” to get on the same page.

He added at the time: “And mistakes are always made, and then you figure out how to move past them.”

Lively’s legal complaint

On 21 December, The New York Times published an article called ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine, which revealed Lively had filed a legal complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department.

In the complaint, Lively, 37, accused Baldoni, 41, of sexual harassment and alleged that he, along with the studio behind It Ends With Us, embarked on a subsequent “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation.

Concerns raised in the filing included Baldoni showing pictures of nude women to Lively, mentioning his previous porn addiction, and making comments about Lively’s weight.

Baldoni has denied all the allegations.

Tension between the two actors was addressed in a meeting in January 2024, where a new code of conduct for the set of the film was put in place, according to the complaint.

Alleged smear campaign

As part of the sexual harassment complaint, lawyers representing Lively demanded the release of any messages relating to what they referred to as an attempt to damage the actor’s reputation.

The complaint claims Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios – the production company behind It Ends With Us – hired a crisis communications firm in order to carry out a “sophisticated, coordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan” meant to “bury” and “destroy” Lively, if she went public with her on-set concerns.

She alleges the plan included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign and place news stories critical of her.

It also claimed Baldoni “abruptly pivoted away from” the film’s marketing plan and “used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image”.

In messages that were later made public, exchanges between Jennifer Abel, of PR firm RWA Communications, Melissa Nathan, of The Agency Group PR, and Baldoni, appear to discuss the plan.

In one exchange Ms Nathan apparently tells Ms Abel: “We can’t write it down to him… We can’t write ‘we will destroy her’… You know we can bury anyone. But I can’t write that to him.”

Lively told The New York Times that she hoped the complaint would help to “pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted”.

These allegations were also strenuously denied by Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives.

Bryan Freedman, a lawyer representing all three, called the claims by Lively “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media”.

He said the studio had “proactively” hired a crisis manager “due to the multiple demands and threats made by Lively during production”.

Baldoni was dropped by his agency, WME, immediately after Lively filed her complaint and The New York Times published its story.

The agency also represents both Lively and Reynolds.

Baldoni’s $250m lawsuit against The New York Times

Just before the start of the year, Baldoni sued The New York Times for libel.

The lawsuit seeks at least $250m (£199m) in damages and was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on the exact same day Lively filed a federal lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and others – going further than her previous legal complaint.

Baldoni, along with others that are named in Lively’s lawsuit, accused The New York Times of accepting a “self-serving narrative” from the actor in order to write its article ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.

The lawsuit said the article “disregard[s] an abundance of evidence” that contradicts Lively’s accusations.

The paper responded to the lawsuit by saying it plans to “vigorously defend” its reporting.

In a statement, it said: “The role of an independent news organisation is to follow the facts where they lead.

“Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article.”

Lively was not named as a defendant in the libel lawsuit against the paper.

In a statement, lawyers representing the actor said: “Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today.”

Baldoni sues Lively and Reynolds

In a separate lawsuit, filed on 16 January, Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios sued Lively and Reynolds for damages, including lost future income.

The suit is seeking at least $400m (£326m) and was filed to a New York court.

It alleges Lively and Reynolds hijacked both the production and marketing of It Ends With Us, and manipulated media to smear Baldoni and others on the production with false allegations of harassment.

The lawsuit also claims Lively used Baldoni as a scapegoat for her “publicly tainted image” and leveraged “her power as a wealthy celebrity to take creative control of the film”.

Baldoni and the studio did not want to take legal action, his lawsuit also says. But it adds that Lively “has unequivocally left them with no choice, not only to set the record straight […] but also to put the spotlight on the parts of Hollywood that they have dedicated their careers to being the antithesis of”.

Responding to the filing, Lively’s lawyers, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Willkie Farr & Gallagher, accused Baldoni and his team of using a DARVO tactic, which stands for “deny, attack, reverse victim and offender”.

Their statement said: “This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.”

Prospective trial date set

Towards the end of January, New York federal judge Lewis J Liman set a trial date of March 2026 for Lively and Baldoni’s legal battle.

It followed a claim by Lively’s legal team that Mr Freedman, the lawyer for Baldoni, was trying to influence potential jurors by creating a website to release selected documents and communications between the pair.

Lively’s lawyers called for an end to a “stream of defamatory and extrajudicial media statements” while Mr Freedman said he and Baldoni would “respect the court”.

“All we want is for people to see the actual text messages that directly contradict her allegations, video footage that clearly shows there was no sexual harassment and all the other powerful evidence that directly contradicts any false allegations,” Baldoni’s lawyer said.

Judge Liman later warned both parties that their comments to the media could impact their cases.

The warning was in response to a complaint by Lively’s team that Mr Freedman violated professional ethics rules for lawyers by accusing the actress of “bullying” in People magazine.

Mr Freedman hit back to say his comments to the magazine and on a podcast were a response to The New York Times article back in December, which he said “completely devastated” Baldoni.

A state ruling that bars most out-of-court statements that could affect a case’s outcome – with some exceptions – has now been adopted by Judge Liman.

Communications specialist sues Lively

In the latest lawsuit, crisis communications expert Jed Wallace is suing Lively for defamation.

Mr Wallace and his company, Street Relations, filed the $7m (£5.6m) case in federal court in Texas on 4 February after Lively accused him of being behind much of the alleged social media manipulation that turned public sentiment against her in the build-up to the release of It Ends With Us.

Lively sought to get an order for a deposition – a sworn statement taken from a witness outside of court – from Mr Wallace.

But Mr Wallace has now claimed neither he nor his company “had anything to do with the alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate or aiding and abetting the alleged harassment or alleged retaliation”.

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Mr Wallace is not named in Lively’s federal lawsuit but is mentioned in court papers and The New York Times story that started the legal battle between the two actors.

Lively’s lawyers said in response that Mr Wallace’s lawsuit “is not just a publicity stunt”.

“It is transparent retaliation in response to allegations contained within a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint that Ms Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department,” the statement said.

“While this lawsuit will be dismissed, we are pleased that Mr Wallace has finally emerged from the shadows, and that he too will be held accountable in federal court.”