A federal judge has dismissed Blake Lively‘s claims against social media PR expert Jed Wallace, who she alleged was part of a negative campaign against her as she accused Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us.
The judge, Lewis Liman, cited lack of jurisdiction in tossing Wallace and his company Street Relations from the case, noting that he is located in Texas and not New York, where her lawsuit was filed.
Read the judge’s Blake Lively-Jed Wallace opinion.
The judge wrote that the “alleged negative publicity campaign against Lively largely took place outside of New York. The few alleged actions targeting New York were taken by others, and there are no allegations suggesting [Wallace was] aware of them. Therefore, [Wallace] cannot be forced to defend this lawsuit in New York.”
The judge said that Lively could pursue her claims against Wallace in another forum or file an amended complaint against him.
Lively is suing Baldoni, his publicity team and a series of other defendants, claiming that she was retaliated against for the sexual harassment allegations. Lively alleged that Wallace was hired because he engages in “untraceable” campaigns across social media platforms, and would be used to “weaponize a digital army” to “create, seed, manipulate and advance disparaging content.” Wallace filed a defamation lawsuit against her earlier this year.
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