• Blake Lively filed a legal complaint against her "It Ends with Us" costar, Justin Baldoni.
• Taylor Swift and Hailey Bieber appeared in the complaint.
• Lively's complaint said Baldoni and his team conspired to damage her reputation.

In a new legal complaint, Blake Lively said that her "It Ends with Us" costar, Justin Baldoni, who also directed and produced the film, conspired to damage her reputation and credibility.

The complaint also mentions Taylor Swift and Hailey Bieber.

Lively named Baldoni and six other defendants in her complaint, including the CEO and cofounder of his production studio, Wayfarer Studios. She also named communications crisis manager Melissa Nathan of The Agency Group PR and Baldoni's publicist, Jennifer Abel.

In the complaint, Lively said Baldoni and his team created a "multi-tiered plan" using "social manipulation" to "destroy" her reputation.

"This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR. What Ms. Nathan proposed included a practice known as 'Astroturfing,' which has been defined as 'the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group,'" according to the complaint.

The complaint says that Baldoni and his team discussed controversies around Swift and Bieber as strategic suggestions while conspiring against Lively.

Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said Lively's complaint was a "desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation."

Baldoni and his team considered leveraging backlash around Swift and the 'weaponization of feminism,' the complaint says

Nathan's communications company shared a "Scenario Planning" document with Baldoni and others that outlined potential strategies "should [Ms. Lively] and her team make her grievances public," the complaint says.

The complaint includes a copy of that document, which Lively's attorneys obtained through a civil subpoena.

The planning document discussed what Baldoni's team could do if Lively's husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, publicly defended her against critics. It included a reference to Swift, who is a friend of Lively. The pair have attended Kansas City Chiefs football games together and have been photographed by paparazzi while hanging out.

"As part of this, our team can also explore planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people in BL's circle, like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to 'bully' into getting what they want," the planning document says, according to the complaint.

The complaint says Baldoni used a social media post about Bieber and bullying as an example strategy

Lively's complaint also contained screenshots of text message conversations between Baldoni and his team, which were also obtained through a civil subpoena. According to the complaint, Baldoni sent a text message to his publicist, Abel, in early August.

"A few days later, on August 5, 2024, Mr. Baldoni set the narrative for the social media campaign, sending Ms. Abel a screenshot of a thread on X that had accused another female celebrity of bullying women," the complaint said. "Mr. Baldoni stated, 'this is what we would need.'"

The social media post included two pictures of Bieber and insinuated she had bullied other women. That narrative gained traction on social media in 2023 and resulted in widespread backlash against Bieber.

A representative for Lively referred Business Insider to a statement she shared with The New York Times.

"I hope that my legal action helps 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," she said.

Lively also said neither she nor her representatives planted negative stories about Baldoni or Wayfarer Studios.

Baldoni's attorney said the accusations in Lively's complaint were "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."

Representatives for Bieber and Swift did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Colleen Hoover has thrown her support behind Blake Lively after Lively filed a lawsuit against her costar Justin Baldoni.
• The "It Ends With Us" author said Lively had been "nothing but honest" since they first met.
• Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment. Baldoni's attorney said the claims were "categorically false."

Colleen Hoover, the bestselling author of "It Ends with Us," has thrown her support behind Blake Lively after Lively sued her costar, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment, retaliation, and coordinating attempts to damage her reputation.

In an Instagram Stories post, Hoover linked out to a New York Times report on the situation and wrote: "@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met."

"Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt," she added, possibly referencing Lively's character Lily Bloom's profession as a florist.

In the complaint, obtained by Business Insider, Lively said she had attended a meeting with Baldoni — who also directed the movie adaptation of Hoover's novel — and producer Jamey Heath during filming to address the "hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film."

The meeting is said to have resulted in all parties agreeing to a number of stipulations, including "no more showing nude videos or images of women, including the producer's wife," to Lively or her employees.

It also required "no more mention of Mr. Baldoni or Mr. Heath's previous 'pornography addiction' or BL's lack of pornography consumption to BL or to other crew members," the complaint said.

The suit goes on to accuse Baldoni and his team of running a smear campaign against Lively.

Lively faced backlash during the film's promotional tour, with many social media users criticizing her lighthearted marketing approach. Baldoni, on the other hand, received praise for highlighting the serious topics raised in the movie.

Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and his company, Wayfarer Studios, said in a statement that the claims made in the complaint were "categorically false" and "intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."

"It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions," the statement said.

Reports in Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter said Baldoni has been dropped by his agency, WME, following Lively's complaint.

Business Insider has contacted Freedman and Wayfarer Studios for comment.

• "It Ends with Us" star Blake Lively filed a legal complaint against Justin Baldoni, her costar and the film's director.
• Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, retaliation, and attempting to damage her reputation.
• Baldoni's attorney said the claims made in Lively's lawsuit were "completely false" and "intentionally salacious."

"It Ends with Us" star Blake Lively has filed a legal complaint against the film's director and her costar, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment.

Lively and Baldoni dominated entertainment headlines this summer as they promoted "It Ends with Us," a romantic drama based on Colleen Hoover's book. However, much of the attention shifted from the film's premiere to the tension between Lively and Baldoni. Fans online said they noticed the pair's strain during the press tour. By the press tour's end, Lively was navigating a negative backlash.

Lively, who produced the film alongside Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios, played Lily Bloom. Baldoni played Ryle Kincaid and directed the film.

Lively's complaint said Baldoni engaged in sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, inflicted "emotional distress," and conspired to damage her public reputation. It named six other defendants, including Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath and cofounder Steve Sarowitz. Crisis communications professional Melissa Nathan, publicist Jennifer Abel, and a Texas-based contractor named Jed Wallace were also named.

"Ms. Lively never sought out conflict with Wayfarer, Ms. Baldoni, or Mr. Heath, but instead consistently attempted to speak up for a safe and respectful workplace privately in the hopes of protecting herself, as well as the cast and crew, without jeopardizing a film that she believed could make a difference in people's lives," the complaint says. "In response, Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and those working for them, sought to destroy Ms. Lively and anyone else who knew the truth."

Here's a breakdown of the five biggest bombshells in Lively's complaint.

At an 'all hands' meeting, Baldoni and others agreed to address the 'hostile work environment'

The complaint says she attended an "all hands" meeting with Baldoni, Heath, and others in January to discuss the "hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the film." Her husband, Ryan Reynolds, also attended the meeting.

"Ms. Lively was forced to address concerns about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath's misconduct with them directly and began doing so months before filming began," the complaint says. "The concerns she raised were not only for herself but for the other female cast and crew, some of whom had also spoken up."

The meeting resulted in a list of behaviors that Baldoni and Heath agreed to stop, including "showing nude videos or images of women, including the producer's wife, to BL and/or her employees."

Other behaviors the men agreed to cease were mentioning their "previous pornography addiction or BL's lack of pornography consumption" and "descriptions of their genitalia," according to the complaint.

The agreed-upon behaviors were compiled into a document that was shared with Wayfarer Studios, which said it found "most of them not only reasonable but also essential for the benefit of all parties involved," according to the complaint.

Baldoni added 'graphic content' to the film without Lively's knowledge, the complaint says

Baldoni added improvised sexual content and nude scenes to "It Ends with Us" in "highly unsettling ways," the complaint says, including an on-camera orgasm, without Lively's knowledge or consent.

"When Ms. Lively objected to these additions, Mr. Baldoni insisted he had added them because he was making the film 'through the female gaze,'" according to the complaint. "Although he agreed to remove the scenes, he made a last-ditch attempt to keep one in which the couple orgasm together on their wedding night, which he said was important to him because he and his partner climax simultaneously during intercourse."

"Mr. Baldoni then intrusively asked Ms. Lively whether she and her husband climax simultaneously during intercourse, which Ms. Lively found invasive and refused to discuss," the complaint says.

The complaint also says Baldoni urged Lively to "simulate full nudity" while filming a scene in which her character gives birth, saying it's "not normal" for women to wear their hospital gowns while giving birth. Although Lively disagreed, the complaint says she compromised and agreed to be nude from below the chest down.

Neither Baldoni nor Heath closed the set before filming the scene, according to the complaint, allowing "non-essential crew to pass through while Ms. Lively was mostly nude with her legs spread wide in stirrups and only a small piece of fabric covering her genitalia."

Heath also showed Lively and her assistant a video of his wife giving birth that Lively initially believed was pornography, the complaint says.

"Ms. Lively was alarmed and asked Mr. Heath if his wife knew he was sharing the video, to which he replied, 'She isn't weird about this stuff,' as if Ms. Lively was weird for not welcoming it," the complaint said.

Lively said Baldoni 'abruptly' shifted away from their agreed-upon marketing strategy

In the complaint, Lively said she and other cast members promoted "It Ends with Us" according to a "Marketing Plan" created by the film's distributor, Sony Pictures Entertainment. That plan encouraged the cast to emphasize her character's "strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence" to avoid talking points that could make the film "feel sad."

Lively said that Baldoni "abruptly pivoted away" from the plan, promoting the domestic violence storyline of the film and what the complaint described as "survivor content."

Consumers criticized Lively's marketing approach during the press tour, which resulted in social media backlash toward her and her brands. Baldoni did not experience the same disapproval from audiences.

"What the public did not know was that Mr. Baldoni and his team did so in an effort to explain why many of the Film's cast and crew had unfollowed Mr. Baldoni on social media and were not appearing with him in public," the complaint said.

Baldoni and his team engaged in 'social manipulation' to 'destroy' her reputation, the complaint says

In the complaint, Lively said Baldoni's decision to switch marketing strategies was the start of a "multi-tiered plan" using "social manipulation" to ultimately "destroy" her public reputation.

Baldoni hired Melissa Nathan, a crisis communications specialist from The Agency Group PR, on July 31 at the suggestion of his publicist, Jennifer Abel.

"What Ms. Nathan proposed included a practice known as 'Astroturfing,' which has been defined as 'the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group," the complaint said.

The complaint includes screenshots of text messages that Lively's attorneys say are between Abel and Nathan. In one, Abel tells Nathan that Baldoni "wants to feel like she can be buried," in a reference to Lively.

In another one, Baldoni sent Abel a screenshot of a social media post about Hailey Bieber facing bullying allegations in 2023.

"This is what we would need," Baldoni wrote in the text message, according to the complaint.

Baldoni and his team would "feed pieces of this manufactured content to unwitting reporters, making content go viral in order to influence public opinion and thereby cause an organic pile-on," the complaint says.

In the following weeks, news outlets published numerous stories about the "backlash" Lively faced from fans online during the film's press tour.

"To safeguard against the risk of Ms. Lively ever revealing the truth about Mr. Baldoni, the Baldoni-Wayfarer team created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to eviscerate Ms. Lively's credibility," the complaint said.

Baldoni retaliated against Lively to protect his image as a 'feminist ally,' the complaint says

Baldoni was "desperate to suppress any suggestion that he engaged in inappropriate conduct, much less sexually harassing conduct, because it would entirely undermine his carefully curated public image as a feminist ally," the complaint says.

The document referenced a 2018 TED Talk Baldoni gave entitled "Why I'm Done Being 'Man Enough" and other similar content.

"In sum, Mr. Baldoni has crafted a public image of himself as not just an ally, but also a fierce advocate for women," the complaint says. "Contrary to this image, as set forth in detail above, Mr. Baldoni has spent the last several months and significant resources on his goal of wanting to 'bury' and 'destroy' Ms. Lively for raising concerns about his and his CEO's harassing behavior and other disturbing conduct."

Lively says she hopes her actions help expose the 'sinister' tactics used to keep people quiet

Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said the complaint's claims were "categorically false."

"It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions," the statement read.

Freedman's statement called the Lively's claims "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."

The statement said Wayfarer Studios chose to hire Nathan before the film's marketing campaign "due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met."

Lively shared a statement with The New York Times, saying, "I hope that my legal action helps 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."

Lively told the outlet that neither she nor her representatives ever spread negative information about Baldoni or Wayfarer Studios.

• Blake Lively has sued her 'It Ends with Us' costar, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment.
• Lively said Baldoni, who also directed the film, tried to damage her reputation.
• Baldoni's attorney told BI that Lively sued him to "fix her negative reputation."

Blake Lively is suing her "It Ends with Us" costar, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment, retaliation, and coordinating attempts to damage her reputation.

The hype around "It Ends with Us" was intense ahead of the film's August release, but much of the attention focused on the working relationship between its stars, Lively and Baldoni.

Lively played Lily Bloom, and Baldoni played Ryle Kincaid. Baldoni also directed the film, and his company, Wayfarer Studios, produced it.

Lively said in the legal complaint, obtained by Business Insider, that she attended an "all hands" meeting with Baldoni and "It Ends with Us" producer Jamey Heath during filming to address the "hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production of the Film." Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, also attended the meeting.

"Ms. Lively was forced to address concerns about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath's misconduct with them directly, and began doing so months before filming began," according to Lively's complanit. "The concerns she raised were not only for herself, but for the other female cast and crew, some of whom had also spoken up."

The meeting ended with all parties agreeing to a code of conduct for on-set behavior, including "no more showing nude videos or images of women, including the producer's wife," to Lively or her employees. The agreement also required "no more mention of Mr. Baldoni or Mr. Heath's previous 'pornography addiction' or BL's lack of pornography consumption to BL or to other crew members."

Lively says in the complaint that another issue arose between her and Baldoni after filming due to differing marketing strategies. Lively adhered to a "marketing plan" that focused on her character's "strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence."

Baldoni, however, "abruptly" switched marketing strategies before the film and focused on the domestic violence aspect, according to the complaint.

During the film's press tour, social media users criticized Lively's lighthearted marketing approach, which led to a wave of backlash. In contrast, fans sided with Baldoni's approach and he emerged relatively unscathed by the fallout.

Lively said in the complaint that Baldoni and his team engaged in "social manipulation" to "destroy" her reputation through a "sophisticated press and digital plan in retaliation for Ms. Lively exercising her legally protected right to speak up about their misconduct on the set, with the additional objective of intimidating her and anyone else from revealing in public what actually occurred."

The complaint included a series of text messages, including some between Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan. Abel is a publicist who worked with Baldoni. Nathan is a crisis communications specialist for The Agency Group PR LLC, which Baldoni retained in early August.

In one message shared with Business Insider by a representative for Lively, Abel wrote to Nathan that Baldoni "wants to feel like she can be buried," referring to Lively.

Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, said in a statement that claims made in Lively's complaint were "categorically false."

"It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions," the statement said.

The statement added: "These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."

Freedman's statement said Wayfarer Studios decided to hire Nathan before the film's marketing campaign "due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met."

A representative for Lively referred BI to a statement shared with The New York Times on Saturday.

"I hope that my legal action helps 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," the statement said.

She also told the outlet that neither she nor her representatives ever spread negative stories about Baldoni or Wayfarer Studios.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Four employees have sued Rivian in separate lawsuits this year over allegations they were harassed, in some cases by top executives, and that the company’s leadership did little to address their concerns, according to a TechCrunch review of court records. Rivian has also reached settlements in three other harassment and discrimination cases, TechCrunch has learned.  […]

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OpenAI fired back at billionaire Elon Musk on Friday, publishing a series of emails and texts that the company claims show Musk’s lawsuit against it is misleading. Musk’s legal battle with OpenAI, which has been going on for months now, at its core accuses the company of abandoning its original nonprofit mission to make the […]

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• Character.AI has been hit with a second lawsuit that alleges its chatbots harmed two young people.
• In one case, lawyers say a chatbot encouraged a minor to carry out violence against his parents.
• Google and its parent company, Alphabet, are also named as defendants in the suit.

The AI startup Character.AI is facing a second lawsuit, with the latest legal claim saying its chatbots "abused" two young people.

The suit, bought by two separate families in Texas, seeks damages from the startup and codefendant Google for what it calls the "serious, irreparable, and ongoing abuses" of an 11-year-old and 17-year-old.

Lawyers for the families say a chatbot on Character.AI's platform told one of the young people to engage in self-harm and encouraged him to carry out violence against his parents.

One teenager, identified as J.F. in the lawsuit, was told by a Character.AI chatbot that his parents imposing screen limits on him constituted serious child abuse, lawyers say. The bot then encouraged the teen to fight back and suggested that killing his parents could be a reasonable response, per the lawsuit.

The civil suit also says the young users were approached by characters that would "initiate forms of abusive, sexual encounters, including rough or non-consensual sex and incest" and, at the time, "made no distinction between minor or adult users."

The lawyers allege that "the app maker knowingly designed, operated, and marketed a dangerous and predatory product to children."

Camille Carlton, the policy director at the Center for Humane Technology, said in a statement that the case "demonstrates the risks to kids, families, and society as AI developers recklessly race to grow user bases and harvest data to improve their models."

"Character.AI pushed an addictive product onto the market with total disregard for user safety," she said.

A spokesperson for Character.AI told BI that it did not comment on pending litigation.

"Our goal is to provide a space that is both engaging and safe for our community. We are always working toward achieving that balance, as are many companies using AI across the industry," the spokesperson said.

"As part of this, we are creating a fundamentally different experience for teen users from what is available to adults. This includes a model specifically for teens that reduces the likelihood of encountering sensitive or suggestive content while preserving their ability to use the platform."

Legal trouble

The new case is the second lawsuit filed against Character.AI by lawyers affiliated with the Social Media Victims Law Center and the Tech Justice Law Project.

In October, Megan Garcia filed a lawsuit against Character.AI, Google, and Alphabet after her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, died by suicide moments after talking to one of the startup's chatbots. Garcia's suit accuses the companies of negligence, wrongful death, and deceptive trade practices.

Meetali Jain, the director of the Tech Justice Law Project and an attorney on both cases, told BI the new suit showed harms caused by Character.AI were "systemic in nature."

"In many respects, this new lawsuit is similar to the first one. Many of the claims are the same, really drawing from consumer protection and product liability legal frameworks to assert claims," she said.

The new lawsuit builds on the first by asking the court to shut down the platform until the issues can be resolved.

"The suite of product changes that Character.AI announced as a response to the previous lawsuit have, time and time again, been shown to be inadequate and inconsistently enforced. It's easy to jailbreak the changes that they supposedly have made," Jain said.

A headache for Google

Both suits named Google and its parent company, Alphabet, as defendants. Google did not respond to a request for comment from BI on the most recent case.

Character.AI's founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, worked together at Google before leaving to launch the startup. In August, Google rehired them in a deal The Wall Street Journal later reported was worth $2.7 billion.

The money was used to buy shares from Character.AI's investors and employees, fund the startup's continued operations, and ultimately bring Shazeer and De Freitas back into the fold, the Journal reported.

"Google and Character AI are completely separate, unrelated companies and Google has never had a role in designing or managing their AI model or technologies, nor have we used them in our products," said José Castaneda, a Google spokesperson.

"User safety is a top concern for us, which is why we've taken a cautious and responsible approach to developing and rolling out our AI products, with rigorous testing and safety processes."

Another attempt to get a class action-style privacy damages case to stick against Google has failed in the U.K. after the Court of Appeal refused to overturn an earlier dismissal. The lawsuit concerned the misuse of health records for some 1.6 million patients whose information was passed to Google’s AI division, DeepMind, back in 2015 […]

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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday announced that it’s sending the first round of payments to consumers tricked by Fortnite maker Epic Games into making unwanted purchases, with refunds totaling over $72 million. The settlement, first announced in December 2022 and finalized in March 2023, fined the game $245 million for its “counterintuitive, inconsistent, […]

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ByteDance and TikTok filed an emergency motion on Monday asking an appeals court to temporally block the law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the social network divests from Chinese ownership by January 19. The companies are asking for the hold in order to give the Supreme Court a chance to assess the […]

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• The Miss America Organization is in a legal battle just weeks before the 2025 competition.
• CEO Robin Fleming sued Glenn F. Straub on November 28, as both say they own the organization.
• Straub filed for bankruptcy for Miss America, complicating the ownership dispute.

Miss America 2025 is just weeks away, and a legal battle over who owns the organization is playing out behind the scenes.

The 103-year-old competition has had several leadership controversies in the last decade, but this matter centers on Robin Fleming and Glenn F. Straub, who both purport to own Miss America.

In a sweeping, 32-cause complaint obtained by Business Insider, Fleming accused Straub, his lawyer, his company, and one of his employees of fraud, defamation, and trademark infringement.

Her lawsuit came days after Straub filed for bankruptcy on November 22. In a letter to Miss America board members, Straub wrote that Fleming was using the organization's scholarship fund to pay her legal fees, which was "putting Miss America in financial and legal jeopardy." He also said that the 2025 competition, scheduled for December 31 to January 3, will continue as planned.

Fleming said in her complaint that Straub's bankruptcy filing was fraudulent because he does not own the organization and Miss America Corporation, LLC, has no debt. She said Straub was attempting to sow "further chaos and confusion" amid their legal battle.

She told BI on Thursday that "Miss America has always been an activist" and believes "justice will prevail" in her case. "I just feel very strongly that this is a case about standing up and having your voice heard," she added.

"Robin Fleming's Miss America competition is going strong and will be fully successful," her attorney Gene Rossi said in a statement to BI. "Mr. Straub's litigation tricks are nothing more than shiny objects. All sound and fury with no meaning."

When asked for comment on this story, a representative for Straub pointed BI to the court's decision on Wednesday to dismiss Fleming's case without prejudice because of its length. The order allows Fleming to refile her complaint before December 20, which she told BI on Thursday that she intends to do.

Here's a timeline of all the legal drama detailed by Fleming and Straub's complaints.

2021: Robin Fleming and Glenn Straub connected

Fleming, who told BI she's in her 50s, and Straub, 78, briefly met at a charity event in 2008. Still, the two formed a professional friendship in 2021 at Palm Beach Polo Country Club, a luxury gated community in Florida that Straub owned and where Fleming was a resident.

Straub "presented as a wealthy and elderly man in his mid-70s keenly interested in her passion for businesses that empowered women and her passion for the pageant industry."

Summer 2022: Fleming tried to buy the Miss Universe Organization

Straub offered to finance the $20 million purchase of the Miss Universe Organization with Fleming "as owner and him as banker."

Fleming agreed to the proposition and made her interest known to the organization, providing Straub's name after it requested a call with her banker. The call never occurred, and it was announced in October 2022 that the Miss Universe Organization had been sold to Anne Jakrajutatip.

Fleming learned in 2024 that the Miss Universe Organization ceased its negotiations with her after learning Straub, according to her suit, had "allegedly choked a 22-year-old young woman in 2012 at a polo match."

Straub was arrested and charged with criminal battery. He filed a civil action against the woman for libel and slander. Both the civil and criminal cases were dismissed and closed.

September 15, 2022: Straub asked Fleming to be "friends with benefits."

During dinner together, Straub asked Fleming if they could become "friends with benefits."

Fleming texted Straub the following day, saying, "I like our relationship exactly as it is, fun business chatter/ambitions with a smattering of humor… I am too conservative for anything else."

Straub replied, "Check," and "never asked the question again."

December 30, 2022: Fleming purchased Miss America.

Fleming said she bought Miss America's assets on behalf of Miss America Competition, LLC and Miss America IP, Inc., using three documents created by Straub's attorney, Craig Galle, who she used at Straub's suggestion.

Shantel Krebs signed one of the agreements on December 30, officially selling the organization's assets to Fleming.

Straub's company paid off a Small Business Administration loan for Miss America to help the purchase proceed, his only official role in the acquisition.

Fleming also said she attended the closing meeting alone.

2022 - March 2024: Fleming appeared to operate Miss America without incident

Following the acquisition, Fleming said that Krebs and the Miss America board formally welcomed her as the organization's "new owner" and publicly referred to her as its CEO at events and in the media.

Fleming said she operated as Miss America's CEO and owner for over a year without complaints from Straub.

In a January 2024 text included in the suit, Straub asked Fleming how he should introduce himself as the Miss America 2024 pageant, suggesting "banker."

That same month, according to the lawsuit, Straub attacked a talent judge at Miss America 2024 because he was a Black man talking to a white woman.

Straub admitted in texts to Fleming that the attack was racially motivated, her suit states.

March 15-16, 2024: Straub told Fleming he was "shutting down Miss America"

Straub's threat came a day after Fleming declined to serve as his proxy in a lawsuit against board members of their gated community.

Straub told Fleming he wanted to end Miss America because she "cannot be controlled" and the organization is a "waste of time." He also said Fleming was a "failure," "over the hill," and that he would bring her children into the "public humiliation" and send letters to all the Miss America state directors saying she was mentally ill.

The following day, Straub sent Fleming a letter notifying her of her "Temporary Suspension and Investigation" by the "Miss America Competitions, LLC." Fleming said the letterhead featured typos in both the company name and the spelling of Fleming's name.

Fleming said Straub also threatened to tie her up in "three years of civil litigation" unless she gave him "total control of Miss America" and promised to "always be subservient" to him.

April 12, 2024: Straub gave Fleming what she says is a fraudulent Operating Agreement for Miss America Competition, LLC.

Fleming said Straub presented three different versions of the document created by Galle and dated December 28, 2022, between April and August.

Her legal team said metadata for one of the documents indicated it was created on August 25, 2023.

April 15, 2024: Straub tried to fire Fleming.

Fleming's suit said Straub texted her on April 12 to tell her she was fired as Miss America's CEO.

It added that he intended to email the Miss America state directors and tell them she was stealing money from the organization, which Fleming said was defamatory.

Her suit also states that he sent her a "Termination Notice" on April 15, which Fleming rejected in a written statement on April 16.

April 25, 2024: Straub filed a lawsuit against Fleming in Palm Beach, Florida.

Straub's complaint said Fleming had never been an "owner" of any Miss America entity and sued her for breach of fiduciary duties and obligations, "at will" employment agreement, temporary and permanent injunctive relief, and trademark infringement.

His complaint sought $20 million in damages.

April 29, 2024: Straub said he was Miss America's owner in a letter to staffers.

Straub sent a letter to Miss America directors and licensees in late December 2022 stating that he had "purchased all the assets of the former Miss America Organization."

He also said he hired Fleming to run Miss America and terminated her "after we received damaging information and conducted an extensive audit of her conduct while working with the organization."

In response to the letter, Krebs and other former Miss America board members told licensees and directors via email they had "voted unanimously to transfer the assets to Robin Fleming."

Straub also hosted Zoom meetings with Miss America licensees and contractual partners in May, during which he said he was Miss America's owner and had fired Fleming as CEO.

July 29, 2024: Straub said he planned to file for bankruptcy on Miss America's behalf.

According to a court docket reviewed by BI, Straub and Fleming were ordered to hold a "conciliation conference" to discuss his state-level lawsuit against her.

In her lawsuit, Fleming said Straub used the meeting to "directly threaten, intimidate and extort" her. She said Straub told her he wanted to "shut down Miss America," called himself "Hamas" and Fleming "Israel," and said he was Hitler.

Her complaint also said that Straub said he "intended to file for bankruptcy on behalf of her Miss America" during the meeting.

Fall of 2024: Fleming said Straub made defamatory statements about her

Fleming said Straub sent additional letters to state executive directors in September saying he had fired her, and, in November 2024, he publicly said she was funding her legal defense through Miss America's scholarship fund.

Her suit described his statements as defamatory and led to potential business deals to fall through.

Notably, the complaint said the "organizers of the iconic Macy's Thanksgiving parade withdrew their invitation to have Miss America participate in the parade, which has been a yearly tradition since the 1940s."

November 22, 2024: Straub filed a bankruptcy petition on behalf of Miss America.

Straub filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of Florida on behalf of Miss America Competition, LLC.

Fleming filed an emergency response to the bankruptcy filing on November 25, saying the bankruptcy was "a 'scorched earth' litigation strategy to attempt to sabotage the upcoming Miss America Competition and cause reputational harm to Ms. Fleming."

In the response, Fleming said Straub could not file for bankruptcy for Miss America Corporation because she is its sole member, manager, and owner.

November 28, 2024: Fleming filed a complaint against Straub, Galle, Kathleen A. Fialco, and Palm Beach Polo, Inc. in the Southern District of Florida.

Fleming's suit lists 32 causes of action, including fraud, defamation, and more. She is seeking $500 million in damages for herself and Miss America.

In her complaint, she said she was the rightful owner of Miss America and provided a timeline for its purchase, details of Straub's involvement, and evidence that Straub and his attorney created false documentation to show he owned it.

Fleming's case was dismissed on December 4, 2024, without prejudice, with the court requesting Fleming's lawyers condense their complaint.

Fleming told BI on Thursday that she would file a new version of the suit before the new December 20 deadline.

• Connor Franta is suing his Heard Well business partners. He says they used the company as a "piggy bank."
• Franta accuses them of embezzlement to the tune of more than $1 million.
• Lawyers for all three defendants denied the allegations to Business Insider.

YouTube star Connor Franta is suing his business partners, alleging in a lawsuit that they embezzled more than $1 million from the company they cofounded in 2015.

In the suit, filed in California Superior Court this week, Franta — a 32-year-old YouTuber with 4.8 million subscribers — is suing his cofounders in Heard Well, a music label that works with influencers. He also names the company's business manager — who is the father of one of the cofounders — as a defendant, accusing him of turning a blind eye to the alleged theft.

The business partners and manager all denied the allegations in statements to Business Insider.

The suit alleges Heard Well cofounder Jeremy Wineberg used an American Express Black Card obtained in the company's name for personal expenses, including international travel, concert tickets, tattoos, groceries, and plastic surgery. The suit says Wineberg "systematically looted the company of essentially every penny," using Heard Well funds to pay the Amex balances.

Another cofounder, Franta's former CAA agent Andrew Graham, also "converted thousands of Heard Well dollars" for personal use, the suit alleges. The suit says Graham was not "the principal bad actor."

CAA is a leading Hollywood talent agency with a digital arm that represents influencers on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The agency works with creators to monetize their followings through brand partnerships, consumer products, and other business ventures. CAA is not named as a defendant in the suit.

Wineberg, and to a lesser extent Graham, used the company's earnings as "a de facto personal piggy bank," the suit alleges.

Meanwhile, Franta, in the lawsuit, said Lindsay Wineberg & Associates — Heard Well's business manager and accountant, led by Jeremy Wineberg's father — acted negligently by turning the other cheek, "and in doing so negligently facilitated the draining of over $1 million of company monies into the personal pockets of Wineberg (and Graham)."

Bryan Sullivan, a lawyer for Jeremy Wineberg and Lindsay Wineberg & Associates, said the allegations aren't true.

"The lawsuit filed by Connor Franta is without merit," Sullivan told Business Insider in a statement. Sullivan said his clients never "engaged in any misconduct."

"We intend to pursue all of our rights and expect to be vindicated in Court," Sullivan said.

John Shenk, a lawyer for Graham, told BI in a statement that his client "denies the allegations of the complaint and looks forward to defending this case in court."

Graham told BI that he no longer represents Franta, nor does CAA.

Franta has been on YouTube for more than a decade and is also the author of the memoir "A Work in Progress." He cofounded Heard Well in 2015, with each of the cofounders contributing $2,000 to capitalize the startup, according to an operating agreement that was filed as part of the lawsuit.

Heard Well published dozens of albums, but Franta "hardly saw a dime of profit directed his way throughout the company's nearly 10-year lifespan," the suit says.

This spring, the suit says, Franta learned Heard Well had fallen behind on royalty payments after a YouTube video accused the company of scamming.

Heard Well's Instagram account was active as of Thursday, though Franta said in the suit that he's been blocked from the company's social media accounts.

"Acting with integrity and respect in all my professional endeavors — especially with fellow creators — has always been a top priority for me," Franta told BI in a statement.

He said that while the matter had only recently come to his attention, he'd taken action this week "to protect the company and to facilitate its pursuit of all necessary and appropriate legal remedies."

As Meta faces off with antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe, a £2.1 billion+ Facebook U.K. class action-style competition lawsuit, which takes Meta’s market dominance as a given, is moving ahead after the social media giant lost a bid to have the litigation thrown out. The suit is seeking damages worth a minimum of […]

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During an interview at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit on Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that it’d be “profoundly un-American” for Elon Musk, the CEO of X and Tesla, to wield political influence to “hurt competitors” and “advantage [his] own businesses.” “I don’t think people would tolerate that,” he said, per Bloomberg. Musk, […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

• A lawsuit says Apple invades the privacy of employees by monitoring personal devices.
• The lawsuit also claims Apple's policies suppress employee rights and whistleblowing.
• The suit was filed by an Apple worker who says it barred him from publicly discussing his work.

A lawsuit says Apple illegally limits the freedom of employees by monitoring personal devices and iCloud accounts and prohibiting them from talking about their pay and working conditions.

The complaint was filed on Monday in the California Superior Court in Santa Clara County by Amar Bhakta. The suit says Bhakta has worked for Apple in digital advertising tech and operations since 2020.

"Apple's surveillance policies and practices chill, and thus also unlawfully restrain, employee whistleblowing, competition, freedom of employee movement in the job market, and freedom of speech," the suit says.

It also claims the smartphone maker "actively discourages" using iCloud accounts only for work.

"If you use your personal account on an Apple-managed or Apple-owned iPhone, iPad or computer, any data stored on the device (including emails, photos, video, notes and more), are subject to search by Apple," the lawsuit quotes Apple company policy as saying.

The lawsuit says that Bhakta was barred from discussing his work in podcasts and was asked to delete information about his working conditions from his LinkedIn profile.

Bhakta filed the suit under the Private Attorneys General Act, which authorizes workers to sue on behalf of the State of California for labor violations.

He is being represented by Outten & Golden and Baker, Dolinko & Schwartz.

Outten & Golden is also representing two women suing Apple in a suit saying the company paid more than 12,000 female workers in California less than male colleagues with similar roles.

"All California employees have the right to speak about their wages and working conditions," Jahan Sagafi, a partner at Outten & Golden, said in a press release about Bhakta's case.

"Apple's broad speech suppression policies create a danger of discrimination going unchallenged far too long, which harms all Apple employees and Californians in general," he added.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

In a statement to Reuters, Apple said the suit's claims lacked merit, adding: "At Apple, we're focused on creating the best products and services in the world and we work to protect the inventions our teams create for customers."

Microsoft is in the crosshairs of a U.K. competition class-action style lawsuit that’s seeking £1 billion (around $1.25 billion at current exchange rates) in damages. It revolves around accusations related to fees the software giant charged businesses and other organizations for licensing Windows Server when they were customers of rival cloud computing platforms. The suit, […]

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Attorneys for tech billionaire Elon Musk have filed for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, several of its co-founders, and its investor and close collaborator, Microsoft, to prevent OpenAI and other named defendants from engaging in what Musk’s counsel claims is anticompetitive behavior. The motion for an injunction, which was filed late on Friday in the […]

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If it didn't already look like Drake had lost the feud of the year, it certainly does now.

In a legal filing Monday, an LLC owned by Drake called Frozen Moments alleged that Universal Music Group and Spotify worked together to make "Not Like Us" — a viral diss track Kendrick Lamar released about Drake earlier this year — a bigger hit than it naturally would have been. The petition, filed three days after Drake's rival released the critically acclaimed surprise album "GNX," claims UMG did this by offering lower licensing rates on the song to Spotify in return for promotion, then paying third-party companies to have bots inflate streams of it; "Not Like Us" has surpassed 900 million plays on Spotify. ("Family Matters," a Drake diss track about Lamar released around the same time, has 122 million plays.) The filing also accuses UMG of using pay-to-play tactics to increase the song's radio play and have influencers promote it across social media. It's not a lawsuit yet, but a petition seeking more information about the alleged practice.

"Streaming and licensing is a zero-sum game," Drake's filing says. "Every time a song 'breaks through,' it means another artist does not. UMG's choice to saturate the music market with 'Not Like Us' comes at the expense of its other artists, like Drake."

The twist: UMG doesn't just represent Lamar but also Drake. And Drake is one of the biggest artists streaming on Spotify, with about 10 million more monthly listeners than Lamar. If major companies like UMG and Spotify really are conspiring to help one artist over another, they would be severely disrupting the way people discover and come to love music and risking the entire streaming model the music industry now relies on.

Hip-hop fans are mocking Drake's litigiousness as petty and destructive to his street cred. "This is Drake's Jan. 6," the musical artist and former NFL running back Arian Foster posted on X. Music industry insiders, meanwhile, are skeptical of the allegations themselves.

"It's not in Spotify's interest for their model to be undermined by people not getting paid fairly," Tony Rigg, a music industry advisor and lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, tells me. "Bots, potentially, would undermine both" Spotify and UMG. In other words, for the top of the music industry, rigging with bots would be "not like us."

The kind of manipulation, also called artificial listening, that Drake is talking about does happen. Some artists use third-party companies that enlist accounts made by bots to listen to the same playlist on repeat. That's an issue because of how streaming companies pay. They divide up royalty payments from a limited pool of cash. More plays means more of the pie. And as more people have taken to uploading AI-generated slop to streaming platforms like Spotify, they risk becoming more diluted. In September, a North Carolina musician was charged with music streaming fraud; the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York claims he made more than $10 million using those kinds of tactics. (The case is ongoing.) Smaller artists looking to make money off streaming can suffer. But it's harder to know how it could affect megastars like Drake and Lamar, who are already among the top performers in Spotify's streaming ranks.

There are more than 100 million songs each on popular streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and SoundCloud. Last year, Spotify booted tens of thousands of songs from its platform reported to be generated by AI and also listened to by bots — essentially, computer music for computers. UMG itself has pushed back against AI-generated music, trying to block AI from training on its catalogs on streaming platforms.

Spotify declined to comment, but the company does have policies in place to detect and combat artificial streaming. A UMG spokesperson told me that "the suggestion that UMG would do anything to undermine any of its artists is offensive and untrue. We employ the highest ethical practices in our marketing and promotional campaigns. No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear."

Fans can argue whether Drake or Lamar won the feud. By throwing lawyers and corporations into the rap battle, Drake has made it much less street and much more corporate. It's hard to imagine bots would be driving so many listeners to Lamar, a 17-time Grammy award winner. The song itself has been nominated for five Grammys, has been used at political events and protests around the world, and became a hit on TikTok. In the end, the attention, and ears, on the two artists' beef may have made Spotify and UMG both winners.

Amanda Hoover is a senior correspondent at Business Insider covering the tech industry. She writes about the biggest tech companies and trends.