Scooter Braun linked to Hollywood smear campaign scandal, and the Baldoni-Lively case may be just the beginning

New court filings have drawn music mogul Scooter Braun into a widening Hollywood scandal involving alleged coordinated online smear campaigns designed to destroy the reputations of industry figures. The litigation, which first emerged as a thread connected to the high-profile legal dispute between director Justin Baldoni and actress Blake Lively, now appears to extend well beyond that case, implicating a network of anonymous websites, social media sock-puppet accounts, and a cast of PR and legal operatives whose alleged activities are now the subject of multiple lawsuits.

In an updated civil complaint, actress and activist Alexa Nikolas,  herself identified as a target of one of these alleged smear sites, asserts that her name is connected, through hidden digital infrastructure, to financier Peter Comisar. Comisar is a former business adversary of Scooter Braun, previously involved in a $200 million dispute with the manager and top music executive David Bolno over a private equity fund. The complaint argues that this overlap suggests common tactics being deployed against multiple targets.

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What the alleged smear operation involves

The scandal first publicly surfaced through a lawsuit filed by publicist Stephanie Jones, which alleged a network of anonymous defamatory websites operating from a shared methodology. According to that complaint, the operation, allegedly linked to Justin Baldoni’s crisis publicist and an online operative, worked to discredit targets through fabricated or unsubstantiated accusations, including prostitution, embezzlement, drug dealing, extortion, and human trafficking, amplified via coordinated fake social media accounts. The allegations have been denied by those named.

The Alexa Nikolas filing adds another dimension, alleging that some of the same digital infrastructure appears to have been used against Comisar, who, in his own prior litigation against Braun and Bolno, alleged that Braun had explicitly threatened to damage his reputation. Several websites and accounts raising questions about Comisar’s background have since emerged online.

How the Hybe and K-pop connection widens the picture

The alleged web extends further into the international music industry. Min Hee-jin, the South Korean executive and creative force behind K-pop acts including NewJeans, has been engaged in her own legal fight with Hybe, the Korean entertainment giant that acquired Braun’s company in 2021. An anonymous website targeting Min has been identified as sharing connections with other alleged smear targets in the network, and Min has publicly stated she is in contact with lawyers investigating what the PR firm TAG PR — which was previously partly owned by Hybe during Braun’s tenure as CEO of its American subsidiary — has allegedly been doing.

None of the named parties, Scooter Braun, Bolno, or their representatives, responded to press requests for comment. With the Baldoni-Lively trial set to begin on May 18 in New York, the full scale of Hollywood’s alleged smear industry may soon face its most public examination yet.