New court filings suggest Scooter Braun could be connected to an alleged smear campaign in Hollywood.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly on Tuesday, April 21, actress-turned-activist Alexa Nikolas submitted an updated complaint two months after she initially claimed to be the “subject of a smear website and social media activity designed to discredit and defame her.”
In her latest complaint, Nikolas, 34, claims her name is linked — through the internet’s hidden SEO infrastructure — to financier Peter Comisar, an alleged nemesis of Braun’s who was previously involved in litigation against the record executive, 44.
Comisar was previously involved in a $200 million dispute over a private equity fund with Braun and top music manager David Bolno that became public in 2021, per The Hollywood Reporter.
“This overlap appears to evidence common strategies being used against Ms. Nikolas and Mr. Comisar,” Nikolas’ attorney wrote in court documents.
In his own lawsuit against the music managers, Comisar alleged that “Bolno stated that Braun would trash Comisar’s pristine reputation,” and that Braun “alluded to a smear campaign that [he] would unleash [on Comisar],” per The Hollywood Reporter. (The suit was dismissed with prejudice in 2023.)
Us Weekly has reached out to Bruan’s team and a contact for Bolno for comment. Both parties are not listed as defendants in Nikolas’ lawsuit.
Braun has found significant Hollywood success after managing the careers of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato. Most recently, the businessman and mogul has made news for his romantic relationship with actress Sydney Sweeney.
Nikolas’ suit comes after Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni found themselves in a legal battle over their experiences working on It Ends with Us.
In December 2024, the New York Times published an article with the headline: “We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”
Nikolas, an alleged target of one of the smear sites, proceeded to file a lawsuit in February. In her suit, the former child star of Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101 named Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, as a defendant.
“The story covered Justin Baldoni’s public relations team and its alleged smear campaign directed at Blake Lively in response to her allegations of sexual harassment by Mr. Baldoni on the set of the movie It Ends With Us, which resulted in ongoing litigation,” Nikolas’ lawsuit claimed. “What has since been uncovered in said litigation, as well as related litigation sprawling from it, is that the ‘anyone’ included other survivors of sexual assault and abuse brave enough to come forward with allegations against powerful individuals in the entertainment industry. ‘Anyone’ also includes Plaintiff Alexa Nikolas.”
Freedman has previously denied that he and his associates have been involved in the activity and termed the allegations “speculation presented as fact.”
“There is no technical data, no forensic support and no factual basis linking anyone retained by the Wayfarer parties to the websites,” he said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
