Justin Baldoni’s ex-publicist sues over alleged smear campaign amid Blake Lively controversy
FILE-Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively are seen on the set of 'It Ends with Us' on January 12, 2024 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images/GC Images)
The ongoing controversy between actress Blake Lively and actor and director Justin Baldoni has a new layer with Baldoni’s former publicist filing a lawsuit to an alleged smear campaign involving Lively.
Stephanie Jones, the publicist, claims she was forced to stop representing Baldoni and his film studio due to worries that Lively would go public with accusations of misconduct against the actor, the New York Times reported.
Details of the publicist’s lawsuit
Stephanie Jones filed a lawsuit in New York alleging breach of contract, and it comes after Blake Lively’s separate legal complaint in California on Dec. 21. Lively’s legal complaint features excerpts from text messages and emails that the actress gained through a subpoena.
Jones’s lawsuit shows the messages came from a company phone used by Jennifer Abel, one of her former employees, who is one of the individuals Lively accused of helping to coordinate a smear campaign against her.
Blake Lively sues co-star Justin Baldoni
Blake Lively is suing her co-star Justin Baldoni in the movie "It Ends with Us" for sexual harassment. Lively also made claims that Baldoni coordinated a PR campaign with a crisis firm in efforts to 'destroy' her reputation. LiveNOW's Christina Evans breaks down the lawsuit with legal affairs journalist Meghann Cuniff.
RELATED: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni latest: Text messages show plan to 'bury' Lively
The lawsuit noted that the phone was voluntarily returned to Jones’s company, Jonesworks, and the messages and emails were removed from the company phone and saved in their "original state."
The lawsuit says that Ms. Jones saw the messages from the phone after she fired Abel in 2023, and Wayfarer stopped working with Jonesworks.
Jones said in the lawsuit that when she reviewed the messages, she found out that Abel was stealing documents from her firm and Abel engaged in a retaliation campaign against Lively, and Abel opened her own firm and continued working for Wayfarer.
According to the lawsuit, Justin Baldoni feared that allegations about his misbehavior on the set of "It Ends With Us" would surface. There’s also claims in the suit that Abel and Melissa Nathan, a crisis communications manager, were encouraged by a Wayfarer executive to create plan to cover up any admissions about Baldoni’s behavior on the movie set, with the suit alleging that Abel and Nathan launched a "smear campaign against Lively.
Jones asserts in the lawsuit that Abel and Nathan plotted to undermine her reputation, steal clients from her firm and blame her for the smear campaign against Lively. Jone also accuses Baldoni, Wayfarer and Abel of breaching their contracts with her company.
What is the ‘It Ends With Us’ controversy about?
It Ends With Us," based on Colleen Hoover's bestselling 2016 novel about domestic violence, enjoyed success at the box office, but was mired in controversy with rumors of conflict between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Movie critics were also concerned that the film romanticized domestic violence.
RELATED: Blake Lively sues Justin Baldoni, 'It Ends With Us' co-star,' for alleged sexual harassment
Before the movie’s debut, Lively and other cast members told Sony and Wayfarer that they wouldn’t do any promotional events with Baldoni. Hoover, the author who inspired the movie, said the same, The New York Times reported.
Baldoni took a backseat in promoting the film while Lively took centerstage along with husband Ryan Reynolds, who was on the press circuit for "Deadpool & Wolverine" at the same time.
What is Blake Lively accusing Justin Baldoni of?
Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of improvised unwanted kissing during filming and also discussing his sex life, "including encounters in which he said he may not have received consent," according to The New Times reported, which reviewed thousands of pages of text messages and emails related to the case.
Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni accusing him of sexual harassment on the movie set and later trying to "destroy" her reputation.
The actress also alleges that Baldoni and the movie studio launched a plan to damage her reputation after a meeting where Lively and Ryan Reynolds addressed "repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior" by Baldoni and one of the film’s producers.
The complaint names Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and Baldoni's publicists among the defendants.
What is Baldini’s response to the complaint?
An attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios denied the accusations.
"These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media," attorney Bryan Freedman said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Freedman said the studio was proactive and hired a crisis manager "due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production."
According to the Associated Press, the attorney claims Lively threatened to not appear on set and not promote the film "if her demands were not met." He didn’t specify what those demands were.