Justin Baldoni’s former publicist is suing the actor-director amid the growing controversy surrounding Blake Lively’s alleged harassment, Baldoni It ends with us Co-star.
Lively previously filed a complaint with the California Department of Civil Rights, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on set and initiating a social media campaign to “destroy” her reputation. Details of this were found in a series of text messages involving Baldoni and his current publicist Jennifer Abel and PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan.
In a new lawsuit filed Tuesday in New York state court, Stephanie Jones, owner of the public relations firm Jonesworks, accuses Baldoni of breaching her contract when he terminated the firm after Abel left Jonesworks to join her to start your own company.
Jones also claims that Abel and Nathan conducted an online smear campaign against Lively behind Jones’ back and without her knowledge. Jones, along with Baldoni, is suing the two for defamation, saying they tried to blame Jones for the alleged campaign when the news broke.
“You know we can bury anyone.”
Documents filed in Lively’s filing show texts between Abel, Nathan and sometimes Baldoni and others that appear to detail plans to damage Lively’s reputation by spreading negative stories about her in the press and on social media.
“You know we can bury anyone,” says a text attributed to Nathan.
In another message purportedly sent by Abel, the publicist claims she is having dinner with a friend who writes for several major U.S. publications and is “armed and ready to share this story in which Blake weaponizes feminism.” “does” to be disseminated in any of their media. “She hates Blake, has heard this story before and will do anything for us,” the message reads.
Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni of trying to “destroy” her reputation after she complained about sexual harassment during filming. A lawyer for Baldoni calls the claims “categorically false.”
Baldoni’s talent agency, WME, dropped him the day Lively’s complaint was filed.
Baldoni’s lawyers have denied the allegations. Abel told the Hollywood Reporter that the text messages in the file were carefully selected and there was no smear campaign.
“These allegations are completely false, outrageous and deliberately salacious with the intent to publicly offend and rehash a narrative in the media,” attorney Bryan Freedman, who represents Baldoni, his production company and their representatives, said in a statement.
Lively’s complaint alleges that a meeting was held during filming – attended by her husband, Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds and others – to address Baldoni’s behavior. According to the complaint, Lively requested an end to Baldoni “showing her nude videos or images of women,” as well as discussions about Baldoni’s alleged “pornography addiction” or past “sexual conquests.”
Other topics raised at the meeting included preventing Baldoni from mentioning any further genitalia, inquiries about Lively’s weight or “mentioning by Mr. Baldoni that he ‘talked’ to (Lively’s) dead father.”
Lively came under fire for promoting the film
It ends with us had a successful premiere in August after months of speculation about on-set problems and controversy surrounding the film’s sometimes light-hearted promotion, which focused on themes of domestic violence.
For example, a clip from Lively urging would-be viewers to “grab your friends, carry your flowers and head out to watch it” was met with heavy criticism.
Karen Mason, co-founder and executive director of Supporting Survivors of Abuse and Brain Injury through Research, was among those who criticized Lively at the time.
She now says she wonders if she was misled by a social media campaign against the actor.
“The news of her lawsuit got me thinking and wondering, ‘Was I the victim of a campaign specifically designed to make her look bad, to make her look like she was minimizing the impact of domestic violence?’ ‘” Mason told CBC News.
“And Justin Baldoni was out there doing interviews and talking about survivors, which was strategically the right thing to do. But if it didn’t come from a place of authenticity, many of us were drawn into this narrative that wasn’t real.” And that’s worrying.”
Hollywood stars support Lively
Many people have drawn parallels between Lively and Amber Heard – especially because Johnny Depp, Heard’s ex-husband, also hired Nathan for crisis management during his libel trial against Heard.
Heard, who was ordered to pay millions in a case that some say was unduly influenced by Depp’s social media campaign against her, appeared to comment in support of Lively in a statement to NBC News on Monday.
“Social media is the absolute embodiment of the classic saying: ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth can take hold,'” she said. “I saw this first hand and up close. It is as terrible as it is destructive.”
America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel, actors who starred alongside Lively in the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling PantsHe also spoke out in support of Lively and released a joint statement on Instagram on Sunday.
“During filming It ends with us“We saw her (Lively) have the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and her colleagues on set, and we are horrified to read the evidence of a deliberate and vindictive attempt to use her voice to discredit,” they wrote.
Colleen Hoover, author of the bestselling 2016 novel on which the film is based, posted a photo of herself with Lively, whom she described as “honest, kind, supportive and patient,” and shared Ferrera, Tamblyn and Bledel’s post.
Livelys It ends with us Her co-stars Brandon Sklenar and Jenny Slate also supported her.
In a statement to Today.comSlate said: “What has been revealed about the attack on Blake is terribly dark, disturbing and completely threatening. I praise my friend, I admire her courage and I stand by her side.”
