Justin Baldoni's former publicist is suing the actor and director amid growing conflicts over alleged molestation, harassment of Blake Lively, Baldoni's club It ends with us co-star.
Lively had previously filed a complaint with the California Department of Civil Rights, accusing Baldoni of on-set sexual harassment and initiating a social media campaign to “destroy” her reputation – details of which were included in a series of text messages involving Baldoni, 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 PR firm Jonesworks, accuses Baldoni of breach of contract after he left the company after Abel left Jonesworks to start his own firm.
Jones also claims that Abel and Nathan conducted an online smear campaign against Lively behind Jones's back and without her knowledge. Jones is suing the two, along with Baldoni, for defamation, claiming that as soon as the news broke, they tried to blame Jones for the alleged campaign.
“You know we can bury anyone.”
Documents filed in Lively's file include text messages between Abel, Nathan, and sometimes Baldoni and others that appear to detail plans to tarnish Lively's reputation by spreading negative stories about her in the press and on social media.
“You know we can bury anyone,” reads one text attributed to Nathan.
In another message purportedly sent by Abel, the columnist claims she is having dinner with a friend who writes for several major U.S. publications and is “armed and ready to take the story of Blake weaponizing feminism” to any of her outlets. “She hates Blake, she's heard this story before and she'll do anything for us,” the message reads.
Blake Lively has accused her director and It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni of trying to “destroy” her reputation after she complained about sexual harassment during filming. Baldoni's lawyer calls the claims “categorically false.”
Baldoni's talent agency, WME, fired him the day Lively filed her complaint.
Baldoni's lawyers deny the allegations. Abel told the Hollywood Reporter. that the text messages included in the report were selected and did not involve any smear campaign.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally lewd, and are intended to cause public harm and repeat media narratives,” attorney Bryan Freedman, who represents Baldoni, his production company and its representatives, said in a statement.
Lively's complaint alleges that during filming, a meeting was held – attended by her husband, Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds, and others – to discuss Baldoni's behavior. According to the complaint, Lively demanded an end to Baldoni's “showing her nude videos or photos of women,” as well as any discussion of Baldoni's alleged “porn addiction” or past “sexual conquests.”
Other topics discussed at the meeting included Baldoni refraining from further mention of genitalia, inquiries about Lively's weight, or “Mr. Baldoni's mention of his 'conversation' with (Lively's) deceased father.”
Lively came under fire for promoting the film
It ends with us premiered successfully in August after months of speculation about on-set problems and controversy surrounding the film's sometimes light-hearted promotion of its domestic violence-focused film.
For example, Lively's clip encouraging potential viewers to “grab your friends, put on a floral dress and go see 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.
Now she claims that she doubts whether she was deceived by the campaign against the actor on social media.
“The news of her lawsuit made me stop thinking and wonder, 'Am I the victim of a campaign designed specifically to paint her in a bad light, to make her seem like she was minimizing the effects of domestic violence?' '' Mason told CBC News.
“And Justin Baldoni was doing interviews and talking about the survivors, which was strategically the right thing to do. But if it wasn't coming from a place of authenticity, many of us were drawn into this narrative that wasn't true, and that's disturbing.”
Hollywood stars return to Lively
Many people see similarities between Lively and Amber Heard – especially since Johnny Depp, Heard's ex-husband, also hired Nathan for crisis management during his defamation lawsuit 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, expressed apparent support for Lively in a statement to NBC News on Monday.
“Social media is the absolute embodiment of the classic saying: 'A lie is halfway around the world before the truth has time to put its shoes on,'” she said. “I saw it with my own eyes and up close. It is as terrifying as it is destructive.”
America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel, actors who starred alongside Lively in the 2005 film Sister of the Traveling Pantsalso spoke out in support of Lively, issuing a joint statement on Instagram on Sunday.
“The entire time we were filming It ends with us“We saw how (Lively) mustered the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and her co-stars on set, and we are horrified to read evidence of a deliberate and vindictive effort to discredit her voice,” they wrote.
Colleen Hoover, author of the best-selling 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 a post by Ferrera, Tamblyn and Bledel.
Lively It ends with us co-stars Brandon Sklenar and Jenny Slate also endorsed her.
IN statement to Today.comSlate said: “What has been revealed regarding the attack on Blake is terribly dark, disturbing, and completely menacing. I praise my friend, admire her courage and stand by her side.”