Amid an escalating scandal over an alleged smear campaign against actress Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni’s former publicist filed a lawsuit against the actor, his company, and his current publicity team last December 24.
Jonesworks owner Steph Jones accused Baldoni of breaking their agreement, which called for him to give her $25,000 (1.4 million pesos) a month. After Jennifer Abel, his Jonesworks publicist, quit the company to launch her own public agency, Baldoni terminated the agency in August, just months into a one-year contract.
Jones also filed a lawsuit against Abel and Melissa Nathan, the publicist, alleging that they carried out the smear campaign against Lively without her knowledge or consent. They are now attempting to hold her accountable for the subsequent meltdown, she claims.
“To this day, Abel and Nathan continue to point the finger falsely at Jones now that their own misconduct is coming to light, and to defame and attack Jones in the industry,” as stated in the lawsuit.
In the suit that was submitted to the California Civil Rights Department on Saturday, Lively said that Baldoni and his public relations team had planned unfavorable press about her as payback for her claims of sexual harassment on the set of “It Ends With Us.”
The rift between Lively and Baldoni was made clear throughout the movie’s promotional tour. Baldoni looked for ways to prevent Lively or her team from publicly accusing him of sexual misbehavior because he was afraid of it. Numerous text exchanges from Baldoni’s publicity team, in which they discussed plans to “bury” Lively, were cited in the case.
Unusually, Lively’s lawyers sent Jones a pre-litigation subpoena in order to acquire the messages.
Attorney Bryan Freedman represents Abel, Nathan, and Baldoni. Freedman threatened to sue Jones for giving Lively’s legal team access to Abel’s phone.
Jones claims in her lawsuit that after Abel was fired, she “forensically preserved” his work phone.
“Abel and Nathan’s covert take down and smear campaigns were revealed in black and white on Abel’s company-issued phone following her termination, which Jonesworks forensically preserved and examined in detail after receiving a subpoena for the phone’s contents,” Jones’ suit states.
Abel allegedly plotted for months to quit her business, “steal” her clients, and damage her reputation in the industry, according to Jones’ lawsuit. She claims that Nathan encouraged Abel to depart so that he could have more access to those clients.
In the lawsuit that was filed in a state court in New York, the lawsuit states that, “This scheme ultimately inflicted serious damage on Jones and Jonesworks.”
Abel and Nathan fabricated unfavorable press reports about Jones, including one that appeared in Business Insider, according to the suit.
Defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference with contract, and breach of contract are the allegations made in the lawsuit.
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