The accusations made by Justin Baldoni, director and co-star of “It Ends With Us”, which sparked a smear campaign against Blake Lively, have received support from a new lawsuit filed by Baldoni’s former publicist against him.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the New York State court in Manhattan by Stephanie Jones, who began representing Baldoni in 2017. She stated that the actor and his film production company, Wayfarer, extended their contract in 2020, agreeing to pay a monthly fee of $25,000.
The lawsuit alleges that last August, when the film was released, 40-year-old Baldoni and Wayfarer partnered with publicists to try to "bury" and "destroy" Lively out of fear that accusations of misogynistic and toxic behavior on set during the making of the romantic drama could damage his reputation and career.
Jones is seeking unspecified damages from the defendants, including Jennifer Abel, a former employee whom he accuses of carrying out the campaign to harm Lively and tarnish Jones's reputation.
The lawsuit alleges that Abel was fired after Jones found out on August 21 that Abel had "stolen more than 70 sensitive and proprietary business documents and additional potential clients" from Jonesworks while Abel was preparing to leave the firm and start his own advertising company, taking Baldoni and Wayfarer as clients.
The lawsuit also alleges that Abel partnered with Melissa Nathan, a crisis management expert who has previously represented actor Johnny Depp, in an attempt to influence and control harmful media content about Lively and Jones.
Numerous text messages included in the lawsuit were extracted from the company phone that Abel returned to Jonesworks when she was fired, according to the lawsuit.
In response to a request for comments on Wednesday, Abel sent an email that included screenshots of text messages between her and Jones, along with an email from July 26 that she sent to Jones, two weeks after announcing her plans during a Zoom call to leave the company on August 23.
Nathan did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Wednesday.
Last week, Lively filed a complaint with the California Department of Civil Rights, a step that often precedes the filing of a lawsuit, alleging that Baldoni sought to damage her reputation after the 37-year-old actress and her husband Ryan Reynolds addressed the "repeated sexual harassment" by Baldoni and a producer on the film.
Bryan Freedman, a lawyer representing Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and their representatives, described the claims in Lively's filing as "completely false, scandalous, and intentionally salacious."
He opposed Lively's accusations of a coordinated campaign, stating that the studio "proactively hired" a crisis manager "due to the multiple claims and threats made by Mrs. Lively during production."
A message sent to Freedman on Wednesday to get comments about the lawsuit filed by Jones was not immediately returned.
"It Ends With Us", an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's 2016 bestseller, was released in August, surpassing box office expectations with a debut of 50 million dollars and sales that eventually approached 350 million dollars.
Baldoni starred in the telenovela parody "Jane the Virgin", directed "Five Feet Apart", and wrote "Man Enough", a book that challenges traditional notions of masculinity.