A former publicist for Justin Baldoni has filed a lawsuit against the It Ends With Us director and star days after Blake Lively filed a complaint against him.
Stephanie Jones, the founder of the public relations firm Jonesworks, alleges that her former employee Jennifer Abel conspired with Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer, and crisis PR fixer Melissa Nathan to execute a smear campaign against Lively, as the actress alleged in her complaint, without Jones’ knowledge.
“Defendants Abel and Nathan secretly conspired for months to publicly and privately attack Jones and Jonesworks, to breach multiple contracts and induce contractual breaches, and to steal clients and business prospects,” Jones’ complaint reads. “Behind Jones’ back, they secretly coordinated with Baldoni and Wayfarer to implement an aggressive media smear campaign against Baldoni’s film costar, and then used the crisis as an opportunity to drive a wedge between Jones and Baldoni, and to publicly pin blame for this smear campaign on Jones — when Jones had no knowledge or involvement in it.”
Jones says in the complaint that she fired Abel in August after learning what her employee was doing. At that point, Abel started her own PR firm and continued to work with Baldoni and other clients that she had worked with at Jonesworks.
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Jones alleges that these clients were “stolen” from her, but a source close to the situation tells Entertainment Weekly that Baldoni and Wayfarer chose to leave Jonesworks alongside Abel and that Jones’ lawsuit is “retaliatory.”
After Abel was allegedly fired, Jones claims that she found texts and emails related to her work with Baldoni, which she subsequently turned over to Lively’s team after being served a subpoena, which is why the messages appear in Lively’s 80-page complaint.
EW has reached out to Abel for comment.
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It Ends With Us is based on Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel of the same name and tells the story of a romance between Ryle Kincaid (played by Baldoni in the film) and Lily Bloom (Lively) that becomes abusive. In her complaint, Lively alleges that Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set of the movie, claiming that he “improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed,” pressured her into more nudity for the film than was planned, told her unsolicited details about his sex life and porn addiction, and attempted to smear her with a PR campaign as an act of retaliation for her complaints about his behavior.
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Since Lively’s filing went public, Hoover has voiced her support for the actress, as have Amber Heard, A Simple Favor director Paul Feig, and her former Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants costars America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, and Alexis Bledel.
“As Blake’s friends and sisters for over 20 years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the reported campaign waged to destroy her reputation,” reads the actresses’ statement, which they jointly shared to Instagram. “Throughout the filming of It Ends With Us, we saw her summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set, and we are appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice. Most upsetting is the unabashed exploitation of domestic violence survivors’ stories to silence a woman who asked for safety. The hypocrisy is astounding.”
Liz Plank, one of the cohosts on Baldoni’s Man Enough podcast, exited the show following Lively’s complaint, and an award Baldoni recently received honoring him for “courage and compassion in advocating on behalf of women and girls” was also rescinded. The Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international nonprofit organization focusing on women’s empowerment, granted him the Voices of Solidarity Award earlier this month.
