NEW YORK — Blake Lively’s claims that “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni unleashed a smear campaign against her have gained support from a new lawsuit that Baldoni’s former publicist filed against him.
The lawsuit was lodged Tuesday in New York state court in Manhattan by Stephanie Jones, who began representing Baldoni in 2017. It said the actor and his movie production company, Wayfarer, expanded their contract in 2020, agreeing to pay a $25,000 monthly fee.
The lawsuit alleged that Baldoni, 40, and Wayfarer last August, when the film was released, teamed up with publicists to try to “bury” and “destroy” Lively amid fears that allegations of misogynistic and toxic on-set behavior as the romantic drama was made might harm his reputation and career.
Jones sought unspecified damages from the defendants, including Jennifer Abel, a former employee who she says carried out the campaign to damage Lively and muddy the reputation of Jones.
The lawsuit alleges that Abel was fired after Jones learned on Aug. 21 that Abel had “stolen more than 70 proprietary and sensitive business documents and additional client leads” from Jonesworks as Abel prepared to leave the firm to start her own publicity company, taking along Baldoni and Wayfarer as clients.
The lawsuit also alleges that Abel teamed up with Melissa Nathan, a crisis management expert who in the past has represented actor Johnny Depp, in a quest to influence and control media content damaging to 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, the lawsuit said.
In response to a request for comment Wednesday, Abel sent an email that included screenshots of text messages between herself and Jones, along with a July 26 email she sent to Jones, two weeks after announcing her plans during a Zoom call to leave the company on Aug. 23.
In the email, she wrote, in part: “I know this path won’t be easy, but I hope I can keep you in my life as a mentor, a friend and a close confidant because I truly view you as family and would be lost without your support. I want to assure you however I can, that unlike those who have burned you in the past, that there is not one ounce of ill will here.”
She added: “I have left a company before with grace and with my relationships intact, and that’s what I fully plan on, and hope for.”
Nathan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Last week, Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, a step that often precedes the filing of a lawsuit, alleging that Baldoni sought to damage her reputation after Lively, 37, and her husband Ryan Reynolds addressed “repeated sexual harassment” by Baldoni and a producer on the movie.
Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, called the claims in Lively’s filing “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
He pushed back against Lively’s allegations of a coordinated campaign, saying the studio “proactively” hired a crisis manager “due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production.”
A message sent to Freedman on Wednesday to get comment on the lawsuit filed by Jones was not immediately returned.
“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut and sales eventually approaching $350 million.
Baldoni starred in the telenovela send-up “Jane the Virgin,” directed “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book pushing back against traditional notions of masculinity.