NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Blake Lively鈥檚 director and co-star Justin Baldoni unleashed a smear campaign against her have gained support from a new lawsuit that Baldoni鈥檚 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 鈥渂ury鈥� and 鈥渄estroy鈥� 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, who the lawsuit said was kept in the dark about the reputation-damaging plans.
The lawsuit alleges that Abel was fired after Jones learned on Aug. 21 that Abel had 鈥渟tolen more than 70 proprietary and sensitive business documents and additional client leads鈥� 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: 鈥淚 know this path won鈥檛 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.鈥�
She added: 鈥淚 have left a company before with grace and with my relationships intact, and that鈥檚 what I fully plan on, and hope for.鈥�
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 鈥渞epeated sexual harassment鈥� 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 鈥渃ompletely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.鈥�
He pushed back against Lively鈥檚 allegations of a coordinated campaign, saying the studio 鈥減roactively鈥� hired a crisis manager 鈥渄ue to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production.鈥�
A message sent to Freedman on Wednesday to get comment on the lawsuit filed by Jones was not immediately returned.
鈥淚t Ends With Us,鈥� an adaptation of was released in August, with a $50 million debut and sales eventually approaching $350 million.
Baldoni starred in the telenovela send-up directed 鈥淔ive Feet Apart鈥� and wrote 鈥淢an Enough,鈥� a book pushing back against traditional notions of masculinity.
The Associated Press
