- A new lawsuit filed Tuesday by publicist Stephanie Jones alleges that Justin Baldoni and his PR representatives tried to smear Blake Lively.
- Jones, a former employer of Baldon’s PR representative, Jennifer Abel, alleges in the lawsuit that Abel ran an undercover operation while she worked for Jones.
- Abel belittled Jones and tried to steal clients for a competing firm, the suit alleges.
A publicist who previously represented Justin Baldoni says one of her former employees orchestrated a smear campaign against Blake Lively without the PR firm’s knowledge — and then poached Baldoni and other celebrities as clients.
In a civil suit filed in Manhattan state court on Tuesday, Stephanie Jones said the former employee, Jennifer Abel, ran an undercover operation with Melissa Nathan, a communications professional with her firm.
The lawsuit alleges the intent was to “destroy” Lively, Baldoni’s “It Ends With Us” co-star, to cover up Baldoni’s misconduct on set.
“Their plan was covert, intentionally concealed from Jones, and went far beyond the legitimate scope of Abel’s employment,” Tuesday’s lawsuit said.
Abel and Nathan used the same tactics to tarnish Jones’ own reputation in order to lure clients from her public relations firm, Jonesworks, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit by Jones — a powerful Hollywood publicist who has represented Jeff Bezos, Tom Brady and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — is the second legal setback against Baldon, Abel and Nathan in the past week.
On Friday, Lively filed a complaint against the same group with the California Department of Civil Rights, a possible precursor to a lawsuit.
Lively claims in the complaint that Baldoni – who also directed “It Ends With Us” – created a hostile workplace by frequently talking about pornography, adding sexually explicit scenes between their characters in the script, pressuring her to lose weight and entering her trailer. unannounced while she was naked and breastfeeding, among other violations.
Bryan Freedman, an attorney representing Baldini, Abel, Nathan and their companies, previously called Lively’s allegations “completely false, outrageous and deliberately unsavory.” Freedman did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on Tuesday.
Lively’s complaint — using multiple text messages and emails obtained by her attorneys — also alleged that Baldoni worked with Abel and Nathan in a sophisticated public relations campaign through manipulated social media activity and stories published on tabloids.
“You know we can bury anybody,” Nathan wrote to Abel in a February text message included in Lively’s complaint as they discussed how to propose a communication strategy to Baldoni.
Lively’s complaint alleges that the campaign on behalf of Baldoni unfolded in secret alongside the public relations campaign for the film, which opened in theaters in August and grossed more than $350 million worldwide.
Jones said in her lawsuit that she fired Abel in August after she “stole more than 70 proprietary and sensitive business documents” as well as customer information. Abel also tried to poach employees of a competing public relations firm, RWA Communications, the lawsuit alleges.
Nathan did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on Tuesday.
In an email Tuesday, Abel gave a different account of how he left Jonesworks. She sent BI an email and text messages indicating she submitted her resignation in July with plans to start her own public relations firm.
Jones’ attorney, Kristin Tahler, said she filed the lawsuit “to stop the defendants’ continued conduct and to restore Steph’s reputation.”
“For months, this group has burned and vilified Stephanie Jones and her company for financial gain, to clean up personal accounts and most recently to distract from their shameful smear against Blake Lively,” said Tahler, an attorney at Quinn, Emmanuel, in a statement. Tuesday.
Lively’s complaint does not say how her lawyers obtained the alleged campaign plan or the texts between Abel and Nathan.
Jones’ lawsuit offers one possible explanation: It says the phone released by Abel’s company to Jonesworks was forensically preserved and examined after Jonesworks received a call. On the phone, “Abel and Nathan’s covert takedown and smear campaigns were revealed in black and white,” Jones claims.
“Jones discovered the breadth and intensity of Abel and Nathan’s duplicity from these records, including that Abel was actively encouraging customers and other Jonesworks employees to leave Jonesworks while Abel was still employed there,” Jones’ lawsuit states.
On her way out the door from Jonesworks, Abel tried to turn Jones’ customers against her so she and Nathan could steal them for her firms, Jones’ lawsuit states.
Jones’ lawsuit alleges that, as part of a smear campaign, the two spoke to a reporter at Business Insider, which published an article in August about Jones and the workplace culture at Jonesworks.
While Abel waged an intense publicity campaign on Baldoni’s behalf, text messages show she held him in “extremely low regard,” Jones’ lawsuit says.
“He can fire us because even if we run an amazing campaign, it won’t change the fact that he is so unlikeable and unrealistic as a leader,” Abel wrote in a text message included in the lawsuit. “No chemistry with her and Blake.”