Justin Baldoni Former Publicist Sues for Breach of Contract Amid Blake Lively Scandal
Justin Baldoni’s former publicist, Steph Jones, sued the “It Ends With Us” actor and director Tuesday for breach of contract amid the unraveling scandal around Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign against Blake Lively.
The actor-filmmaker’s production company Wayfarer Studios and his current PR team — Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan — are also named in Jones’ Christmas Eve filing in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, which has been obtained and reviewed by TheWrap. The suit also cites tortious interference with contract, breach of fiduciary duty and defamation.
The suit explains how Abel and Nathan “secretly coordinated with Baldoni and Wayfarer to implement an aggressive media smear campaign against Baldoni’s film co-star, 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’ lawsuit goes on to say she was forced out of representing Baldoni and his company in fear that Lively planned to go public with accusations of misconduct. Her suit runs in tandem to Lively’s which was filed in California on Saturday. The actresses’ suit contained a number of text messages acquired via subpoena and Jones’ confirms those texts came from a company phone used by Abel – who has been named as an orchestrator in the smear campaign.
Abel exited the company in July. Jones claims she was stealing “documents and client information while also secretly contacting Jonesworks’s clients to pave the way for her departure.” Abel’s phone was returned voluntarily “in the presence of an employment lawyer.” The lawsuit states that the messages highlighting the smear campaign in question were “forensically extracted directly from that company phone” and “have been preserved in their original state.”
Abel maintains, however, that her exit from the company was a voluntary resignation on July 10, according to an individual with knowledge of her thinking. She quit over what she categorized as “bullying” behavior from Jones towards colleague Matthew Mitchell, her partner on accounts for Wayfarer Studios, Baldoni and the “majority of other clients which she also references in her texts” after her exit, the individual told TheWrap.
Tuesday’s lawsuit, the individual continued, was “retaliatory behavior” because clients Wayfarer and Baldoni left Jonesworks for Abel’s venture — “They were not ‘stolen,’ nor were any other clients.” Other client who left with Abel, the individual added, were her longtime clients from her years prior to joining Jonesworks and one Abel “had personally signed while at Jonesworks who had no relationship with Stephanie Jones.”
In Tuesday’s lawsuit, Jones claims that the messages extracted from Abel’s phone – which were not reviewed until after Abel’s exit – it became clear to Jones that her former employee had been involved in planning a smear campaign against Lively on Baldoni and Wayfair’s behalf. The campaign against Lively ramped up as “It Ends With Us” neared release and Baldoni – who co-starred and directed the film – his on-set misbehaviors would be unearthed.
Without Jones’ knowledge, Abel and Nathan “began to formulate a no-holds-barred strategy to discredit and suppress any potential revelations about Baldoni’s on set behavior.”
Jones’ suit is the latest legal salvo to hit Baldoni after Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against him on Saturday. Lively’s documents claim Baldoni’s behavior caused her “severe emotional distress.” The suit also accuses Baldoni of attempting to damage Lively’s reputation after the release of “It Ends With Us” through “social manipulation.”
“I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted,” Lively said in a statement to the Times.
Following Lively’s suit, Baldoni was also dropped by his agency WME – where both Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds are also repped – and his “Man Enough” podcast co-host announced she was quitting the show.
“I’m writing to you today to let you know that I have had my representatives inform Wayfarer that I will no longer be co-hosting the ‘Man Enough’ podcast,” she wrote on Instagram on Monday.
“Thank you for trusting me with your hearts and stories, for holding space for mine, and for making this show what it was. I will miss you, the listeners, so much,” Plank continued. “I love what this community created together with every fiber of my being, and that’s because of you.”
The New York Times first reported the news.
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