Justin Baldoni sued by former publicist over alleged Blake Lively smear campaign

Legal issues are mounting for It Ends With Us star and director Justin Baldoni after he was accused of harassment as well as starting a smear campaign against his co-star Blake Lively

Justin Baldoni is being sued by his former publicist, Stephanie Jones, amid his legal woes against It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively.

Jones is the founder of Jonesworks - which describes itself as a "strategy-driven communications & marketing agency representing an elite roster of athletes, talent & brands." One of her former employees, Jennifer Abel, had been assigned to handle Baldoni for his PR needs.

However, Jones has alleged that Abel planned to steal vital documents from her company in order to set up a firm of her own - and that it was Abel's idea to hire Melissa Nathan as Baldoni's crisis management PR. Jones claims she uncovered damning text messages between Abel and Nathan when she fired her employee and reviewed information on her company devices.

Jones has alleged she has suffered damage to her business and reputation and is now suing Baldoni, Abel, Jones and Baldoni's company, Wayfarer Studios, for defamation, breach of contract and more. She is reportedly seeking unspecified damages she believes her company has suffered.

In the document, seen by The Mirror, Jones said: "Defendants Abel and Nathan secretly conspired for months to publicly andprivately attack Jones and Jonesworks, to breach multiple contracts and induce contractual breaches, and to steal clients and business prospects. Behind Jones’s back, they secretly coordinated with Baldoni and Wayfarer to implement an aggressive media smear campaign against Baldoni’s film co-star."

Lawyer Kristin Tahler spoke to TMZ on behalf of Jones and said: "For months, this group has gaslit and disparaged Stephanie Jones and her company for financial gain, to settle personal scores and most recently to distract from their disgraceful smearing of Blake Lively." She added that Jones decided to take action in order to: "Recover the reputation she has worked decades to establish."

Over the weekend, Lively sensationally launched a lawsuit against Baldoni where she accused him of sexual harassment throughout the process of making their film, It Ends With Us, and then allegedly orchestrated a smear campaign against her while they were on the promotional trail for the film. Baldoni has furiously denied all of these accusations made against him.

Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freeman called the allegations from Lively 'false, outrageous and intentionally salacious'. In a statement he said: "It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions."

He added: "It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address."

A report by the New York Times on Tuesday claimed that Abel, Nathan and Wayfarer’s Jamey Heath collaborated: “To formulate a no-holds-barred strategy to discredit and suppress any potential revelations about Baldoni’s on set behavior,” and that they launched “a smear campaign against Lively” to achieve this.

Jones has claimed that the alleged plotting has discredited her reputation and that of her business - and claims Abel and Nathan “secretly conspired” to steal her clients. It is also claimed by Jones that the duo plotted to then blame Jones herself for the alleged smear campaign against Lively. The Mirror has contacted representatives of Baldoni, Jones, Abel and Nathan for comment.

It Ends With Us sparked controversy when it was released in August this year. The film is based on the Colleen Hoover novel of the same name and many cinema fans felt the movie version was heavily advertised as a romantic comedy - and were distraught to realise that the storyline focuses on domestic abuse.

Eyebrows were raised during the course of the promotional trail of the film as fans noticed that cast members of the movie unfollowed Baldoni ahead of the film release. While Lively was mocked for promoting her hair care products rather than discussing the serious aspects of the film.

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