If you're having a bad Christmas, allow me to offer a little consolation: Justin Baldoni is definitely having a worse one. Days after his former co-star, Blake Lively, filed an 80-page complaint against him, alleging he'd sexually harassed her throughout production, then launched a coordinated PR smear campaign against her in an attempt to, as private text messages reveal, “bury” her, a second lawsuit arrived on Christmas Eve.
On Tuesday, Steph Jones, who owns the New York-based public relations firm, Jonesworks, accused her former client of breaching their contract, which required Baldoni to pay her $25,000 per month. According to Jones, Baldoni prematurely parted ways with the firm in August (just a few months into a year-long deal) after his publicist, Jennifer Abel, left the company to launch her own firm. Abel and publicist Melissa Nathan are also named in Jones' suit. They're accused of creating the smear campaign against Lively and blaming Jones for the fallout.
“To this day, Abel and Nathan continue to point the finger falsely at Jones now that their own misconduct is coming to light, and to defame and attack Jones in the industry,” the lawsuit states.
Also alleged in the suit is that Abel took documents from Jonesworks to start her own public relations firm, and that Jones was removed from Baldoni's representation during the It Ends With Us campaign. Abel and Nathan, Jones alleges, then “secretly coordinated with Baldoni and Wayfarer to implement an aggressive media smear campaign against Baldoni’s film co-star [Blake Lively]."
“I can’t stand [Baldoni]. He’s so pompous. A men’s retreat during release, is he crazy?” Abel wrote in one message sent in January 2024. “And being off the grid for the summer because he’s just so overworked… like calm down. You’re not that important and nobody gives a shit how hard your life is.”
In another message sent that same day, Abel allegedly continued: “He doesn’t need a retreat. He needs to be humbled. When this movie flops, he’s going to try to blame every person around him for it.”
“He may fire us because even if we put together an amazing campaign, it’s not going to change the fact that he’s so unlikable and unrealistic as a leading man,” Abel is accused of writing in another test message. “There’s no chemistry with him and Blake, you and I both know that she will be resistant to promote this movie, and press will be reluctant to do anything with Justin without Blake being part of it. So there. Those are my thoughts.”
Baldoni going on a men's retreat? Abel being absolutely spot-on about...everything? I can't wait to see how much messier this whole thing will get in 2025.
