Justin Baldoni’s former publicist filed a lawsuit against him, his company and his current publicity team on Tuesday, amid a mounting scandal over an alleged smear campaign against “It Ends With Us” star Blake Lively, who co-starred with Baldoni.
Steve Jones, who owns Jonesworks, accused Baldoni of breaching their contract, which required him to pay her $25,000 a month. Baldoni dropped the company in August, just months into a yearlong deal, after Jonesworks publicist Jennifer Appel left the company to start her own advertising firm.
Jones also filed a lawsuit against Abel and publicist Melissa Nathan, accusing them of carrying out the smear campaign against Lively behind her back and without her knowledge. She claims they are now trying to blame her for the ensuing collapse.
“To this day, Abel and Nathan continue to falsely point the finger at Jones after their misconduct came to light, defaming Jones and attacking him in the industry,” the lawsuit said.
Lively filed a complaint on Saturday with the California Department of Civil Rights, accusing Baldoni and his media officials of orchestrating negative coverage of her in retaliation for her complaints of sexual harassment on set.
In the complaint, Lively accused Baldoni of a list of sexually inappropriate comments and behavior that allegedly occurred on set in 2023. According to the complaint, she raised these issues through her attorney before resuming filming, which had been suspended during the Hollywood strikes. Earlier this year.
The rift between Baldoni and Lively became apparent during the film’s publicity tour last summer. Baldoni feared Lively or her team would publicly accuse him or her team of sexual misconduct, and sought ways to combat this. The complaint quoted extensively from text messages from Baldoni’s publicity team, in which they planned to “bury” Lively.
In an unusual move, Lively’s lawyers obtained the letters by sending a subpoena to Jones before the litigation.
Abel, Nathan and Baldoni are represented by attorney Brian Friedman. On Monday, Friedman threatened to sue Jones for leaking the contents of Abel’s phone to Lively’s legal team. Friedman, Appel and Nathan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Jones’ lawsuit.
In Jones’ lawsuit, she said she “rightfully retained” Appel’s company phone after Appel was fired.
“Abel and Nathan’s secret takedown and smear campaigns were revealed in black and white on the phone Abel released after its termination, which Jonesworks preserved and examined in detail after receiving a subpoena for the phone’s contents,” Jones’ lawsuit states. “Jones discovered the breadth and intensity of Abel and Nathan’s duplicity from these records, including that Abel was encouraging other Jonesworks customers and employees to leave Jonesworks while Abel was still working there.”
Jones’ lawsuit alleges that Abel conspired for months to leave her company, “steal” her clients and destroy her reputation in the industry. She accuses Nathan of encouraging Abel to leave, because Nathan would then have greater access to these clients.
“This scheme ultimately caused significant harm to Jones and Jonesworks,” says the lawsuit, which was filed in state court in New York.
Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that Abel and Nathan planted negative stories about Jones in the press, including a Business Insider article published last summer.
The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, tortious interference with contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and defamation.