Justin Baldoni’s former publicist has vehemently denied ‘leaking’ text messages to Blake Lively that purportedly showed his team waging a negative publicity campaign against the actress.
Stephanie Jones, whose company Jonesworks PR represented Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios throughout the production of It Ends With Us, hit back at the actor’s recent defamation claims and accused him of ‘brazenly’ breaching his contract, in new legal documents filed in New York on Thursday.
Responding to Baldoni’s filing last month, Jones refuted allegations that she leaked ‘confidential information’ to Lively and argued that she had turned over the text messages in compliance with a subpoena.
Those messages, found in a work-issued cellphone belonging to Jones’s former partner Jennifer Abel, became central to Lively’s defamation and sexual harassment case against Baldoni and were featured prominently in the New York Times ‘expose’ in December.
Among them, was a now infamous text message from Baldoni’s other publicist and Jones’s former client Melissa Nathan that read: ‘We can bury anyone.’
DailyMail.com reviewed a copy of the purported subpoena she refers to, which was sent to Jones in October by lawyers at Mariatt, Phelps & Phillips – the attorneys representing Lively in the dual lawsuits.
Justin Baldoni’s former publicist Stephanie Jones filed court documents on Thursday in response to the actor’s defamation claims against her last month
Baldoni added Jones to his lawsuit last month, accusing her of leaking text messages to co-star Blake Lively, who later filed a complaint and lawsuit against him
It ordered Jones to produce a wide range of documents and communications concerning Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, noting that failure to comply would be punishable as a contempt of court.
Jones’s latest filing also claims both Baldoni, 41, and Abel had violated their contracts with her – breaking the law in the process – by allegedly conspiring with Nathan.
Baldoni’s team added Jones to their $400million defamation lawsuit against Lively last month, claiming the text messages turned over to the actress were cherrypicked to give the appearance of Abel and Nathan orchestrating a smear campaign.
The film director’s team alleged Lively’s team was able to get their hands on the texts thanks to Jones, which led to Abel being subjected to a barrage of online abuse when her messages were included in her lawsuit.
They also claimedJones had been terminated ‘for cause’ by Wayfarer due to ‘wrongful behavior’ on her part.
In a statement released to DailyMail.com, Jones’s lawyer Maaren Shah doubled down on smear campaign allegations and accused Baldoni and his team of planting ‘falsehoods’ about her client in the media.
Jones’s latest filing also claims both Baldoni, 41, and publicist Jennifer Abel had violated their contracts with her and allegedly conspired with Melissa Nathan
In her complaint, Lively accused Baldoni of working with his publicist Jennifer Abel (pictured) and crisis PR expert Melissa Nathan to tarnish her reputation
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman (pictured in November) claimed it’s ‘undeniable’ Jones ‘initiated this catastrophic sequence of events’ in a statement to DailyMail.com last month
She also alleged that his company Wayfarer had failed to pay money to Jonesworks that was ‘fairly owed’.
She said: ‘Wayfarer and Ms. Abel’s distraction games in the press, and their legal filings attacking Ms. Jones and falsely accusing her of leaking are a desperate diversion from the reality that they have no answer for their blatant misconduct — and have yet to produce a shred of evidence disproving Ms. Jones’ claims.
‘They may wish it weren’t the case, but the fact remains that Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios and Ms. Abel brazenly and repeatedly breached their contractual obligations to Ms. Jones and Jonesworks, shamelessly framing her as the culprit behind the smear campaign they themselves created targeting Ms. Lively.
‘They’ve planted falsehoods in the press to tarnish Ms. Jones’s business, stole confidential documents and clients, and refused to pay Jonesworks what was fairly owed.
‘Those are facts, and smoke and mirrors PR campaigns can’t change them.’
The latest batch of legal documents in the ongoing legal feud between Baldoni and Lively, 37, comes days after the actress was spotted keeping a low profile during a visit to an equestrian center in South Salem, New York.
Lively was seen breaking cover on a farm far away from Hollywood earlier this week
Text messages included in the New York Times’ Many of the messages included in the complaint show exchanges between publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan
Baldoni’s legal team claimed the texts included in the article were doctored and taken out of context and even published the complete exchanges to show the omissions
Baldoni has also been keeping a low profile throughout the dispute and is currently on an extended vacation with his family in Maui.
The latest salvo comes on top of months of claims and counterclaims over the fallout from It Ends With Us, with lawyers for both Lively and Baldoni publicly slugging it out.
Many of the revelations that have emerged have proved highly embarrassing, not least Lively memorably comparing herself to Game of Thrones character Khaleesi and referring to husband Ryan Reynolds and pal Taylor Swift as ‘my dragons’.
Some of her more lurid claims also came under scrutiny, not least her assertation that Baldoni had sexually harassed her by nuzzling her neck during a scene and commenting on how she smells – none of which was recorded due to microphones being turned off.
But footage first published DailyMail.com revealed that it did have audio which picked up a full account of the conversation and revealed that it had been about the smell of Lively’s fake tan.
She also faced criticism for serving legal papers to Baldoni’s team in the middle of the devastating wildfires that ripped through Los Angeles in early January.
Lively filed complaint against Baldoni in December amid claims of sexual harassment during production of the movie, which was a hit when it arrived in theaters in August
The film at the heart of the feud, based on the 2016 bestseller by Colleen Hoover, was released in August and was a box office hit. It follows Lily Bloom, a florist played by Lively, who falls in love with a charming but abusive neurosurgeon played by Baldoni, who was also the film’s director
Freedman, who lived in Pacific Palisades, was among the unlucky people whose homes were burned to the ground.
Other revelations from the initial complaint included Lively’s alleged failure to read the novel on which It Ends With Us is based until long after filming had begun and that she allegedly orchestrated a negative publicity campaign of her own with the connivance of her publicist Sloane and the New York Times.
Baldoni’s cross-complaint also revealed that he and his family had been forced to spend the premiere of It Ends With Us sitting in a basement because Lively refused to allow him to be in the same room as her.
In a statement released to DailyMail.com after the actor’s latest filing, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said: ‘It is undeniable that Stephanie Jones initiated this catastrophic sequence of events by violating the most basic of privacy rights, as well as any remaining trust her clients held.
‘No stranger to stirring up crisis scenarios for departing clients, Ms. Jones maliciously turned over communications from the phone she wrongfully took from her own partner to her cohort [Lively’s publicist] Leslie Sloane, immediately after Ms. Jones was terminated for cause by Wayfarer due to her own wrongful behavior.’
Kristin Tahler, a partner at Quinn Emanuel, who represents Jones, told DailyMail.com at the time: ‘Ms. Jones’ lawsuit is based entirely on facts and concrete evidence. That suit clearly shows that Jen Abel conspired with Melissa Nathan and others to steal reams of confidential documents, clients and staff and eventually attempt to destroy the business that Ms. Jones spent decades building.
‘Abel, Nathan, Baldoni and their co-defendants attempted to achieve these outcomes through bullying distortion and outright disparagement. These facts are backed up by dozens of messages provided in the suit we filed month ago and cannot be credibly disputed.
‘Having no facts or evidence, we see a familiar playbook — smear our client, culminating in the work of fiction masquerading as the counterclaims that were filed [last month].’
