A lawyer for actor and director Justin Baldoni—accused of orchestrating a smear campaign against actress Blake Lively—suggested one possible scenario as to how text messages from a publicist of Baldoni’s ended up in the hands of Lively’s legal team.
Bryan Freedman told Puck News he believes that the phone belonging to publicist Jen Abel was taken by her boss, Stephanie Jones, of Jonesworks. The text messages within the phone contained critical information used by Lively in her complaint. Puck says Abel submitted the phone after leaving the firm in summer, and Jones subsequently handed the contents contained within after a legal subpoena.
Yet despite under subpoena, Puck’s Eriq Gardner describes a more “cynical” notion, quoting Freedman, who suggested Jones took an act “of her own retaliation” due to Baldoni’s company deciding to fire her firm.
He continues:
Is that what happened? I can’t say for sure, but Bryan Freedman—Baldoni’s lawyer—certainly thinks so. Freedman told me that upon learning her firm was being fired by Baldoni’s company on August 30, Jones insisted she couldn’t be terminated until the expiration of her contract—and instead, demanded $200,000. When Baldoni wouldn’t agree, Freedman said, Jones “weaponized” Abel’s texts and “conspired” with Lively’s team to help them file the complaint. “Faced with losing yet another client, [Jones] resorted to her well-reported tactics and attempted to decimate her own client,” Freedman told me.
Puck
Gardner adds he was told that Abel’s phone “wasn’t owned and issued by Jonesworks,” suggesting Jones may have taken her employer’s phone.
Jones did not respond to a request for comment from Puck on the issue.
Lively last week sued Baldoni—who directed and co-starred with her in It Ends With Us—for sexual harassment. She accuses Baldoni and his PR team of also leading a smear campaign in case any on-set issues became public.
Baldoni was subsequently dropped by his talent agency, WME.
Baldoni, Abel, and crisis PR manager Melissa Nathan’s lawyer Bryan Freedman have denied the allegations in Lively’s suit, writing in a statement that the suit is “completely false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious,” while suggesting the text messages were “cherry picked.”
Additionally, Abel is now being sued by Jones, according to The New York Times. Jones claims Abel stole documents from JonesWorks to start her own PR business.
