Justin Baldoni‘s publicist at the heart of the scandal surrounding the filmmaker’s alleged smear campaign against his It Ends With Us star Blake Lively is explaining her side of the story.
Jennifer Abel’s text exchanges with crisis management expert Melissa Nathan were leaked as part of Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios. The actress has accused Baldoni of repeatedly crossing the line both on and off camera, while the director and co-star has denied the charges and maintains that Lively caused problems during filmmaking and deliberately set out to tarnish his reputation.
Abel posted a defense of her crisis team exchanges (detailed below) on Facebook, saying they largely amounted to joking about how fans were reacting to the Lively-Baldoni feud during the marketing campaign and did not show that Baldoni’s team ever took specific action against Lively. (The Facebook posts have since been deleted, but The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed their legitimacy.)
“What the cherry picked messages don’t include, although not shockingly as it doesn’t fit the narrative, is that there was no ‘smear’ implemented,” Abel wrote. “No negative press was ever facilitated, no social combat plan, although we were prepared for it as it’s our job to be ready for any scenario. But we didn’t have to implement anything because the internet was doing the work for us. Sure we talked about it, contemplated if we needed certain things, flagged accounts that we needed to monitor, worked with a social team to help us stay on top of the narrative so we could act quickly if needed, and yes, we rejoiced and joked in the fact that fans were recognizing our clients heart and work without us having to do anything but keep our heads down and focus on positive interviews for our client.”
Continued Abel, “As the texts show, we sophomorically reveled and again, joked, privately to each other about the internets feedback to the woman whose team was making our lives incredibly difficult over the course of the campaign. I’m human. The long hours, months of preparation, on top of my day to day scope … it felt good to see that although we were prepared, we didn’t have to do anything over the top to protect our client.”
Abel then explained what she meant by claiming Lively’s team was making their lives “incredibly difficult.”
“I was notified at the start of the [marketing] campaign that the opposing team had been planting horrible stories about my client as a ‘fail safe’ if my client did not comply with the demands set forth for the campaign,” she wrote. “Which is why we brought on [a crisis team], as it’s not something that I do. My sole job was to put together interviews, screening opportunities and speaking opportunities for my client in support of the film, a standard scope of work. I did my job. Now what kind of woman would work against another woman who was a victim of all the things being claimed? Thanks for asking. After reviewing the evidence, facts, hard proof that countered every single thing that was being claimed and demanded at the start of production, I made a choice to stand by my client of almost 5 years, who had dedicated his life to the equal treatment of others, especially women. Who had no incidents of negative treatment of others, and who had a wonderful community and team at wayfarer who all held the same moral fortitude and lived their life accordingly. As representatives, we all have to make that choice. So I did that to the best of my ability, and felt good about our efforts.”
Also on Monday, attorney Bryan Freedman — who reps Baldoni, along with Abel and Nathan — started to go on the attack: “TAG PR operated as any other crisis management firm would when hired by a client experiencing threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources. The standard scenario planning TAG PR drafted proved unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful, and responded organically to that which the media themselves picked up on. It’s ironic that The New York Times, through their effort to ‘uncover’ an insidious PR effort, played directly into the hands of Lively’s own dubious PR tactics by publishing leaked personal text exchanges that lack critical context – the very same tactics she’s accusing the firm of implementing.”
The messages between Abel and Nathan included a key exchange where Abel pushes the crisis team, “I think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios. [Baldoni] wants to feel like she can be buried.” To which Nathan replied, “Of course — but you know when we send over documents we can’t send over the work we will or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble. We can’t write we will destroy her. Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands. You know we can bury anyone.”
As far as how these messages became public, Abel notes they were not subpoenaed, and says, “I had recently left my previous firm [Jonesworks], at which I was still with during this campaign (with a team who all participated in the campaign and a boss who oversaw) and who had access to my work emails and work phone, so you can deduce from that what you will.”
Freedman had some fiery words to say about the leaked texts as well: “Jonesworks was the PR company contractually responsible to promote and protect Wayfarer and Justin. Our investigation has determined that on August 21st, Jonesworks utilized a lawyer and security guard to take possession of Wayfarers confidential information through confiscation of Jen Abel’s phone. We are continuing to investigate the use of that confidential information but demands are being made to Stephanie Jones and Leslie Sloan and once we obtain the evidence, anyone actively involved in any possible connection with this abhorrent conduct will be sued into oblivion.”
Lively’s legal team replied with a statement suggesting that the text messages were obtained legally.
“The subpoena disclosed and referenced in the complaint was served on Jonesworks LLC,” the team member said. “The internal documents referred to in the complaint were produced subject to that subpoena. We expect that further details regarding the subpoena process will be disclosed during discovery.”
Said Abel in her post, “I never thought the day would come when I needed to defend myself with my own peers, but this certainly has been an interesting, and devastating quite frankly, couple of days.”
In her filing, Lively claims things got so bad on set that there was a meeting with Lively, Sony Pictures, Baldoni and Jamey Heath from Wayfarer Studios, producers on the film, publicists for the film and more to address some of the “inappropriate conduct” that took place on the set.
The actress and her team brought forth demands for Baldoni and his team in order to begin production again after the actors strike. Some of the 30 demands included: “No more showing nude videos of women, including producer’s wife, to BL and/or her employees”; “No more mention of Mr. Baldoni’s or Mr. Heath’s previous ‘pornography addiction’ or BL’s lack of pornography consumption to BL or to other crew members”; “No more descriptions of their own genitalia to BL”; and “No more improvising of kissing.”
In a statement to The New York Times, Lively said, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Freedman previously released a lengthy statement denying the claims in the filing. “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. These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
Since news of the lawsuit broke over the weekend, Baldoni has been dropped by his representatives at WME. Also, The Voices of Solidarity Award given to Baldoni on Dec. 9 honoring “remarkable men who have shown courage and compassion in advocating on behalf of women and girls” was rescinded.
Christy Pina contributed to this report.
