Justin Baldoni’s publicist at center of scandal involving movie producer allegedly defaming him It all ends with us Star Blake Lively is explaining her side of the story.
Jennifer Abell’s text exchanges with crisis management expert Melissa Nathan were leaked as part of Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni and her production company, Wayfarer Studios. The actress accused Baldoni of repeatedly crossing the line on and off camera, while the director and co-star denied the accusations and insisted Lively caused problems during the film’s production and deliberately tarnished his reputation.
Abel defended her Crisis Team exchanges (details below) on Facebook, saying they were largely in jest, talking about fan reactions to Lively’s feud with Baldoni during the marketing campaign, and There is no indication that Bardoni’s team took specific action against Lively. (The Facebook post has been deleted, but hollywood reporter Its legality has been confirmed.
“The cherry-picked information does not contain any ‘slander,’ although that is not shocking as it does not fit the narrative,” Abel wrote. “There is no negative news, no social struggle plan, although we are prepared because our job is to be ready for any situation. But we don’t need to implement anything because the network has already done the work for us. Of course , we talked about it, considered if we needed something, flagged the accounts we needed to monitor, worked with the social team to help us stay on top of the situation so we could act quickly if needed, and yes, we were happy and joking about the fact , fans have recognized the heart and work of our clients without us having to do anything but put our heads down and focus on conducting positive interviews for our clients.
Abel continued, “As the text messages show, we were secretly joking with each other as sophomores about the internet’s feedback on the woman whose team was making our lives incredibly difficult on the campaign trail. I’m human. After Long, long months of preparation, on top of my day job…it’s nice to see that, despite our preparations, we don’t have to do anything extra to protect our customers.
Abel then explained what she meant when she said Lively’s team made their lives “extremely difficult.”
“I was notified when the game started [marketing] The campaign said the opposing team would spread horror stories about my client as a “safeguard” if he did not comply with the campaign’s demands. “That’s why we brought [a crisis team]because that’s not what I do. My only job was to provide my clients with interviews, screenings and speaking opportunities in support of the film, which was a standard scope of work. I did my job. Now, what kind of woman would go against another woman who is the victim of all the accusations? Thank you for your inquiry. After reviewing the evidence, facts, and hard evidence that refuted every single thing claimed and requested at the beginning of the production, I decided to side with my client of almost 5 years who has dedicated his life to treating other people equally, especially women. They have no incidents of treating others negatively and have a great community and team at wayfarer who all share the same moral fortitude and live their lives accordingly. As representatives, we all have to make this choice. So I did it to the best of my ability and was happy with our efforts.
Also on Monday, attorney Bryan Freedman â who represents Baldoni, as well as Abel and Nathan â went on the attack: âTAG PR operates like any other crisis management firm. When a client is hired to be threatened by two extremely powerful men, TAG PR operates like any other crisis management firm. It turns out that the standard scenario planning drafted by TAG PR is unnecessary as viewers discover that Lively is promoting the story. The behavior, interviews and marketing during the tour were offensive and an organic response to the media’s own coverage. new york times,â through their efforts to âexposeâ an insidious PR campaign by releasing leaked personal text exchanges that lacked critical context, directly exploiting Livelyâs own questionable PR tactics â which she accuses the company of committing. The strategy is exactly the same.
The message between Able and Nathan included a key exchange in which Able pushed the crisis team, “I think you guys need to be strong and show your strength in what you can do in these situations. [Baldoni] Wanted to feel like she could be buried. Nathan responded, “Of course, but you know, when we send files, we can’t send the work that we’re going to do or can do because that might get us into a lot of trouble. We can’t write that we’ll ruin her.” Imagine if a document containing everything he wanted ended up in the wrong hands. You know we could bury anyone.
As for how these messages became public, Abel noted that they were not subpoenaed, saying, “I recently left my previous company. [Jonesworks]I was still with the organization during this campaign (with an all-campaign team and an overseeing boss), and he had access to my work email and work phone, so you can deduce from that that you were going to do what.
Friedman also had some strong words to say about the leaked text: “Jonesworks is the public relations firm contracted to promote and protect Wayfarer and Justin. Our investigation determined that on August 21, Jonesworks used attorneys and security to seize Jen Abel mobile phone and therefore holds confidential information from Wayfarers. We are continuing to investigate the use of this confidential information, but we are making requests to Stephanie Jones and Lesley Sloane to identify anyone who may have been actively involved in this, once we have evidence. Those involved in such abhorrent behavior will be prosecuted and forgotten.
Abel added, “I never imagined the day I would have to defend myself among my own peers, but it has been a fun and frankly devastating few days.”
Lively alleges in her filing that conditions on the set were so bad that discussions with Lively, Sony Pictures, Wayfarer Studios’ Baldoni and Jamie Heath, the film’s producers, the film’s publicist and others meeting to address some “inappropriate behavior.”
The actress and her team made a request to Baldoni and his team to restart filming after the actors went on strike. Some of the 30 demands include: “No more nude videos of women, including producers’ wives, shown to BL and/or its staff”; “No more mention of Mr. Baldoni or Mr. Heath to BL or other crew members.” Previous âporn addictionâ or BL lack of porn consumptionâ; âNo longer describing oneâs genitals to BLâ; and âNo more impromptu kissing.â
in a statement new york times“I hope my legal action helps lift the lid on these sinister retaliatory tactics designed to harm those who publicly report misconduct and help protect others who may be targeted,” Lively said.
Friedman previously issued a lengthy statement denying the allegations in the documents. “It is disgraceful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and absolutely false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and their representatives in yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her The negative reputation gained from speeches and statements. Public, live and unedited interviews and journalism enable the network to generate its own views and opinions. These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally obscene. Publicly hurt and retell a story in the media.
Baldoni has been fired by WME’s reps since news of the lawsuit broke over the weekend.
Christy Pina contributed to this report.
