Law&Crime Sidebar - Blake Lively Scandal Heats Up as Ex-Publicist Sues Justin Baldoni

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

Starting point is 00:00:35 will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Justin Baldoni's legal troubles are escalating fast as a new lawsuit has been filed against him by his former publicist Stephanie Jones, who's accusing him and his film studio wayfarer of conspiring to smear actress Blake lively while keeping Jones completely in the dark. And she is also going after Baldoni's PR and crisis management team, who she says tried to ruin her reputation. We are going to break down the bombshell details of this latest filing. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber.

Starting point is 00:01:23 Well, in what is a rapidly developing legal saga, Stephanie Jones, A former publicist for actor and director Justin Baldoni filed this massive lawsuit on Tuesday that not only adds new details to the ongoing accusations against Baldoni, but it also names his film studio Wayfarer and publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan. Two figures who have already made headlines this week when they were named as defendants in actress Blake Lively's bombshell complaint against them. She has accused them, Baldoni, and others of launching an alleged smear campaign against her. Now, if you haven't been following the Baldoni-Lively legal battle, here's where all this stems from. So the backdrop of Jones' legal complaint actually coincides with a separate legal action that was filed by Blake Lively in California over the weekend. And in Blake Lively's filing, she is accused Justin Baldoni, his production company, Wayfarer, and their PR representatives of retaliating against her after she raised. accusations of misconduct and sexual harassment against Baldoni during the filming of the movie

Starting point is 00:02:31 it ends with us. The idea being, let's create a counter-narrative about Blake Lively, should she go public with her accusations against Baldoni. And Lively's complaint included pages of emails and text messages that she had obtained through a subpoena. We actually did a full breakdown of that complaint in a separate sidebar. We talked about how problematic those messages all are. You encourage everybody to check that out. It's up on our long, YouTube page. By the way, we want to keep on following this Baldoni, Blake lively story for you as it develops. And with that in mind, I have to thank Upside, our sponsor, because it's with their support that helps make episodes like this possible. Now, Upside's awesome if you don't know what it is.

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Starting point is 00:03:43 it out. But now let's talk about Stephanie Jones. So the biggest takeaway from this new 52-page lawsuit that was obtained by law and crime is that Stephanie Jones, is suggesting that Ms. Abel, who actually had been an employee of her company, Jones Works, and Nathan, they were working with Baldoni behind her back to craft this alleged smear campaign against Blake Lively, driving a wedge between her and Baldoni, her now former client. And also, she alleges that they put the blame of all of this on her. And not only that, but she also alleges that Ms. Abel, again, her former employee, was working with Baldoz, and Melissa Nathan in an effort to not only tarnish Blake lively, but to tarnish Jones.

Starting point is 00:04:30 So I want to unpack everything in this lawsuit to help you understand how Stephanie Jones went from publicist to plaintiff. So the drama began to unfold during the summer as the premiere of it ends with us approached. According to Jones lawsuit, Justin Baldoni feared that these allegations about his onset behavior, sexual harassment, all this might come to light. And so he began to take drastic steps to protect his image. But she says he kept this a secret from her. According to the complaint, determined to protect his reputation, Baldoni and Wayfair's CEO, Jamie Heath, turned to Jennifer Abel, who had become the

Starting point is 00:05:05 point person at Jones Works, that's again, Jones's company, on the Baldoni and Wayfair account. Abel brought on crisis fixer Melissa and Nathan to help her manage the situation. Together, Abel and Nathan, with Heath's active encouragement, conspired to shut Jones out of the process and keep their strategy hidden from her. Now remember, Jennifer Abel was the employee for Jones who was coordinating communications between Baldoni, Wayfair, and Jones Works. And now, seemingly without Jones approval or knowledge, the lawsuit alleges that Abel and Melissa Nathan teamed up, in a sense, to try and discredit Blake lively and suppress any emerging allegations. And here's where

Starting point is 00:05:45 it gets even more dramatic. Embedded in this lawsuit are text messages that seem to suggest that Able had more nefarious reasons for teaming up with Melissa Nathan. The allegation being that not only was she allegedly conspiring to smear Blake lively secretly, but Jones alleges that Able was also planning to leave Jones works. And that's not even the wildest part. Able is also accused of working with Nathan to try to steal Jones clients, including Justin Baldoni, which is one of the key reasons why Baldoni is named in this lawsuit. So while Jones is suing Abel for disloyalty and breach of contract, which we'll talk about,

Starting point is 00:06:24 she also alleges that Baldoni was fully aware of what Abel was doing and went along with it. So according to Jones, Baldoni's involvement had a twofold impact. First, she claims he was complicit in Abel's violation of her employment agreement with Jones Works. And second, she asserts that Baldoni directly breached his own contract by choosing to work with Abel or poacher in a way, taking her away from Jonesworks, and that would undermine the ongoing professional relationship he had with Jonesworks. Now, I mentioned the text messages. There are text messages that are embedded in this lawsuit, allegedly showing Abel's attempts

Starting point is 00:07:00 to take Baldoni with her and away from Ms. Jones. Those text messages addressed to Abel from Melissa Nathan, this crisis manager, read, and once you are gone, we will be on the accounts together and make really good money and be happy. Let's keep it steering that way, and you take this bleeping client and never talk to her again. I swear to God. So, you might be wondering if Abel was teaming up with Baldoni to undermine lively, she must have had some kind of personal affection or admiration for Baldoni, right? She must have loved this guy. Well, according to this lawsuit, not exactly, because the text messages suggest that Abel actually really didn't like Baldoni.

Starting point is 00:07:40 For example, there was embedded in this complaint. One message from Abel that reads, I can't stand him, he's so pompous. Or how about this? He may fire us because even if we put together an amazing campaign, it's not going to change the fact that he's so unlikable and unrealistic as a leading man. Yikes. Now, despite her alleged discontent with Mr. Valdoni, Joan says that Abel still work to protect him nonetheless.

Starting point is 00:08:10 And here is where the whole client-stealing allegation comes in. So Jones alleges that Abel actively work to plant negative media stories about Jones and her company. For example, Jones alleges that Nathan and Abel, they coordinated a business insider piece called Who's Afraid of Stephanie Jones with a reporter? They did this with a reporter. And on the eve of the release of this piece, there is, again, a text message that appears to be from Melissa Nathan to Abel, and it appears to mock Ms. Jones, with Nathan suggesting to Abel that she should say the following to Jones. Stephanie, are you aware that there is a kill story dropping this week on you? And if you hadn't blown us up, we would not have been in such a

Starting point is 00:08:52 bad place? This is interesting now, because this sounds very much like a second smear campaign, right, a conspiracy, where now not only was lively in the line of fire, but allegedly so was Jones. And remember that because it comes up a little bit more later. But going back to Baldoni and his alleged involvement here, so one message sent from Nathan Able seems to suggest that Nathan told Baldoni he shouldn't work with Jones. It reads, I ended it with, and it doesn't say who it is, and I'm just going to step out of line before I go to bed and tell you, Jen is amazing. She's so loyal, she loves you so much, and you have to go with her, and he was like,

Starting point is 00:09:31 oh my God, of course, of course I'm going with her. Now this all leads up to the alleged smear campaign that was plotted against lively, because by allegedly distancing herself from Ms. Jones and forming a relationship or partnership with Baldoni, Abel allegedly put herself in a position to be able to devise the smear campaign. So with Nathan and Abel, now seemingly working together to help Baldoni in this Blake lively crisis, they allegedly launched a memo with an objective outlined in it to protect Justin Baldoni's reputation. And remember, we talked about that memo in that previous sidebar. Joan says in this suit, she had no idea what this memo was or that any of this was even going

Starting point is 00:10:08 on at this point. Part of that memo allegedly recommended, quote, weaponizing Baldoni's perceived history as a longtime activist and advocate of and for women in Hollywood to be used against Lively and at the same time sought to discredit Lively's negative onset experiences with Baldoni by painting her in the press as the one who had weaponized feminism for her own benefit. But apparently, Baldoni was not totally satisfied with the way this was going on and this objective and the manner of which they were going to do it. And so Abel allegedly relayed that discontent or this dissatisfaction to Nathan in a text message. That reads, I think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios.

Starting point is 00:10:53 He, meaning Justin Baldoni, wants to feel like she can be burned. While this one campaign is allegedly being constructed against Blake lively, there is this other alleged campaign to Tarnish Jones, and that was allegedly happening simultaneously. This is according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Nathan and Abel, they planted stories in media outlets, including in the Daily Mail. And as I mentioned before, the business insider, to paint Jones in a negative light. The one story published in the Daily Mail centered around tensions between Lively and Baldoni

Starting point is 00:11:26 and apparently mentioned that there was an insider in the story that relayed that negative information. Jones says that Abel and Nathan use this planted story to meet two goals. First, the negative story cemented Baldoni's need for Nathan's crisis management services, ensuring herself an ongoing paycheck. Second, they, meaning Nathan and Abel, arranged for Baldoni and Wayfair to believe that Jones was the cited insider and also created a false story that Jones had publicly blamed lively for the article, thus sowing discord between Baldoni and Wayfair on the one hand

Starting point is 00:12:03 and Jones on the other. And now the lawsuit alleges that when that article, was published, Josh Greenstein, the president of Sony Pictures, this was the company that was distributing the film, sent a text message to Abel asking her about the article and warned that a negative story would hurt the movie. But the suit says Abel denied it and instead put all the blame on Jones. And the problem was, allegedly, Abel was believed and it seemed that Jones was being blamed that she was the insider giving this information and doing this.

Starting point is 00:12:35 And how do we know this? because according to the lawsuit, Wayfarer CEO Jamie Heath had sent a text message to Jones that read, I am hearing from Sony that, quote, someone named Stephanie Jones has responded out to Daily Mail saying that Blake is to blame. And now this has escalated at all. We were purposely not responding to anything as to not fuel it. This has fueled it. Everyone stand down. And while Jones tried to assure Heath, look, this wasn't me. I didn't do this. I didn't speak to the Daily Mail, she was seemingly shut down. Because according to the suit, Heath texted Jones saying, Stephanie, as your client and the one pays for the services,

Starting point is 00:13:13 I am stating to not contact anyone regarding Wayfarer or Sony at this time. If you do, after this text, it will be a major problem. Now, do you remember how we told you earlier that there was this alleged scheme to steal clients from Stephanie Jones? Well, this lawsuit alleges that by the time Jones discovered all of these communications, Abel had supposedly already stolen more than 70 proprietary and sensitive business documents and client leads from Jones. And of course, Abel allegedly took Baldoni and Wayfair with her too. And this is important because as this was going on, Abel and Nathan were allegedly selling

Starting point is 00:13:52 a story to business insider about Jones, referencing that she lost high-profile clients. Now, there's something else I have to mention that in this lawsuit, there was another group of people who are named as defendants. Does 1 through 10. The idea being we don't know who they are now, but during the course of this litigation, we will find out who they are. And these, according to Jones, are people that Joan says, created fake websites with disparaging information about her. They are named in this suit because Jones says the Business Insider article that ran on August 15th referenced the remarks from a website called Stephanie Jones Leaks.com, which Jones says was created by the John Does

Starting point is 00:14:31 in an effort to amplify false claims about her. And look, that is where, again, you see these parallels between this lawsuit and the legal action taken by Blake Lively and the allegations that she's making. And the lawsuit points out those similarities between these two alleged campaigns. Quote, the negative article about Jones shared a strikingly similar tone

Starting point is 00:14:50 with the negative coverage against Lively appearing in the press at the same time. In the same vein as the gendered mean girl coverage about Lively that followed the weaponizing feminism script set out in the strategy memo, the Jones article was premised on the same principles manifesting an equally sexist critique of Jones, who is cast as a tyrannical boss who could quickly turn combative rather than a successful executive in a high profile and high pressure role. So again, the allegation would be

Starting point is 00:15:18 if you believe the Blake lively smear campaign was it being done by the same people who were executing this alleged smear campaign against Ms. Jones. And Jones says that she discovered this scheme around August 21st, but when she discovered it, the damage was already done or allegedly already done. Quote, with the encouragement and insistence of Nathan Baldoni and Heath Abel stole Wayfair and Baldoni as clients, targeted other JonesWorks clients to leave and launched the long-planned and competing RWA communications. Going back to Baldoni though for a second, for one of the reasons why he's also being named in this lawsuit, Jones says he violated the terms of his contract with her. As a result, Wayfair and Baldoni

Starting point is 00:16:04 cease working with Jones Works and despite being under contract with Jones Works, refused to pay Jones Works what they contractually owed for its services, and also that the combined efforts of Nathan, Abel, Baldoni, and Wayfarer destroyed her image. The misconduct by Abel, Nathan, Baldoni, and Wayfarer has had a significant negative effect on Jones and Jones Works business and reputation, and Jones' good faith efforts to resolve this out of court, and have been met with resistance, and the campaign of misinformation against her has not stopped. As a result, Jones and Jones Works have been left with no choice but to bring this lawsuit to seek redress for this misconduct and to remedy the damage done.

Starting point is 00:16:40 So now let's talk about the specifics about what Jones is suing for, what she's suing over. So one, she's suing Jennifer Abel for a breach of contract claim regarding her employment agreement with her company Jones Works. The lawsuit alleges that, among other things, Abel violated her contract by, quote, directly competing with Jones Works and the six months following her departure from Jones Works, including by starting a competing company and poaching and attempting to poach Jones Works clients. The second cause of action in this suit is for tortious interference with Jennifer Abel's employment contract, and this is against Melissa Nathan, Wayfarer, and Justin Baldoni. Jones alleges that these defendants knew of Abel's employment with Jones,

Starting point is 00:17:20 and they still encouraged and aided in her leaving Jones Works, and leaving unlawfully, by the way. quote, Nathan, Baldoni, and Wayfair induced, encouraged, and procured Abel's breach of the Abel employment agreement without justification, including by among other things, breaching her duty of loyalty to Jones Works by working against the best interest of Jones and Jones Works during her period of employment, and two, encouraging and inducing able to violate the non-compete, non-solicitation, and confidentiality provisions of the agreement. Third cause of action, this is for breach of contract for the Wayfair Agreement between Jones, Wayfair Studios, and Justin Baldoni.

Starting point is 00:17:57 Jones alleges that her company, along with Wayfair and Justin Baldoni, they all signed an agreement that she would be paid $25,000 per month for her services, and there were restrictions on them soliciting Jones Works employees. That agreement had an automatic renewal, according to her in May, and apparently Jones required a 90-day notice prior to the automatic renewal in order to terminate this agreement, and she says she was never contacted for termination, so this contract was still valid. And thus, since Baldoni still remained under contract, he owed her that $25,000 per month all the way through May of next year. And in August, Jones says she was informed that Wayfair would no longer need her services, but they were still under the contract as per these terms.

Starting point is 00:18:40 According to the complaint, on or about August 30, 2024, a representative of Wayfair informed Jones that Wayfair and Baldoni would no longer require Jones Works Services and thereafter refused to pay all amounts owed under the Wayfair Agreement. Wayfair and Baldoni have breached the Wayfair Agreement through their actions, as described in this complaint, including by, among other things, failing to pay the amounts contractually owed under the agreement, soliciting and Inducing Abel to depart Jones Works, and three, employing Abel following her departure from Jones works. The fourth cause of action in this complaint is fortuitous interference with the Wayfair agreement against Jennifer Abel and Melissa and Nathan. So this one is about how Jones alleges that Abel and Nathan, through their purported scheme, caused Baldoni to violate the agreement he had had with Jones. Abel and Nathan were aware of the Wayfair Agreement, and each induced, encouraged and procured Wayfairers in Baldoni's breach of the Wayfair Agreement without justification, including by encouraging Wayfair and Baldoni to cease paying Jones' works

Starting point is 00:19:35 and instead hire Abel and Nathan and by encouraging Wayfair and Baldoni to violate the non-solicitation provisions of this agreement. Now, this one's interesting, the fifth cause of action. It's against Jennifer Abel, and it's for something called Faithless Servant. This is a unique aspect of New York law. And what it basically means is, according to the lawsuit, is that Abel had worked for Jones from July 2020 to August of 2024. And during that period, and the company, according to Jones, was entitled to a duty of loyalty from Ms. Abel.

Starting point is 00:20:03 And from what we've covered so far, we know Jones is alleging that Abel was actively working against her and the company, and that she was acting in her own interests as opposed to the best interests of the company. So you can see how that one applies. The sixth cause of action is for breach of fiduciary duty against Jennifer Able. Essentially, this means that during the course of her employment, Abel O. Jones, a fiduciary duty of loyalty, fidelity, and allegiance to act in her company's best interests and that her actions breached that duty.

Starting point is 00:20:30 The seventh cause of action is against Jennifer Able for defamation. So Jones alleges that between September and December, 24, Able had made statements to third parties, including those in the industry, claiming that Jones was false. and doctoring text messages to make them look like they were coming from Abel, all in an effort to harm Abel and paint her in a false light, Jones says, she did not do this. I never did this, that these statements damaged her reputation and her business. The eighth cause of action is against the John Doe's that I mentioned for defamation. Jones says that these websites, that these anonymous defendants allegedly published, they were full of false and negative and defamatory statements about Jones and her company, including statements like Jones and Jones works, worst clients into taking actions that are not in those clients' best interests. Jones and Jones works interfere with their client's ability to do business. Jones does not fight for her clients, but she does fight with them, crying, screaming, and keeping them hostage.

Starting point is 00:21:26 And Jones says these allegedly false statements damaged her reputation. So now let's talk about what she's suing for. So Jones is requesting a monetary award for damages on these eight causes of action as well as reimbursement for attorney's fees and costs for bringing the suit forward. punitive damages, those are really, really bad conduct, the way to punish the defendants, pre-judgment, post-judgment interest, and any further relief as decided by the court. And she's also requesting a jury trial. Now, as the legal battle intensifies, the defendants, Baldoni, Wayfarer, Abel, Nathan,

Starting point is 00:21:57 they've remained largely silent here, but, according to Variety, Brian Friedman, who is a lawyer representing them, threatened to sue Jones. Why? For releasing the contents of Abel's phone to Lively's legal team. And by the way, talking about Blake lively and her allegations, he mentioned he was quoted as saying that these allegations are completely false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious. But look, I'll end with this. We saw it with the lively complaint. We see this now in this lawsuit. If you have the receipts, if you have the text messages, that's what these allegedly are. That can be very, very hard to overcome. Not to mention the fact that according to the suit, one of the reasons Jones has these alleged communities. communications between Abel and Nathan is because apparently they came from Abel's company-issued phone.

Starting point is 00:22:48 So if that's true, wow, you would be surprised about how many people write things out on company-issued devices and emails, and you don't think that's going to come back to haunt them. Wow. But look, with the legal proceedings now set to unfold in both New York and California, these coming months will likely bring more public revelations and also a deeper look into how Hollywood handles accusations of misconduct and how those accused they fight back with their own PR strategies, something that we might not have seen before. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - Blake Lively Scandal Heats Up as Ex-Publicist Sues Justin Baldoni

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