Hollywood publicist Steph Jones has accused her former client, embattled filmmaker and actor Justin Baldoni, of breach of contract in a lawsuit filed against him in New York this week, just days after his It Ends With Us co-star sued him for sexual harassment on the set of the film.
Baldoni, who directed and starred alongside Lively in the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, signed a one-year contract at Jones’ PR firm, Jonesworks, at a rate of $25,000 per month. In August, just as It Ends With Us was released theatrically, Baldoni dropped Jones’ firm and followed his publicist at Jonesworks, Jennifer Abel, to her newly launched PR firm.
The lawsuit, filed in New York State Court, also names Abel and publicist Melissa Nathan as conspirators in a smear campaign against Lively and asserts that they then attempted to shift the blame for besmirching the actress around the release of It Ends With Us to Jones. In Lively’s complaint, filed Saturday with the California Civil Rights Department, she states that Baldoni and his team engaged in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” her reputation as revenge for claiming she was subjected to sexual harassment by Baldoni.
Prior to Lively filing over the weekend, her attorneys managed to obtain text messages from Jonesworks’ company phones by boldly sending a pre-litigation subpoena to Jones. The rep then handed over the phone used by Abel, which she “forensically preserved” after the publicist exited her company. Text messages from the device contain correspondences, which are laid out in Lively’s suit, in which the two reps and Baldoni discuss how they plan to “bury” Lively as the filmmaker sought to shut down a possible public outing of alleged on-set sexual misconduct.
Baldoni has denied all claims in Lively’s complaint, slamming them as “shameful,” and “serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives.”
In the latest suit in the spiraling drama around the movie, which happens to deal with issues around abuse and trauma, Jones’ suit claims Abel had planned for months to leave Jonesworks and abscond with the firm’s clients while also besmirching Jones’ professional reputation. Nathan stands accused in the lawsuit of encouraging Abel to leave as she was eager to gain Jonesworks’ clients.
“This scheme ultimately inflicted serious damage on Jones and Jonesworks,” the suit claims.
Calls placed by The Hollywood Reporter to Jonesworks seeking comment were not immediately returned.
