Justin Baldoni Rep Admits PR Team “Sophomorically Reveled” Against Blake Lively, But Claims No Smear Campaign Despite Sexual Harassment Allegations
Amid allegations by Blake Lively of sexual harassment and retaliation by It Ends With Us co-star/director Justin Baldoni and his crisis PR reps, a publicist for the Wayfarer Studios co-founder now says, “although we were prepared, we didn’t have to do anything over the top to protect our client.”
“What the cherry-picked messages don’t include, although not shockingly, as it doesn’t fit the narrative, is that it was no ‘smear’ implied, 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,” Jennifer Abel wrote this weekend in a long post on the private PR & Marketing Facebook group of text messages.
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Having received strong support from It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover, along with load of Hollywood A-listers, it should be pointed out that Lively’s December 20 complaint with the California Civil Rights Department is not formally a lawsuit. The graphic and text illustrated action (read it here) has numerous mentions of Lively’s efforts to stop said harassment, along with cameos by spouse Ryan Reynolds and very specific examples of apparently repeated misconduct by Baldoni and his Wayfarer colleagues and their PR teams. While not a lawsuit proper, unless there is a settlement ASAP, Lively’s action is an obvious opening salvo to a likely filing soon in Los Angeles Superior Court.
In the aftermath of Lively’s explosive allegations involving the role of Melissa Nathan and her company The Agency Group PR LLC, there were denials by Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman. The Jane the Virgin alum was subsequently dropped by his and Lively’s mutual agency WME on December 21, as reported exclusively by Deadline. With all that, publicist Abel took to the industry chat group this weekend to offer her own version of what really went down in the so-called smear campaign against the Gossip Girl star.
“And yes, we rejoiced and joked in the fact that fans were recognizing our client’s heart and work without us having to do anything but keep our heads down and focus on positive interviews for our client, as the texts show, we sophomorically reveled and again joked privately to each other about the internet’s feedback to the woman whose team was making our lives incredibly difficult over the course of the campaign,” Abel, who now has her own PR firm RWA Communications, added in her Facebook post. “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.”
As rumors of discord on the Baldoni-helmed domestic abuse-themed It Ends With Us circulated prior to release, and the two leads were never seen together doing press in the lead-up to the August premiere, social media attacks from a variety of feeds and platforms seemed to single out and condemn Lively. Calling it “a coordinated effort to destroy her reputation,” the actress details her POV on this “astroturfing” in her complaint. Lively makes a point of saying how the “emotional impact” fallout on her was “extreme, but that it affected “her family, including her husband and four children.”
In her own posting, Abel also says she had no idea her texts and other communications had been acquired by Lively’s Manatt, Phelps & Phillips attorneys and Willkie Farr & Gallagher lawyers, and was apparently overwhelmed by the damning media tsunami on the dirty PR business that protects show business and its stars that followed. Calling the move by Lively’s team “a coordinated effort” that she has seen before, Abel in her Facebook post makes a point of noting, “I had recently left my previous firm, at which I was still 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.”
Bluntly, after revealing a slice of how the celebrity PR machine sausage is actually made in the era of influencers and online media, Abel additionally states:
Now what kind of woman would work against another woman who was 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 five years who had dedicated his life to the equal treatment of others, especially women who had no incidence of negative treatment of others, and who had a wonderful community and team at Wayfarer, who all held the same moral fortitude and lives their lives 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. Is my client perfect? No, in fact, he says he’s not perfect so consistently, to the point I tell him he needs to be less self-deprecating, because it can be taken the wrong way. Are Blake’s feelings valid? It’s not my position to say or speculate what she was feeling in those moments that she claims. And I would never slam another woman for speaking her truth by the end of the day, if it’s not the truth, and there’s evidence that proves otherwise, then as a representative. I have to do what I feel is right as well.
RELATED: Colleen Hoover Supports Blake Lively Amid Justin Baldoni Lawsuit: “Never Wilt
Abel did not return request for comment to Deadline on her social media posting. We have verified she wrote the post.
Back in February 2023, Abel was named a partner at Jonesworks where she worked with then-client Dwayne Johnson on his mega Netflix hit Red Notice (which co-starred Lively’s spouse Ryan Reynolds as well as Gal Gadot) as well as his Warner Bros. DC movie, Black Adam. Previously at the firm, Abel was tapped in 2019 to run the Entertainment Division of the Los Angeles office, overseeing a strong growth period that saw the launch of a social media and digital division. Prior to Jonesworks, Abel was VP at Rogers & Cowan PMK.
As all concerned wait for the next shoe to drop from either the WME-repped Lively (and Reynolds) or Baldoni, there is another party in all this that has been quiet as a church mouse so far.
With the extensive timeline evidence, a pivotal January 4 “all-hands” production meeting — as well as the specific demand of studio reps participation on-set and off, plus the correspondence between Melissa Nathan and unnamed studio publicist — it seems Sony was not an innocent bystander in what was going on behind the scenes on It Ends With Us. With the studio releasing Lively’s cut to the Baldoni-directed movie, the studio was recognizing there were differences of opinions, to put it politely, on what was going on with It Ends With Us.
Sony has stayed mum so far. It has not responded to specific request for comment from Deadline on Lively’s allegations. If they do, we will update.
And let’s be clear, there was good money involved here.
Off a thrifty $25 million production cost and a temporary shutdown from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes of last year, It Ends With Us opened to a great $50 million at the domestic box office and legged out to just over $148M million stateside, $351 million worldwide.
With that, Sony keenly moved the opening of It Ends With Us from Febuary 9 to ultimately three weekends following blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine on August 9. It was a distribution move that paid off as Lively, who had a cameo in husband Reynolds’ Marvel Studios R-rated movie, was still riding off the fumes from that picture. Nonetheless, Sony at the time didn’t realize how big It Ends With Us was going to be until presales took off on tracking during the pic’s week of release.
A Sony insider beamed to Deadline over IEWU‘s opening weekend that Lively, as a producer and motion picture marketing guru, was an integral part of the pic’s social media promotional push and “a creative tour de force” in making sure that the domestic abuse romantic movie didn’t wind up like a Hallmark movie.
Lively wasn’t wowed by the trailer’s first cut, sources told Deadline, and became involved in editing it by securing the rights to her friend Taylor Swift’s song “My Tears Ricochet.” The marketing for the movie largely evaded the topic of domestic abuse and leaned heavily into the pic’s floral aesthetic given that Lively’s character Lily is a flower shop owner. There was also time for hijinks during the pic’s promotional tour: on social media, Deadpool & Wolverine stars Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, as well as Reynolds’ mother, junket bombed a presser with It Ends With Us star Brandon Sklenar. Beamed one studio insider during the opening weekend of It Ends With Us about Lively’s detailed touches with the pic’s campaign, “I wish she worked for us full-time.”
Interestingly enough, during the press tour of It Ends With Us, Baldoni told EW that when it comes to a sequel of It Ends With Us, “I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct.”
That notion seems to have ended now.
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