Justin Baldoni faces legal action from former publicist over Blake Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit | Hollywood

The drama surrounding Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively shows no signs of slowing down. The 40-year-old is now facing legal action from his former publicist Steph Jones, who runs the PR firm Jonesworks. According to reports from Variety, Jones is suing Baldoni for breach of contract, which called for a monthly payment of $25,000 for her services.

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Justin Baldoni was sued by his former publicist

In August, the actor parted ways with Jonesworks after his publicist Jennifer Abel left to start her own company. Jones also accused her and publicist Melissa Nathan in her lawsuit of conducting a “smear campaign” against Lively without her knowledge, the New York Post reported.

The lawsuit states: “To this day, Abel and Nathan continue to falsely point the finger at Jones after their own misconduct comes to light, and to defame and attack Jones within the industry.”

On Sunday, Gossip Girl filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing the actor of sexually harassing her on the set of her latest film, “It Ends With Us.” She also accused him of carrying out “a coordinated effort to destroy her reputation” after the film’s release. In legal filings, she mentioned that the alleged smear campaign caused serious harm to her business and caused “severe emotional distress” to her family.

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Baldon’s response to Lively’s lawsuit

After the lawsuit was made public, Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman told The Post: “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false allegations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and his representatives in what is yet another desperate attempt.” .” to ‘repair’ their negative reputation.”

Lively claimed in the lawsuit that her co-star, who also directed It Ends With Us, made the set untenable. In the document, she claimed that “things got so bad during filming that there was an all-hands meeting to address what she said was a hostile work environment.” She released texts from her publicist as evidence of the smear campaign by Baldoni and his allies in the documents saying the actor “wants to feel like (Mrs Lively) can be buried.”

Freedman responded: “These allegations are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with the intent to publicly offend and rehash a media narrative.”