Justin Baldoni‘s publicist has acknowledged a text chain that Blake Lively claims was created to create a smear campaign against her. Baldoni referred to the exchanges as “sophomoric,” but denies any actual planning to sabotage Lively’s career.
What did Justin Baldoni’s publicist say?
In a post on a private PR & Marketing Facebook group this weekend (via Deadline), Jennifer Abel acknowledged that she, Baldoni, and PR manager Melissa Nathan did exchange texts about Lively, but that there was no smear campaign coordinated. Instead, Abel says, the trio simply watched as the internet lashed out against Lively.
“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,” Abel wrote.
Abel refers to the backlash that Lively received during the press run of It Ends With Us, in which internet users pitted her and Justin Baldoni against one another and began nitpicking previous interviews Lively had done.
Further in the statement, Abel acknowledged that trio “sophomorically reveled” in Lively being bashed on the internet, and noted that it was a “human” mistake in the moment.
“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 again, and 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 said. “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.”
Lively’s complaint against Baldoni alleges sexual harassment, coordinated effort to sabotage her
This past week, Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni alleging him of sexual harassment and of coordinating an effort to destroy her reputation. In Lively’s claims, she states that things got so bad during filming that an all-hands-on-deck meeting was called due to her claims of a hostile work environment. During the meeting, Lively asked that Baldoni stop showing her nude videos or images of women, that he stop mentioning his pornography addiction to her, that Baldoni stop discussing sexual experiences in front of her, and that he also stop mentioning Lively’s weight.
The complaint also claims that an agreement was made between production company Wayfarer Studios and the cast, in which the promotion of the movie would focus “more on [Lively’s character’s] strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence.” However, Lively claims that Baldoni would renege on that and instead spoke in interviews about the film’s serious story.
Lively also claimed that Baldoni and his PR manager, Melissa Nathan, discussed ways in which to start a social media campaign to harm her reputation. The filing by Lively includes 22 pages of texts between Baldoni’s publicist and Nathan, in which they discuss wanting to have Lively “buried.”
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