Blake Lively is not messing around when it comes to her legal battle! She went from threatening with dragons to hiring BLACK OPS!
It appears the actress wanted some help with how things are going… We’ve seen pretty clear indications public opinion is on Justin Baldoni‘s side, and we’re sure she’s seen that, too! Because she went and hired a PR crisis manager!
Related: Lost Podcast Episode Where Ari Emanuel Boasts About Firing Justin Baldoni Leaks!
According to Variety on Friday, she’s now working with Nick Shapiro! Who is he? He comes from a powerful organization known by a few letters… CAA? WME? Nope! The freakin’ CIA! Shapiro was the deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to former CIA Director John Brennan. What?! A member of her legal team at Willkie Farr & Gallagher explained about his new role:
“The litigation team for Ms. Lively retained Mr. Shapiro to advise on the legal communications strategy for the ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit occurring in the Southern District of New York.”
Whoa! Blake means business! This guy is legit. For those who don’t know, Nick has run the crisis PR firm 10th Avenue Consulting since 2015 after his time at the federal government. He previously “helped lead the Obama Administration’s response to the H1N1 Pandemic, the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, the Gulf Oil Spill, the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, as well as numerous cyber attacks, data breaches, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes.”
Now he’s working on… the It Ends With Us drama! This legal battle isn’t as serious as all that stuff… but we guess from Blake’s point of view it is a pretty big disaster!
It’s not out of the ordinary for celebrities to work with crisis PR. However, the Gossip Girl alum has slammed Justin for using a crisis PR team! In her initial claims that Justin sexually harassed her, she said he was retaliating against her for speaking out — and she specifically pointed to his crisis PR team as the ones behind orchestrating a smear campaign against her. She said they were unfairly trying to ruin her reputation after she spoke up. Could this move come back to bite her? It’ll be tough to see this as anything other than Blake thinking she’s fighting fire with fire… and launching her own smear campaign, right? And we’re guessing Justin’s team will point to this and say, see? It’s normal!
What do YOU think, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments!
[Image via LiveKellyandMark/YouTube, MEGA/WENN]
