The hits keep coming for Justin Baldoni! According to court documents obtained by TMZ on Tuesday, his former publicist is suing him now!
In the lawsuit, Justin’s former publicist, Stephanie Jones, claimed she had nothing to do with the alleged plot against the Gossip Girl alum. So she’s suing Justin, his company Wayfarer Studios, her ex-employee Jennifer Abel, and crisis PR specialist Melissa Nathan for defamation, breach of contract, and more. You may recognize the names Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan. As we previously reported, Blake Lively sued her It Ends With Us co-star/director and others for sexual harassment — along with launching a smear campaign to tarnish her reputation. Per that complaint, Jennifer and Melissa had a big hand in trying to take down the actress. And Blake has the text receipts to back up her claims!
Related: All The Celebs Mentioned In Justin Baldoni’s Alleged Bid To Take Down Blake Lively!
Well, it turns out Blake was not the only one Melissa and Jennifer allegedly tried to destroy! Stephanie Jones says she is a victim in this, too! The two women allegedly attempted to ruin her rep, as well! The lawsuit states:
“Defendants Abel and Nathan secretly conspired for months to publicly and privately attack Jones and Jonesworks, to breach multiple contracts and induce contractual breaches, and to steal clients and business prospects. Behind Jones’s back, they secretly coordinated with Baldoni and Wayfarer to implement an aggressive media smear campaign against Baldoni’s film co-star, and then used the crisis as an opportunity to drive a wedge between Jones and Baldoni, and to publicly pin blame for this smear campaign on Jones—when Jones had no knowledge or involvement in it.”
Whoa!
Stephanie, who founded the public relations company Jonesworks, said Jennifer was assigned to handle Justin’s publicly. When the feud drama with Blake began in August, Justin “began to fear that the media might report on allegations of misogynistic and toxic on-set behavior and that the fallout would be harmful to his reputation and career,” so Jessica decided to hire Melissa to help the situation.
From there, we know the story. As Stephanie put it, the two “sprang into action, scheming to ‘bury’ and ‘destroy’ co-star Blake Lively to protect Baldoni.” But she says they also “deliberately” kept the plan a secret from the CEO! While orchestrating their scheme to take down Blake, Stephanie claims, they had “a far more selfish” end goal — to wreck “Jones’s reputation to take her clients and enrich themselves upon Abel’s planned departure from Joneswork.” Damn… This situation was a lot worse than anyone initially thought…
Just like Blake, Stephanie pulled out the receipts! She included text messages from the women in the lawsuit, including one of Melissa telling Jennifer:
“I know. And once you are gone — we will be on accounts together and make really good money and be happy.”
Other messages show the two talking about Jennifer leaving Joneswork and stealing Justin as a client. There were even ones about them joyfully discussing the plan to destroy Stepanie, such as Jennifer texting Melissa:
“We are going to war … I feel so alive hahahahah.”
Jeez. Stephanie then claimed Jennifer and Melissa used their media contacts to plant negative stories about her! There was an August 2024 one published in Business Insider headlined, “Who’s Afraid of Stephanie Jones?” What’s more? According to Stephanie, Melissa and Jennifer’s main motivation to help the filmmaker wasn’t because they had any “sincere appreciation” for him but instead their greed for wealth. Her former worker actually hated him, she says! One text she sent read:
“I can’t stand him. He’s so pompous. … you’re not that important and nobody gives a s**t how hard your life is.”
Yeesh! Jennifer then said he needed “to be humbled,” thinking It Ends With Us bombing at the box office would do the trick. She wrote:
“He needs to be humbled. When this movie flops, he’s going to try to blame every person around him for it.”
It definitely sounds like Jennifer wasn’t too fond of Justin…
By August, Stephanie discovered the scheme and terminated Jennifer after she allegedly downloaded confidential company documents. However, the founder said by then the damage was done. Jennifer allegedly poached Justin and Wayfarer at the new firm, which she “set up while still working at Jonesworks.” Thus, by following Jennifer to her new business, Baldoni and his company “breached their own contract with Jonesworks and then poured salt in the wound by baselessly refusing to pay the remaining amount owed.” Stephanie is now asking the court for an unspecified amount in damages that she thinks her company suffered as a result of all this.
Justin has not reacted to the latest lawsuit against him. However, we can imagine he’s not too happy about being dragged into this mess because of Jennifer and Melissa’s alleged actions! Reactions, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments!
[Image via TODAY/CBS Mornings/YouTube]
