This just took a strange turn…
It’s no secret Justin Baldoni has been battling his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively, but he’s also gone after his former publicist Stephanie Jones at Jonesworks for allegedly leaking text messages to the actress. Meanwhile, she has fought back, accusing Justin’s publicist Jennifer Abel (an ex-Jonesworks employee) of plotting behind her back to steal Justin as a client and pinning the alleged smear campaign against Blake on her.
On Thursday, the actor’s company Wayfarer and Jennifer both filed shocking new allegations! Per DailyMail.com on Friday, the filings included 14 new claims against Stephanie, including a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, breach of contract, defamation, and fraud.
Related: Blake Lively RIPPED For Sharing Mom’s Survivor Story At Time Gala
Amid some of the new accusations, Jennifer alleged Stephanie made “bizarre” claims about her to staff — based on “psychic readings” of all things! So, what did she say?? The court papers detailed:
“In one instance, Jones announced to Abel’s subordinates that she had learned through psychic readings that Abel was an alcoholic and a gambling addict.”
Jennifer argued the claims had “no basis in reality” and “raised alarm about whether Jones was in the midst of a mental breakdown.” Jeez. The court docs added:
“Although Jones had always been volatile, she now appeared to be actively unraveling.”
The shocking claims continued:
“On a different occasion, Jones announced, again per her psychic, that Abel would soon be pregnant with twins, humiliating and infuriating Abel, who — Jones knew — had struggled with fertility issues.”
Oof.
This sounds just as wacky as Justin claiming he had talked to Blake’s dead father!
Abel accused Jones of creating an “abysmal” morale at work, noting the office “had a toxic workplace culture” and staff “constantly gossiped and complained.” She alleged her boss would “regularly turn on deafening music so that she could berate her employees free from scrutiny.” WTF.
Jennifer also quoted an unnamed ex-employee who alleged:
“I don’t think there was one day in the office that someone wasn’t crying.”
That sounds miserable!
As Perezcious readers know, Jennifer was planning to leave Jonesworks to start her own PR firm when she was axed shortly before her last day of work. She was forced to hand over her company phone, and Jennifer now claims Stephanie “had been sharing her private text messages with the entire office, mocking and disparaging her.” The filing continued:
“[Jones] retained access to Abel’s iCloud for multiple months thereafter, monitoring and intercepting her private communications in real-time […] not only with her clients, fiancé, doctors, parents, and friends but also with the undersigned counsel.”
Jennifer also accused Stephanie of having wrongful access to her personal texts and communications via her iCloud account until January of this year.
Stephanie ultimately handed over important texts to Blake’s team after receiving a subpoena from a very secretive lawsuit filed by Vanzan, a company just revealed to be owned by the Gossip Girl lead. Justin’s team has slammed this tactic — and they’re doubling down their theory that this was part of Stephanie and Blake’s smear campaign plot against him.
In the filing, Jennifer and Wayfarer called out Vanzan’s “sham lawsuit” as “nothing more than a transparent ploy to obtain subpoena power.” Abel added it was a “flagrant abuse of process”:
“Since there were no identifiable parties and no party had been served, the subpoenas were issued without notice, depriving Abel of any knowledge of the subpoena, much less the opportunity to object.”
She argued the PR expert had already leaked the texts and was just using the lawsuit as “a veneer of legitimacy” and “plausible deniability.” The docs furthered:
“As a result of Jones’ malicious scheme, Abel’s life has been turned upside down. […] In an unimaginable invasion of Abel’s privacy and dignity, Jones and the Lively Parties now possess the full contents of Abel’s iCloud and email accounts, including her photos, text messages, and emails. Abel lives in fear of what is to come, given the vast troves of personal data in the possession of these hostile actors.”
Wayfarer’s filing slammed Jones for “breach of contract” for handing over the texts, arguing it violated “confidentiality provisions” by “voluntarily and maliciously disclosing Confidential Information.” Stephanie’s lawyers have already hit back, denying their client did anything wrong with attorney Maaren Shah saying in part to TMZ:
“The defendants’ weak attempt to assemble their own case against Ms. Jones amounts to nothing more than a few debunked conspiracy theories and media gimmicks that have no basis in fact or evidence. The indisputable fact remains: the defendants have yet to provide any substantive defense to Ms. Jones’s case. Everything else is just distraction and noise.”
The legal team also told DM that Abel’s new filing “offers no evidence for her claims, and many are recycled.”
Thoughts? This took a pretty unexpected turn, right?
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