Following Blake Lively‘s allegations against Justin Baldoni, his former publicist is also taking legal action.
The It Ends With Us actor and director, his company Wayfarer Studios, as well as publicists Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan, are named in a lawsuit filed by Stephanie Jones in New York’s Supreme Court Dec. 24.
According to the documents viewed by E! News, Jones is accusing Abel and Nathan of “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.”
Per LinkedIn, Abel was an employee at Jonesworks until this past summer. In text messages seen by E! News, Jones and Abel had a tense exchange following Abel’s resignation, though it ended with Abel thanking Jones for the opportunities she’d received.
In Jones’ lawsuit, she shares allegations about Abel and Nathan’s dynamic. “Behind Jones’ back, they secretly coordinated with Baldoni and Wayfarer to implement an aggressive media smear campaign against Baldoni’s film co-star,” Jones, seemingly referencing the alleged campaign against Lively that the actress mentioned in her recent legal complaint, claims, “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.”
