Latest news with #Jonesworks
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Justin Baldoni's Ex-Publicist Trashes 'Whack-A-Mole' Tactics Of Ex-Client & Inner Circle; Blake Lively Will Testify In 2026 Trial, Ryan Reynolds Still TBD
Handling personal publicity for the likes of Tom Brady and J Balvin, Stephanie Jones knows a thing or two about the power of perception. When it comes to the Jonesworks chief's ongoing entanglement in the trench warfare between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni over what happened on It Ends With Us and the movie's fallout, the PR vet paints a very distinct portrait of her former client and his Wayfarer Studios cohorts In a filing late Thursday to dismiss counterclaims by Baldoni, Wayfarer execs and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, Jones and her team turn their legal high-beams on the alleged 'effort to chill disclosure, shift blame, and distance itself from its own conduct.' The memorandum of law placed in the federal docket yesterday says Team Baldoni's alleged 'blatant harassment is repugnant and should be dismissed out of hand.' More from Deadline 'Lilo & Stitch' Director Responds To Fans Over Live-Action Pleakley Not Wearing A Dress: "I Tried" 'X-Men' Movie At Marvel Studios Circling 'Thunderbolts*' Director Jake Schreier To Assemble New Team - The Dish 'The Bear's Liza Colón-Zayas Joins 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' With just under a year until the trial start date of March 9, 2026, attorneys for Lively and Ryan Reynolds assert the Another Simple Favor star will have her very public day in court. 'This is a case about what happened to Blake Lively when she raised claims of sexual harassment on the set and the retaliation that followed,' said attorneys Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson in a less-is-more statement to Deadline on May 8. 'Of course she will testify.' The status of whether or not Deadpool main man and defendant Reynolds will testify is TBD, I hear. In part the answer is unresolved because Reynolds is trying to be dismissed from Baldoni's $400 million defamation and extortion action against him, Lively, their publicist Leslie Slone and her company and the New York Times. In fact, Reynolds, Lively, Vision Sloane and the Gray Lady are all hoping to be cut loose from Baldoni's legal tractor beam. Something the Jane the Virgin alum isn't always making that easy for them. 'Although obviously uncomfortable for the Lively parties, the truth is not a distraction,' Baldoni primary lawyer Bryan Freedman says of the IEWU co-star and her A-lister crew like Taylor Swift and hubby Reynolds. 'The truth has been clearly shown through unedited receipts, documents and real life footage. More to come. Blake was the one who brought her high-profile friends into this situation without concern for their own personal or public backlash. As the truth shows, she used her Dragons to manipulate Justin at every turn.' This all became public and clogging up the courts with lawsuits galore starting with a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint filed by Lively on December 20 with California's Civil Rights department That was nearly immediately succeed by a NYT exposé the next day on the domestic violence themed IEWU and an alleged 'we can bury anyone' online smear campaign from Baldoni's side to astroturf and neuter the actress. Beyond what may have or have not went on during IEWU, the heart of the high-profile dispute for both sides has been seemingly damning text messages and other correspondence from Abel and Nathan. To that, it has long been known that the texts, originated from Abel's confiscated cell phone when she exited Joneswork to form her own shop in August of 2024 with very bad blood between one professional besties Abel and Jones. It has also long been asserted that Jones handed over the incriminating material because of a subpoena – a demand that we now know can from an under the radar suit Lively and Reynolds filed under a corporate name in September 2024 and terminated on December 19, one day before the actress' CRD filing. Diving into murky accusations again against Reynolds and Marvel owners the Walt Disney Company in relation to alleged narrative revenge on Baldoni, Freedman today sweetened the pot and plot. 'Ryan's involvement is very well documented and we continue to discover more intentional misconduct. Was Disney actually complicit in Ryan using shareholder revenues to further a personal grudge?' the lawyer, who also represents the family of the resentencing seeking Menendez brothers. 'I would be surprised to learn that this type of corporate waste would not lead to much more exposure for those that have been complicit in affecting shareholder revenue.' Disney had no response to the return of Freedman's accusations that the icky and manipulative Nicepool character in 2024 blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine was a corporate sanctioned slagging of man-bun wearing Baldoni and his feminist ally assertions. Neither Freedman or other reps for Baldoni and the Wayfarer side had any response to Jones' desire to see dueling suits from the IEWU director and ex-Jonesworks VP Abel tossed out. On the other hand, calling Abel's individual counterclaims 'a rotating game of whack-a-mole, where the minute one baseless theory is debunked, another even more implausible theory pops up in its place,' Jones herself didn't leave much to be pondered about her stance on Baldoni and his close aides. Jammed with the incendiary text messages that have framed what presiding Judge Lewis J. Liman has called 'a 'eud between PR firms,' Jones' 35-page filing against the Wayfarer parties, which includes Abel, takes a new-ish bite out of the other side. The document from pricey law firm Quinn Emanuel says: 'Wayfarer's amended counterclaims are, like their predecessors, devoid of any footing in law or reality, and serve only as a transparent vehicle to vent Wayfarer's anger over the lawful exposure of its co-founder Justin Baldoni's sexual harassment of co-star Blake Lively, and his and Wayfarer's retaliatory, vindictive smear campaign that followed. Irate not at Baldoni's wrongdoing, but that it was widely covered in the press, Wayfarer now seeks to punish Jonesworks and its founder Stephanie Jones, masking lawful process with defamatory cries of 'leaks.' There were no leaks and Wayfarer is not a victim. Instead, it was a principal actor not only in the Lively campaign, but also in a covert, calculated scheme to sabotage Jonesworks from within and flout irrefutably plain contractual commitments. Wayfarer's amended counterclaims fare no better than their first attempt, falling far short of stating any viable claim for relief.' Outside of the courts and the dockets, Lively has emerged from months of essentially inconspicuousness in recent weeks to attend the SNL 50th anniversary event, and go to the TIME 100 gala as a honoree and reveal the sexual assault her mother suffered decades ago. She and Reynolds found eager paparazzi wanting to take some photographs of the couple as Lively and her spouse took in some Broadway. At the exact same time, while the media savvy Lively skipped this year's Met Gala, she has also been promoting the Prime Video playing A Simple Favor sequel on traditional outlets in a fairly traditional manner. Career DOA Baldoni and his backers have been shuttered his Foundation, but Lively has been using her media hits with the likes of Seth Meyers to insist that 'without going too into it i…this year has been the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in my life.' 'I see so many women around afraid to speak, especially right now, afraid to share their experiences, and fear is by design,' she added. 'It's what keeps us silent.' Best of Deadline 'Poker Face' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Arrive On Peacock? Everything We Know About Celine Song's 'Materialists' So Far 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
Time of India
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Justin Baldoni's legal team criticizes publicist Stephanie Jones amid ongoing dispute
twitter Actor Justin Baldoni has taken a stronger legal stance against publicist Stephanie Jones , who is at the center of a legal dispute that has drawn public attention, especially due to its links with actress Blake Lively . In newly updated counterclaims, Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman , responded firmly after Jones' lawyers recently spoke publicly about the case on 'Extra' with host Billy Bush. Freedman claimed in a statement to TMZ that the team representing Baldoni decided to amend their legal response due to what they say is new information being uncovered regularly. He accused Stephanie Jones and her company, Jonesworks , of misrepresenting facts related to a separate lawsuit that he labeled a 'sham.' This lawsuit, according to Freedman, was used inappropriately to gather private information and involved what he described as deceptive legal tactics. He alleged that the so-called 'Van-sham' lawsuit, connected to Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds , was designed in a way that avoided naming real individuals as defendants. This, he claimed, helped prevent any objections or legal challenges to the case. He found it hard to believe that Lively's side could pretend not to know the identities of their own employees and business partners, suggesting that the situation pointed to something much more calculated. Freedman insisted that Jones and her firm played a role in this situation, and he dismissed any claims of a smear campaign by Baldoni's side. He instead suggested that if there was any such campaign, it was being carried out by Lively, Jones, and even the New York Times. He concluded by stating that they were determined to continue seeking justice and would not back down until the truth came out. On the other hand, Stephanie Jones' legal team fired back strongly. Her attorney, Maaren Shah, told TMZ that their lawsuit was based on solid evidence, which allegedly shows that Wayfarer Studios and Ms. Abel violated their contracts with Jonesworks. Shah said Baldoni's side had not offered a proper defense and accused them of trying to distract the public with conspiracy theories and media stunts. Kristin Tahler, another lawyer representing Jones, also criticized the amended legal claims. She described Baldoni's team's recent actions as a 'desperate ploy' and said their statements were confusing and lacked substance. Tahler added that they had failed to deny the serious accusations made against them and instead tried to divert attention with dramatic claims. The legal battle continues to unfold publicly, with both sides standing firm. The outcome of the case remains to be seen, but it has already captured widespread media interest. Best Hindi Movies | Best Tamil Movies | Best Telugu Movies | Best english Movies | Best Malayalam Movies |
Time of India
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Justin Baldoni's legal team slams Blake Lively-linked lawsuit as ‘a complete joke' used to access phone data
What started as a flashy PR dispute over the upcoming It Ends With Us film is now spiralling into a full-blown legal thriller, with accusations of secret lawsuits, stolen phone data, and a headline-grabbing cast that includes Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Justin Baldoni. Justin Baldoni sparks fresh allegations against Blake Lively Justin Baldoni has alleged that a lawsuit filed last year by a mysterious company called Vanzan was nothing more than a sham — staged by Lively's team to gain subpoena access to private data. The lawsuit, filed in September 2024 and dismissed just three months later, didn't name any defendants and was never assigned a judge — raising eyebrows among legal watchers. Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, claims the suit was crafted to appear legitimate but was designed purely to extract sensitive information from the confiscated phone of publicist Jennifer Abel, who had previously worked with Jonesworks — the PR firm at the centre of this drama. Freedman insists that Vanzan is closely tied to Lively and Reynolds, calling the idea they didn't know their own contractors 'a complete joke.' He accuses Jonesworks founder Stephanie Jones of misconduct and claims the entire operation was part of 'a much broader and more insidious scheme.' Jonesworks agency accused of misconduct At the heart of the allegations is Jonesworks, run by Stephanie Jones. The firm, once representing Baldoni, is now accused of unethical behaviour and manipulating legal channels. Freedman alleges Jones even warned an employee not to work with Abel, hinting her business 'wouldn't be around much longer' — on the very day the Vanzan lawsuit was filed. Lively's side fires back, calling claims 'desperate' Kristen Tahler, representing Jones and Jonesworks, has hit back hard, dismissing the new claims as weak and attention-seeking. She accused Baldoni's team of reversing course, offering no new evidence, and presenting 'a long and confusing statement' that reveals the cracks in their case. With a trial date set for March 2026 and a £320 million defamation suit in play, this once-private PR clash is now a full-blown legal spectacle. Baldoni's team vows to keep digging, saying the truth is only just beginning to surface.
Daily Mail
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni legal war takes new twist with claims of 'psychic readings' and 'mental breakdowns'
Justin Baldoni 's legal battle with Blake Lively has taken a bizarre new twist, with lawyers launching 14 new claims against his embattled former publicist, Stephanie Jones, on Thursday. Baldoni's, 41, movie company, Wayfarer, and his publicist for the film It Ends With Us, Jennifer Abel, both filed new claims including a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, breach of contract, defamation, and fraud against Jones. They accused Jones of snooping on Abel's private messages all the way until January this year, and plotting a 'flagrant abuse of process' with Lively, 37, to generate a subpoena from a 'sham lawsuit' to cover up Jones allegedly leaking messages to Lively. Abel's new filing also accused Jones of making 'bizarre' claims about Abel to her staff based on supposed information from 'psychic readings.' '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.' Abel added that the claim had 'no basis in reality', and instead 'raised alarm about whether Jones was in the midst of a mental breakdown.' Justin Baldoni's, 41, legal battle with Blake Lively, 37, has taken a bizarre new twist, with lawyers launching 14 new claims against his embattled former publicist Stephanie Jones Abel's court document said: 'Although Jones had always been volatile, she now appeared to be actively unraveling.' '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,' the filing said. Jones' lawyers shot back, calling the new claims 'just distraction and noise' and 'a few debunked conspiracy theories', in a scathing statement to The two bombshell documents filed in New York federal court totaled a combined 125 pages. The filings were made in Jones' lawsuit against Abel. After Lively and Baldoni's legal battle exploded into the courts in December, Jones sued her former staffer Abel in January claiming that Abel plotted behind her back to steal Baldoni as a client, and falsely pinned an alleged smear campaign against Lively on Jones. Trial-watchers were expecting a run-of-the mill filing this evening: a boilerplate denial of Jones' claims. But instead, Baldoni and Abel's lawyer Bryan Freedman went on the offensive. Abel's filing accused Jones of stealing her personal data from her Jonesworks PR firm company phone when she announced she was quitting in July 2024. Abel's new filing accuses Jones of 'bizarre' claims to staff, based on 'psychic readings,' including false accusations about Abel (pictured) being 'an alcoholic and a gambling addict', which Abel says caused alarm about Jones being 'in the midst of a mental breakdown' She claimed Jones had illicit access to all her personal texts through her iCloud account – until as recently as January this year. Abel claimed the alleged snooping amounted to a 'violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act', 'violations of Stored Communications Act' and 'violations of the Federal Wiretap Act'. The claws were out in the filing, with Abel giving a damning description of Jones' workplace. She claimed morale at Jonesworks was 'Abysmal', that it 'had a toxic workplace culture', and staff 'constantly gossiped and complained'. Abel even claimed Jones would 'regularly turn on deafening music so that she could berate her employees free from scrutiny.' She quoted an unnamed former employee allegedly saying 'I don't think there was one day in the office that someone wasn't crying.' Abel claimed that when she left and Jones seized her company phone, the PR boss 'had been sharing her private text messages with the entire office, mocking and disparaging her.' The filing even claimed 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.' In their filings, both Abel and Wayfarer cited another twist in the case that was revealed by last week. After Lively and Baldoni's legal battle exploded into the courts in December, Jones sued her former staffer Abel in January claiming that Abel plotted behind her back to steal Baldoni as a client, and falsely pinned an alleged smear campaign against Lively on Jones uncovered how Lively used her little-known company Vanzan Inc. to quietly file a mysterious lawsuit against unnamed defendants in September last year, months before her public legal battle with Baldoni began. She then used the lawsuit to secretly issue a subpoena to Jones for embarrassing texts between Baldoni, Abel and his crisis PR Melissa Nathan, without alerting any of them. The texts, allegedly showing a smear campaign plot against Lively, were used in her bombshell California legal complaint in December that kicked off the public legal war between the two Hollywood stars, and were shared with the New York Times in an explosive article the next day. In their legal filing on Thursday night, Abel and Wayfarer slammed the tactic as a 'sham lawsuit' and 'nothing more than a transparent ploy to obtain subpoena power.' Abel called it 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,' her filing said. She accused Jones of having already leaked texts with Lively's team – and using the secret Vanzan lawsuit to create 'a veneer of legitimacy' and 'plausible deniability'. 'As a result of Jones' malicious scheme, Abel's life has been turned upside down,' her filing said. '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 accused Jones of a 'breach of contract' for giving up the messages, claiming it violated the 'confidentiality provision' by 'voluntarily and maliciously disclosing Confidential Information'. As well as two counts of 'Breach of contract', they accused Jones of 'breach of implied covenant' and defamation. Jones' lawyers hit back with statements to slamming the new claims as a distraction from what they say was a straightforward breach of contract by Abel. Jones' attorney Kristin Tahler accused Freedman of 'reversing course, dropping previously touted claims, presenting zero new evidence'. Tahler was referring to Abel's previous stance that she had suffered 'false imprisonment', trapped at the Jonesworks office and intimidated into signing documents and giving up her company phone – a claim that did not appear in the new filings on Thursday. 'This case will be decided on the mountain of evidence that demonstrates Wayfarer Studios and Ms. Abel deliberately breached their contracts with Jonesworks, which the defendants have conspicuously failed to rebut,' fellow attorney Maaren Shah added. '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.'
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Blake Lively made ‘super shady' legal move months before accusing Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment: report
Blake Lively reportedly filed a 'super shady' lawsuit before publicly accusing her 'It Ends With Us' co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment in her complaint. The lawsuit was filed in September with the 'Gossip Girl' alum's company Vanzan as the plaintiff in an attempt to subpoena allegedly incriminating text messages from Baldoni's now-ex-PR team without Lively's name being attached, according to the Daily Mail. The 'Jane the Virgin' alum's former publicist Stephanie Jones and her company, Jonesworks, received a subpoena requesting all documents and communications regarding Baldoni, Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. Jones reportedly turned over private messages between former staffer Jennifer Abel, who continued working with Baldoni, and PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan. The messages have since been used by Lively's legal team as the basis for claims that Baldoni, Nathan and Abel orchestrated a smear campaign against the 'Another Simple Favor' actress, 37, while promoting 'It Ends With Us' in August 2024. An alleged text from Nathan read, 'We can bury anyone.' The lawsuit, however, was withdrawn on Dec. 19, 2024, a few days before Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment in a complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department. A legal expert referred to the tactic as 'super shady' while speaking to the Daily Mail. 'They intentionally did this to really work in a very surreptitious and clandestine way,' attorney Ron Zambrano, who has no relation to the case, claimed to the outlet. Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman also slammed the lawsuit as a 'sham' in a statement to Page Six. 'Ms. Lively's and Mr. Reynolds' company Vanzan had nothing to do with this case and they knew it,' Freedman said. 'This sham lawsuit was designed to obtain subpoena power without oversight or scrutiny, and in doing so denied my clients the ability to contest the propriety, nature, and scope of the subpoena. 'There is nothing normal about this. Officers of the court have a duty of candor to the court and an obligation not to file fictitious lawsuits that have no basis in fact or law. … This was done in bad faith and constitutes a flagrant abuse of process.' Lively's legal team, however, denied any wrongdoing. 'There is nothing untoward here — just conscientious and thorough investigation,' her attorneys Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb said in a statement to Deadline. 'The Lively parties acted upon reliable information, and employed common tools such as Doe lawsuits and civil subpoenas that are entirely lawful and appropriate for pursuing claims and uncovering the identity of unknown perpetrators of unlawful activities,' they continued. 'This lawsuit unearthed the Wayfarer Parties' documented plan — in their own words, in their own text messages — to 'destroy' Blake Lively, a plan which they executed without transparency, disclosure, or notice to Ms. Lively or the public, instead acting in a way they thought would be 'untraceable.' 'We have absolutely nothing to hide — Ms. Lively voluntarily disclosed the subpoena in her first filing knowing that it would ultimately be produced to the Wayfarer Parties in discovery, and that is precisely what will happen as Ms. Lively's claims move forward in the proper litigation process.' Reps for Lively and Baldoni weren't immediately available to Page Six for comment. The 'Age of Adaline' star filed her complaint on Dec. 21, 2024, accusing the actor/director of sexual harassment and attempting to ruin her career after their work on the adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel based on domestic violence. Lively filed a formal lawsuit on Dec. 31. Baldoni denied all the allegations against him. In January, he filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds, 48, which the couple has attempted to get dismissed.
