Justin Baldoni is being sued by his former publicist, Steph Jones, who alleges he breached their $25K/month contract when he dropped her firm, Jonesworks, in August.
Jones also claims Baldoni’s new publicity team, including former Jonesworks employee Jennifer Abel, and Melissa… pic.twitter.com/FpoXzKnsx8
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Justin Baldoni, 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 legal documents, Jones is accusing Abel (an employee at her firm Jonesworks until this past summer) 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.”
“Behind Jones’ 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.”
“Baldoni and Wayfarer, who have since parted ways with Jonesworks, have repudiated their contractual obligations with Jonesworks and rebuffed Jones’s efforts to settle this dispute privately in arbitration,” the lawsuit says. “Defendants will not stop attacking Jones, and have refused any efforts to resolve these issues out of court.”
“This lawsuit seeks to finally put a stop to their continued misconduct,” the filing explains, “and to compensate Jones and Jonesworks for the damage Defendants’ conduct and scheme has inflicted.”
In a statement to E! News, Jones’ lawyer Kristin Tahler had this to say. “For months, this group has gaslit and disparaged Stephanie Jones and her company for financial gain, to settle personal scores and most recently to distract from their disgraceful smearing of Blake Lively. This lawsuit is a necessary step to stop defendants’ continuing misconduct and for Steph to recover the reputation she has worked decades to establish and which the defendants disparaged for their own nefarious purposes.”
