Justin Baldoni’ is once again trying to clear his infamous name.
Last week, the actor A case was filed for sexual harassment by It ends with us Co-star Blake Lively, who alleged that Baldoni caused Lively “severe emotional distress” as a result of his toxic behavior on the set of the film.
Such alleged behavior included “showing Black nude videos or pictures of women”, as well as discussing Baldoni’s past “pornography addiction” or “sexual conquests”.
Lively also believes that Baldoni engaged in a smear campaign to “destroy” her reputation.
Regarding this “social manipulation” campaign, as alleged in Lively’s lawsuit, a lawyer for Baldoni has now released a new statement.
“TAG PR will operate like any other crisis management firm when hired by a client facing threats from two very powerful people with unlimited resources,” Brian Friedman told Us Weeklyreferring to the company that was hired by Baldoni and is one of several firms named in Lively’s legal papers.
“Tag PR’s drafted standard scene plan proved redundant as audiences found Lively’s actions, interviews, and marketing frustrating during the promotional tour, and organic responses were picked up by the media themselves. is.”
As part of her lawsuit, Lively shared text messages sent by members of Baldoni’s public relations team — all of which point to the aforementioned attempt to defame the actress.
In his deposition, Friedman claimed that the lawsuit took these text exchanges between Baldoni and his PR team out of context, stating:
“It is ironic that The New York TimesThrough their efforts to ‘expose’ a fraudulent PR effort, publishing leaked private text exchanges played directly into the hands of Lively’s own dubious PR tactics that lacked critical context – the same tactics they applied to the firm. is accused of doing.”
Lively’s lengthy court documents were filed on Friday, December 20.
They were initially published by The New York Times late this past week and refer to “thousands of pages of text messages and emails” that Lively allegedly obtained through a subpoena … though Friedman Now claims they were leaked.
In response to that claim and Friedman’s latest message, a member of Lively’s legal team tells Us Weekly:
“The subpoena disclosed and referenced in the complaint was served on JonesWorks LLC. Internal documents cited in the complaint were produced under that request.
“We expect more details about the subpoena process to be revealed during the course of the investigation.”
In one of the alleged texts making headlines on the Internet, a publicist working with the studio and Baldoni writing to a crisis management expert:
“He wants to feel like he can be buried.”
The paperwork claims that “the plan went beyond standard crisis PR,” alleging that Baldoni’s team proposed a concept called “‘astroturfing.’
It is defined as ‘the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the Internet, media, etc. that appear to come from general members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.’
