Justin Baldoni‘s former publicist, Stephanie Jones, is hitting again at his claims that she leaked confidential info as a part of an effort to defame Blake Vigorous.
In twin filings Thursday night time in U.S. District Court docket in New York, attorneys for Jones say she produced the delicate materials not as a voluntary act of subterfuge, however in response to a subpoena. A narrative within the New York Occasions in regards to the tangle behind the scenes of the movie, set off a media frenzy by drawing on a few of that info, which included textual content messages from principal figures.
Baldoni and Vigorous, co-stars within the hit 2024 movie It Ends With Us, have been engaged in a multi-front authorized battle in latest months. Whereas the movie was a left-field business smash, its manufacturing and advertising fashioned the core of an interconnected and explosive set of authorized claims between members of each camps. The saga is on monitor to make it to the courtroom in early 2026.
Vigorous has maintained that she was harassed, intimidated and in any other case mistreated through the course of constructing and selling the movie, together with being subjected to an effort to smear her popularity. Baldoni, who directed the movie along with starring in it, maintains that Vigorous’s fees are unfounded and have broken his profession.
Final December, Jones sued Baldoni, Wayfarer and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel (the latter a former associate at Jonesworks), alleging they breached their contracts with Jonesworks as a part of their efforts to hurt Vigorous. Abel and Wayfarer then countersued final month, with their lawyer, Bryan Freedman, accusing Jones of leaking and delivering that message not simply in authorized filings however in feedback to the press.
“Wayfarer’s breach of contract counterclaim primarily rests on specious allegations that Jones and Jonesworks leaked ‘confidential info’ in breach of the companies settlement between Jonesworks and Wayfarer,” attorneys wrote within the “memorandum of legislation” filings, one directed to Abel (learn the submitting right here), the opposite to Wayfarer (learn the submitting right here). “This fails on quite a few fronts. First, there was no leak. … Data was produced pursuant to a subpoena. Wayfarer’s willfully avoids this actuality to advance its publicity searching for leak narrative however they can not change the subpoena.”
Deadline has considered a duplicate of the subpoena cited by Jones. Dated final October, it orders her to show over all associated items of communication, together with e mail and texts.
Freedman, who reps Baldoni, Wayfarer, Abel, Nathan and alleged Baldoni fixer Jed Wallace, has additionally clashed with Vigorous’s husband, Ryan Reynolds. The involvement of the 2 A-list stars, the Occasions and a handful of seasoned PR operatives and attorneys, together with the movie’s $350 million in world field workplace (and the bitter irony of its storyline about home abuse) has created a spectacle of immense fascination in Hollywood and past.
Attorneys for Jones additionally seized on the competition by Abel, a former associate at Jonesworks, that she saved all the pieces above board. Quite the opposite, they argue, utilizing textual content messages stated to be from Abel, the ex-employee was seeking to do harm to Jones on the way in which out the door.
“Abel’s counterclaims are nothing however a master-class in dissembling and diversion: a ‘nothing is my fault’ retort that seeks to keep away from any accountability for her unethical and illegal actions revealed in Jonesworks’ Criticism. Abel has no actual response for her duplicitous marketing campaign to destroy Jones’s popularity, steal Jonesworks’ shoppers, and, with co-conspirator Melissa Nathan, ‘make actually good cash and be pleased,’” the Abel submitting says, citing textual content messages from the previous associate. “As a substitute, she resorts to hyperbolic fantasy – searching for to rewrite historical past with a sequence of falsities, tried character assassination of Jones, and defamatory accusations about supposed ‘leaks’ of knowledge when, in actuality, the textual content messages she wrote on an organization cellphone have been produced by the corporate in response to a lawfully delivered subpoena.”
Jones’ authorized workforce additionally takes intention at what they describe as Freedman’s opportunistic positioning. “The reporting that has dominated the information – smear campaigns towards Jones, private jabs, false allegations she was behind the Vigorous smear, and many others. – have fairly actually zero to do with the lawsuit Jones has filed,” the attorneys wrote. “As these filings clarify and this temporary reinforces in plain phrases, Jones’ lawsuit isn’t one a few film or the drama surrounding it. It’s about whether or not a former consumer and a former worker broke their contractual obligations. Whether or not it was Abel stealing droves of confidential paperwork or Wayfarer and Baldoni failing to pay charges to Jonesworks, it’s abundantly clear: these defendants are in violation of the legislation.”
In an announcement offered to Deadline, Maaren A. Shah, an lawyer for Jones and Jonesworks, decried the “distraction video games within the press” being performed by Abel and Wayfarer. The maneuvers are a “determined diversion from the truth that they haven’t any reply for his or her blatant misconduct – and have but to provide a shred of proof disproving Ms. Jones’ claims. They could want it weren’t the case, however the truth stays that Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios and Ms. Abel overtly and repeatedly breached their contractual obligations to Ms. Jones and Jonesworks, shamelessly framing her because the wrongdoer behind the smear marketing campaign they themselves created concentrating on Ms. Vigorous.”
The Jones submitting comes the identical day Vigorous’s workforce submitted its reply in assist of her movement to dismiss Baldoni’s amended grievance of earlier this month. The amended grievance is in response to an try by Reynolds to exit the defamation and extortion case.
The brand new submitting rejects Baldoni’s amended grievance, which alleged that Reynolds and Vigorous labored collectively and “engaged in a coordinated effort to magnify benign interactions in service of a false narrative that Vigorous had been sexually harassed” in a 42-page memorandum of legislation filed April 1.
“Unable to determine any actionable statements by Ms. Vigorous, they argue she is accountable for issues her husband allegedly stated. In 2025, wives are usually not chargeable for their husband’s phrases; it’s unimaginable that Baldoni, an individual who calls himself a ‘feminist,’ would take such a place,” right this moment’s submitting stated.
Patrick Hipes contributed to this report.
