Who Justin Baldoni’s PR team actually are, whose texts are being examined as part of Blake Lively’s lawsuit

Just in case you’ve been asleep all weekend and missed it – Blake Lively has filed a legal complaint against Justin Baldoni, who directed and starred in the film It Ends With Us with her. She claims Justin Baldoni sexually harassed her, then organised a smear campaign against her in retaliation. Loads of texts have been published, in which Justin Baldoni’s PR team discuss strategies to “bury” Blake Lively. Here’s a full explanation of who all the people on Justin Baldoni’s PR team actually were, whose texts are being examined as part of Blake Lively’s lawsuit.

Jennifer Abel

Image via Jennifer Abel’s LinkedIn

So, Jennifer Abel used to be a broadcast journalist, but she’s now worked in entertainment publicity for 15 years. Justin Baldoni was her client for nearly five years. In May, Justin Baldoni texted her about Ryan Reynolds unfollowing him on Instagram. He wrote, “We should have a plan for IF she does the same when movie comes out. Plans make me feel more at ease.”

In August, Justin Baldoni texted her a X thread of claims Hayley Bieber has been bullying people. He wrote, “This is what we would need.”

Jennifer texted Melissa Nathan on 4th August, “I’m having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week of how horrible Blake is to work with. Just to get ahead of it.”

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Jennifer posted a rather long statement in a PR Facebook group yesterday. She did not seem to understand how her text messages ended up in the New York Times. Jennifer claims she did plan “negative press” and “social combat” against Blake Lively, but that her team never had to do it themselves. Apparently social media turned against Blake Lively anyway without Jennifer’s team orchestrating it.

She wrote, “What the cherry picked messages don’t include, although not shockingly as it doesn’t fit the narrative, is that there was no “smear” implemented. No negative press was ever facilitated, no social combat plan, although we were prepared for it as it’s our job to be ready for our scenario, but we didn’t have to implement anything because the internet was doing the work for us.”

She continued, “We sophomorically reveled and again, jokes, privately to each other about the internet’s feedback to the woman whose team was making our lives incredibly difficult over the course of the campaign.”

The statement went on to say, “Now what kind of woman would work against another woman who was a victim of all the things being claimed? Thanks for asking. After reviewing the evidence, facts, hard proof that countered every single thing that was being claimed and demanded at the start of my production, I made a choice to stand by my client.”

(Image via Reddit)

Melissa Nathan

At the start of August, Justin Baldoni hired the crisis PR manager Melissa Nathan. She runs a firm called The Agency Group PR. The majority stakeholder is co-owned by Scooter Braun. Melissa Nathan has previously worked with Logan Paul and Drake. She’s also Johnny Depp’s publicist, and worked on his PR during his legal battles with Amber Heard.

Amber Heard has recently commented on Blake Lively’s allegations about a PR smear campaign. She told NBC, “Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.’ I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”

This is them
(Image via LinkedIn)

The New York Times published texts between Justin Baldoni and his PR team from 2nd August.

Justin was “not in love” with their strategy so far. Jennifer Abel advised Melissa Nathan, “I think you guys need to be tough and show the strength of what you guys can do in these scenarios. He wants to feel like she can be buried.”

Melissa Nathan was apprehensive about the contents of some of the documents they were sending to each other. She wrote, “We can’t write we will destroy her. Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands.

“You know we can bury anyone.”

In text messages, Melissa Nathan suggests using “full social account take downs” and “threads of theories” online to change how people think about Blake Lively. The messages don’t specify if she ever actually did this. Another text says she had spoken off the record to a journalist at the Daily Mail.

Jed Wallace

Justin Baldoni, Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan started working with another publicist in August. Jed Wallace works for a company called Street Relations which specialises in crisis PR management. He’s previously worked for Paramount Pictures and the YouTuber Adin Ross. He’s deleted his LinkedIn now, but it did describe him as “a hired gun” with a “proprietary formula for defining artists and trends”. We don’t know much else about him.

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The Tab has contacted TAG PR for comment. Featured image of Justin Baldoni in It Ends With Us via Sony.