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.”

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.”