Blake Lively has recently enlisted the help of a PR professional with significant government connections, Nick Shapiro, who previously served as the CIA’s deputy chief of staff and advisor to John Brennan, amidst her growing legal dispute with Justin Baldoni. The actress, currently embroiled in a lawsuit against and being sued by her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star, is discreetly working behind the scenes with Shapiro to navigate this complex situation.
According to a representative from Willkie Farr & Gallagher, who is part of Ms. Lively’s legal team, they have brought on Mr. Shapiro as a consultant to help devise a legal communication plan for the ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit that is currently underway in the Southern District of New York.
In December, Lively submitted a complaint to the California Civil Rights Department, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment during the filming in 2023. The CRD letter, which additionally detailed Baldoni’s alleged 2024 smear campaign against Lively, served as the foundation for a New York Times report. This report sparked a series of legal exchanges involving over a dozen individuals and corporations.
On New Year’s Eve, Baldoni and a group of ten other claimants, among them his crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, filed a lawsuit against The New York Times for 250 million dollars, alleging libel. Subsequently, Lively filed a counter-suit against Baldoni and the collective, claiming they had violated both federal law and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and safety concerns in the workplace. Later, Baldoni then sued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for 400 million dollars, citing civil extortion, defamation, and other offenses.
In a connected case, Stephanie Jones, previously representing Baldoni, has filed a lawsuit against both Baldoni and Nathan for breach of contract along with other allegations. Jones later provided the text messages to Lively’s legal team following her separation from Abel in August 2024, an action that sparked surprise. According to Lively’s attorneys, they acquired the text messages through a subpoena issued to Jonesworks, Jones’ PR firm. It is still undetermined why Jones would have been compelled to share communications related to her former client Baldoni or former employee Abel since no legal action had been initiated at that point.
Once more, a legal action has been initiated: Jed Wallace, a digital entrepreneur from Texas, filed a substantial lawsuit against Lively in federal court, accusing them of defamation. He asserts that he endured severe damage to his reputation worth millions, following the actress’s accusation in August that he released a “digital army” with the intention of slandering her online.
Instead of Shapiro, who established 10th Avenue Consulting in 2015 following his long-term service in the federal government, appearing to be an unusual pick for Lively considering there’s no apparent political connection to the escalating legal predicament, it’s important to note that Shapiro’s biography highlights his role in managing various crises during his tenure. These include the H1N1 Pandemic, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Gulf Oil Spill, the Boston Marathon bombing, the Japan earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear disaster, as well as multiple cyber attacks, data breaches, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes.
Shapiro isn’t free from debate. He was part of a team of 51 ex-senior intelligence officers who put their names to the widely disseminated, yet later criticized, 2020 open letter suggesting that the Hunter Biden laptop exhibited typical signs of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Despite it being common for celebrities such as Lively and Baldoni to collaborate with crisis PR teams during disputes, last summer, Lively’s team publicly criticized the director’s handling of behind-the-scenes personnel prior to the movie’s release. This controversy was widely reported by media outlets and influential figures on social media, who spoke about a secretive disagreement between Lively and Baldoni that kept them from attending joint press events or the film premiere on August 6th.
The movie created by Wayfarer Studios, led by Baldoni, turned out to be an unprecedented success, generating a staggering $351 million in worldwide box office sales on a production budget of just $25 million.
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2025-02-28 20:46