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"We are going to war": How the Underbelly of Hollywood P.R. Got Exposed (Justin Baldoni Vs. Blake Lively Lawsuit)
00:45:22
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- [00:00]
Kokomoko
Over the winter break, Blake Lively dropped a bombshell lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and his PR team that has the potential to change the way Hollywood does PR for decades to come. I did a deep dive episode on the lawsuit last week, which I'm sure you've already watched if you are clicking on this video. A few days after the lawsuit was filed, Justin Baldoni's old PR firm, Jones Work, dropped a second lawsuit against him and his team. The second lawsuit revealed even more evidence into how him and his team conducted an alleged smear campaign against Blake Lively in the days leading up to the It Ends With Us movie premiere as a way to discredit her in case she came forward about the alleged sexual misconduct on set by Baldoni and his co producer Jamie Heath. She didn't make those allegations public during the press run, so Baldoni's strike was preemptive and overly offensive. People wondered how Blake Lively's team got the damning text messages between Baldoni and the PR girls, including ones that said we can bury anyone. Well, it seems we might have our answer. In the second lawsuit filed against Baldoni over the break, his former publicist Stephanie Jones and owner of Jones Jones Work claims that her junior employee Jennifer Abel went behind her back to hire additional contractors such as Melissa Nathan and aggressively smear Blake Lively to protect Baldoni's reputation and poach him for a new PR firm she was launching behind her boss's back. Along with the two lawsuits, Daily Mail is now reporting that Baldoni is gearing up to countersue Lively and her team as soon as the courts open up on Thursday, January 2nd.
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Unknown Co-Host
I'm curious to see what evidence he.
- [01:58]
Kokomoko
Might present as everything coming out right now paints a really bad picture for his side. In today's episode of Ahead of the Curve with Kokomoko, I will spend the first half breaking down the 52 page filing by Stephanie Jones against Baldoni and Jennifer Abel because it sheds more light on the Baldoni vs Lively smear campaign and there's even more text and email receipts and it really helps paint the picture of how this all allegedly went down and if they hadn't been caught, which this filing also reveals how Jennifer Abel was caught and they got the text messages, it would have been allegedly one of the most successful smear campaigns in Hollywood history. Then in the paid extended version of this episode, which you can find@cocomoco substack.com I will dive into what I think the publicists named in the lawsuits are going to do next along with Baldone and Jamie Heath as they prepare to strike back. I will also discuss the glaring connection between Melissa Nathan, the outside contractor hired by Baldoni, and her sister Sarah Nathan, who's a writer at Page Six and covered the lively situation. It seems that the rabbit hole is deeper and darker than just the It Ends With Us movie. We've never had the curtain pulled back on the underbelly of celebrity crisis comms until these two lawsuits dropped back to back. We will also discuss the botched article published by the Daily Mail this weekend that seems to be trying to salvage Baldoni's reputation. They said that they had a World Bombshell exclusive and yet they got easily checkable information wrong. I'm not even a journalist and I was able to catch information they got wrong in this article. And then I will finish off the episode by talking about what I think all of this means for the future of celebrity prior and crisis comms, and how the industry is specifically responding to Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan. As always, let me know your thoughts in the Comments below on YouTube or Substack. Just always keep it respectful and let me know if you like deep dives like this in the reviews on Apple and Spotify. We're so close to 500 reviews on Spotify, so thank you. Thank you so much for being a coconut and making my substack a bestseller. We got a ton of new subs last week week when I published the.
- [04:26]
Unknown Co-Host
First hour of the episode about Lively.
- [04:29]
Kokomoko
And Baldoni on YouTube. So if you want to watch more of the podcasts ad free including no mid roll ads from YouTube then you can do so for free at cocomoco.substack.com and then while you're there, if you want to unlock the entire extended episode along with every other extended episode I've ever done, then you can become a paying member of the best sub selling Substack as well. As you guys know, I've never run an ad on this podcast in the two years that I've had it. It feels really radical for how podcasters make money and monetize and people tell me that it's a bad idea, but I truly want this to be an enjoyable experience for the coconuts first and foremost. So those of you who have made me one of the best sellers on substack have really allowed me to continue these deep dive episodes without stopping every five minutes for a better help or.
- [05:20]
Unknown Co-Host
A hellofresh ad like every other podcast. So for that thank you guys and.
- [05:25]
Kokomoko
I hope you appreciate it because I hate listening to a podcast and then every other Five minutes is an ad. Everything I say is alleged and based on my own opinion. That is subject to change if new information becomes available. I'm not a lawyer, just nosy. I always encourage you to do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Now diving into the 52 page lawsuit.
- [05:49]
Unknown Co-Host
Scrolling down, it says, Stephanie Jones is a highly respected public relations expert. Through her company, Jones Works, she's represented many high profile celebrities, athletes, companies and business people. And then it says that Baldoni began to fear that the media might report on allegations of misconduct or of dyslexia.
- [06:12]
Kokomoko
Of misogynistic and toxic onset behavior and.
- [06:16]
Unknown Co-Host
That the fallout would be harmful to his reputation and career. Determined to protect his reputation, Baldoni and Wayfarer CEO Jamie Heath. Mind you, Jamie Heath is also brought up in Lively's lawsuit, is also having bad behavior. So Jamie Heath is not innocent either, allegedly. But they turned to Abel, who had become the point person at Jones work on the Baldoni and Wayfarer account. Abel brought on crisis fixer Melissa Nathan to help her manage the situation. Together, Abel and Nathan, with Heath's active encouragement, conspired to shut Jones out of the process and keep their strategy hidden from her. Abel and Nathan sprang into action, scheming to bury and destroy co star Blake Lively. Their plan was covert, deliberately concealed from Jones, and went far beyond the legitimate scope of Abel's employment. At the same time, Abel and Nathan were pursuing a far more selfish purpose, tearing down Jones's reputation to take her clients and enrich themselves. And then I put here, what is interesting is how smart that Nathan and Abel seem. And yet when it comes to covering their tracks, they had all of these incriminating texts on Abel's work phone. And I get into this later in the podcast, but I'm so sure that Melissa Nathan, the other guy, Jed Wallace, who was contracted and even like Baldonian Heath, they're probably so mad at Jennifer Abel right now because their plan would have gone off seamlessly if it was not for those texts coming out. So they have text featured here and, and it is Melissa Nathan saying to Jennifer, once you are gone, we will be on accounts together and make really good money and be happy. And that was in July of this year and Abel didn't get fired until August. So this was conversations happening while she was still at Jones work. I then added in here where this is messy, okay? This lawsuit is messy. So Jones work and Stephanie Jones added in text messages with an unknown person that Jennifer Abel sent all the way back to January of this year where Jennifer Abel said about Baldoni, I can't stand him. He's so pompous. A men's retreat during release? Is he crazy? And being off the grid for the summer because he's just so overworked. Like, calm down, you're not that important, and nobody gives a how hard your life is. And then she followed that up by saying, he doesn't need a retreat, he needs to be humbled. When this movie flops, he's going to try and blame everyone around him for it. So that is what Jennifer Abel was saying on her work device to someone else about Baldoni as early as January. And then she also said, he may fire us because even if we put together an amazing campaign, it's not going to change the fact that he's so unlikable and unrealistic as a leading man. There's no chemistry with him and Blake, you and I both know that she will be resistant to promote this movie and press will be reluctant to do anything with Justin without Blake being a part of it. So there. Those are my thoughts. Months earlier, Abel had voiced the same opinion in connection with a filmed kissing scene between Baldoni and Lively. And this text messages are also from January. So a lot was going down in January, probably because that was the same month that Blake Lively brought those issues up to Sony and Wayfair Productions in order to continue filming. Someone said this to her. Blake was probably grossed out too. And then she said, yeah, and filed a cease and desist. So even though they're speaking kind of in exaggerated terms, it really does seem that his own team confirms really creepy feelings about him during the course of filming, then goes on to say, at the same time as Abel and Nathan were working to protect Baldoni from negative press, they were actively working their media contacts to plant negative stories about Jones and Jones work. This gets juicy as well. So it's not just about Blake Lively, but central to Abel and Nathan's personal vendetta against Jones was an August 2024 Business Insider article titled who's Afraid of Stephanie Jones? I found this article as well and read it and it was really interesting. It just kind of said, like, Stephanie Jones had a toxic work environment. She would yell at employees and, like, they got kicked out of a bar or something at a work party. So that's all in the article if you want to read it. But it's alleged. So it says here that Abel and Nathan coordinated with a friendly reporter. Indeed, as early as July 29, 2024, Abel and Nathan were coordinating their outreach to Katie Warren, the Business Insider reporter who eventually published the article attacking Jones. And then she says, did you by any chance chat with Katie the Journal? That's what Jennifer said to Melissa. Melissa then said, no, she's calling me soon. Actually should be very soon, probably in the next 10 minutes. So this is also happening a week before it ends with this movie was released. So this is all kind of going on at the same time. Conversations between Abel and Nathan show close coordination with Warren, including numerous lengthy phone calls between Abel and Warren between July 30 and August 12. What they're claiming in the lawsuit is that the girls Melissa and Abel with Business Insider planted this negative article about Stephanie Jones around the same time that this info was coming up about Justin Baldoni so that they could use this to further poach more clients from Jones work to go over to their their firms outside of Jones work. It sounds like Abel was planning on quitting, but they kind of beat her to the punch. On the eve of the article's relief, Nathan boasted about the destructive effect this story would have on Jones, mocking Jones in a text to Abel, jokingly suggesting that Abel should tell Jones, stephanie, are you aware there is a in all caps kill story dropping this week on you? And if you hadn't of blown us up, we would not have been in a bad place. As her planned departure neared, Abel boasted to Nathan about the damage she was doing to Jones work, her then current employer, and Nathan goaded her on. Nathan said, we are going to war. I feel so alive. Hahaha. And then Melissa said, going out of Jones work with a bang. Abel and Nathan also conspired to ensure that Wayfair and Baldoni would leave Jones work and come with Abel to her planned new firm. This is where they say, mind you, Leslie is referring to Leslie Sloan, Blake's longtime publicist who is potentially going to be named in the countersuit by Justin Baldoni. According to Daily Mail's botched article that had a bunch of info wrong, which we'll get to. But Melissa Nathan to Jennifer says, just had a nice conversation with Justin, just him and me. I explained to him a few things in my conversations with Leslie. He's like don't help her. Referring to like don't help Blake Lively's publicist. I'm like, I'm not helping her, telling her what we're not doing and she needs to also not do anything. And my last conversation with her was last Wednesday. And then I couldn't help myself. I ended it with and I'm just gonna step out of line before I go to bed and tell you, Jen is amazing. She's so loyal, she loves you so much and you have to go with her. And he was like, oh my God, of course I'm going with her. And then Jen said, hahaha, oh my God. Love you. Thanks for chatting with him. So that was referring to them talking two days or three days before Jennifer got fired. Them really like putting on the aggressive poaching of Baldoni to go over to Jennifer, Abel's new firm. They say here by the time Jones became aware of the plot in August 2024 and terminated Abel, it was too late and the damage was done. And then I say here I'm curious how the PR boss found out. But then I get, I find out later in this filing how they found out. So here we go. Abel and Nathan's covert takedown and smear campaigns were revealed in black and white on Abel's company issued phone following her termination, which Jones work forensically preserved and examined in detail after receiving a subpoena for the phone's content. So I'm guessing that what she's implying is Jones work and Stephanie Jones did not even know that these nefarious texts had taken place until Lively's team filed a subpoena and then they had to go back and look through all of them. Jones anticipates that she will be subject to even more retaliation and negative attacks from defendants for filing this lawsuit. And we kind of talked about it in the Baldoni episode I did last week that the team working for Baldoni, like Melissa Nathan and then that Judd Wallace guy, not gonna lie, they kind of terrify me. They're really private. They only got brought into this later. Like they weren't the longtime publicist, that was Jennifer Abel, but they got brought in. They're super mysterious. They don't have a huge digital footprint. It seems Melissa Nathan works closely with Scooter Braun and they're able to somehow allegedly manipulate algorithms like the for you page without using bots, which we go over those texts in last week's episode. So kind of scary. So if you guys see any Reddit threads about me or Daily Mail or Page Six articles about me, not that I'm important, or bot accounts leaving weird comments about me, we have a smoking gun now. They are going into the background of Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan. This is the most interesting part, I think, of this lawsuit for me because Blake Lively's team didn't dive too much into who they were, but I had so many unanswered questions after reading the filing last week. So they say Jennifer Abel. In July 2020, Jones Work hired Abel to work as a publicist with the title Vice President. And then I added I thought Abel seemed young, but this is a pretty senior title. And then it says she also agreed that she would not prepare or assist in preparation of any articles about Jones Work without Jones Works express permission, would not disparage Jones Work in any communications with any reporter or any Jones Work client. So this is them referring to the NDA that Abel signed when she started working there. And it says shortly after commencing employment at Jones Work Abel began working with Baldoni and Wayfarer. So they make the case this section they're really going through Jennifer Abel's NDA with the company and how she allegedly broke a lot of those stipulations when trying to poach clients. And talking to reporters about Stephanie Jones. Now this is who I'm most interested in because she scares me. Melissa Nathan. It says Melissa Nathan is a longtime crisis manager who has previously worked at several public relations firms. In 2023, Jones witnessed Nathan's approach to handling clients crisises when they worked for a mutual client. Nathan's tactics went far over the line. Jones recommended that the client terminate its relationship with Nathan, which was separate and independent from Jones and Jones work. Jones herself further resolved that she would not collaborate with Nathan for clients in the future. Nathan seemed to harbor significant animos towards Jones and Jones work ever since. In January 2024, Nathan launched her own firm, the Agency PR. The Agency Group provides crisis management services to celebrities and other high profile individuals and companies. So that's what we have about Melissa Nathan from this. And then it says how they use Baldoni's crisis to attack Joan's reputation. So they talk about how Baldonian Wayfair acquired the rights to Ends with Us and they began producing the film alongside Blake Lively. And then it says later reports emerged that during production, women on set, including Lively, made complaints about Baldoni's behavior towards them, including comments of asexual nature and inappropriate touching. Jones later learned that the tensions on set had reached such a point that after the SAG strike halt of production, Lively had only agreed to return to production if Wayfair implemented additional measures to prevent further improper behavior on set by Baldoni Lively. Nora Hoover was photographed promoting the film together with Baldoni as evidence of tension. And then Abel and Nathan, with encouragement from Heath and without Jones's knowledge or approval, began to formulate a no holds barred strategy to discredit and suppress any potential revelations about Baldoni's on set behavior. And then it said behind Jones's back, Abel went around Jones to arrange for Baldonian Wayfair to retain Nathan and launch a smear campaign against Lively. So the reason this is important is because Stephanie Jones made it clear that she did not want to work alongside Melissa Nathan anymore because of her unethical tactics. So then Abel went behind Stephanie Jones's back to still hire and contract Melissa Nathan as an outside contractor to help with the Baldoni campaign. And then they say Abel and Nathan devise a smear campaign against Blake Lively to benefit Baldoni. It says that Nathan enable strategy for Baldoni was set forth in part in a four page memorandum sent to Baldoni but kept secret from Jones. So she was not a part of this email. In it they say that the memo, along with overall strategy was kept secret from Jones. Explicitly recommended weaponizing Baldoni's perceived history as a longtime app activist and advocate for women in Hollywood. And then it's so funny because one of the bullet points they say Justin Baldoni has been a long time activist. This is from Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel has been a long time activist and advocate of and for women in Hollywood, speaking out about challenges his colleagues face before the MeToo movement even began. Quotations Ted 2017 and I said I'm dying at them, referencing a poorly aged TED talk that he did as proof of his feminism. And then it talks about how they start saying that after sending this over to Justin Baldoni, he replied that he felt like it wasn't aggressive enough and he wasn't feeling protected enough. So then Jennifer Abel is messaging Melissa Nathan and essentially saying like, hey, he just wants you to be a little bit more clear that you are going to be aggressive in this if we're going to hire you for outside consulting. And then this is the dumbest text ever sent. Melissa Nathan says, of course, but you know, when we send over documents, we can't send over the work we will do or could do because that could get us in a lot of trouble. So they're basically saying like we can't put it in writing as they're putting in writing. We can't write it down to him. We can't write what we can't write, quote, we will destroy her. We will go to this. We will do this. We will do this. We will do this. Of course not. But I told him that's the talking through. And then they said he has to look at it as an information document for us to be Armed with. That's all. Imagine if a document saying all the things he wants ends up in the wrong hands. Yikes. Wow. So that was sent on August 2nd, and the movie came out on August 6th. So this is when they're really ramping up the smear campaign. And the smear campaign alleged by Blake Lively was so that if she did end up coming forward about the onset behavior against Baldoni, then he had room to be like, I am not involved. And also, Blake Lively is an unreliable narrator because of all of this other stuff coming out about her. Nathan and Abel use their industry connections to plant negative articles about Lively and press outlets, including the Daily Mail and New York Post's Page Six. Then they also shared out those articles on social media platforms such as Reddit and TikTok. For example, Abel closely coordinated which with Page Six reporter Sarah Nathan, who happens to be Melissa Nathan's sister, to publish an article hostile towards Lively. Which is funny because again, Sarah Nathan, the journalist, never reveals in her articles about Blake Lively that she is the sister of the person hired to smear Blake Lively. Allegedly. And then it says that for her part, Jones, who was kept in the dark about this coordinated strategy and was not aware that Wayfarer had actively approved and participated in it, objected to Wayfarer's hiring of Nathan and advocated a positive press strategy strategy instead. Wayfair's president immediately reported Joan's comments to Abel. So this is Jamie Heath. I said here. I could be wrong here, but it seems Steph was claiming that Nathan was planting negative stories about Baldoni to up the urgency to her work to hire her for a crisis comms. So from Jennifer Abel to a reporter. I'm not sure it says text from Stephanie about the HR article. They're all quoting each other, so that's why it sounds confusing. But I have the text messages up on screen if you're watching the video version. So it says text from Stephanie about the HR article and us hiring Melissa for crisis. So Stephanie said this wasn't planted by Leslie, Blake Lively's publicist. This is Playbook by Melissa. There was no New York Post story she kept at bay. Melissa's sister works at Page Six. We need to flood zones with positive press and push back on claims. There is no counter to claims in story. His complimentary sound bites of Blake need to be covered on high SEO sites. So she's essentially saying, like, Melissa is the one planting these negative stories. Excluding Jones from the conversation. Heath flatly rejected any pivot to a positive strategy in a text to Abel. So Then Heath texted Jennifer and said, I don't like the idea that there is continued cannibalization from within the same side, meaning Jones work, Stephanie and the crisis team. I only want us to be. I'm guessing he means like Stephanie going after Melissa Nathan. I only want us to be communicating with people who are working together and not with ones who are under mining others within our team. Stephanie is casting doubt and that can have an effect like poison. So that is proof that Stephanie Jones was not in on the smear campaign because they were actively trying to remove her from the conversations because they felt like her raising alarm bells was hurting their cause. Then they say that Abel's trashing of woman even extended to Nathan herself, whom she had privately badmouthed just months before, cynically hitching her starter Nathan to steal from Jones. So on April of this year, Jennifer Abel texted someone and said, melissa Nathan kind of talks out of both sides of her mouth. And then. Or someone said that to Jennifer. And then Jennifer said, you think in all caps. She's a piece of. I honestly used to like her, but now I see her for who she really is. Crazy dude. I also think that they included this in the lawsuit not because it actually is going to get any damages or has any like legal course. I think that they're doing this to get Melissa Nathan and Jennifer able to turn on each other, which I'll get into later in the podcast. So then it says working together. Nathan and Abel's stated goal in all of this was to position themselves to be able to steal Wayfair, Baldoni and other clients from Jones work. As Nathan made plain, really good money was the motivating force behind the scheme, not any especial affection for Baldoni or Wayfarer. Indeed, Abel's candid communications outside of Baldoni and Heath's view made clear that at the same time as she was working to salvage Baldoni's reputation and steal his business, she actually held Baldoni personally in an extremely low regard. And I said, I'm set at how messy this is. So then Jennifer Abel said, it's so cringy his face. And then someone said to her, Blake was probably grossed out too. And then, yeah, filed a cease and desist. So they just reiterate those messages and then it's her talking about how he needs to be humbled, etc. So again, I think that they're also including these text messages to try and get Baldoni to turn on Abel as well. To further their plan, Abel and Nathan contrived to plant Stories in media outlets including Daily Mail and Business Insider to trash Jones and Jones works reputation publicly and to their clients. That article relied exclusively on social media posts that had been identified for Abel earlier that same day. So this is the Daily Mail article that was published. Either a shocking coincidence or confirmation that Abel had planted the story. On information and belief, Abel and Nathan conspired to plant this story in the Daily Mail in pursuit of daily objectives. So they're referring to a Daily Mail article that made Justin Baldoni look bad. First, the negative story cemented Baldoni's need for Nathan's crisis management services, ensuring herself an ongoing paycheck. Second, they arranged for Baldonian wayfarer to believe that Jones was decided insider. So they killed two birds with one stone. They planted a negative article in Daily Mail which talked about the uncomfortable set that Baldoni had created. And what they're saying essentially in this lawsuit is it reminds me of like, like people that own attire, a shop throwing nails in the road so that like the cars driving by get a flat tire and then they have to go to that tire shop to replace the tire. So what they were doing allegedly was planting negative stories about Baldoni and leaking the behavior of his on set to make him feel more urgent to hire Melissa Nathan on top of already hiring Jones work. So two publicists now, because he's freaked out, and then they were then trying to infer that it was Jones who was planting the stories to drive a further wedge between Baldoni and Jones work. Crazy. Then it says the scheme worked when the article was published. At first, key players in the film's release, including Josh Greenstein, the president of Sony Pictures, believed correctly that Abel was the person responsible for the story. That's so interesting that this Sony exec, he like smelled it from a mile away. So he said to Jennifer Abel, hi Jen, been informed you have been speaking to sites about bad blood between Blake and Justin. He was good. On today's show, if a negative story breaks, it would hurt the movie signed off Josh Greenstein. And this was texted to her two days after the article came out or two days after the movie came out. So then it says, but Abel denied being the source and instead falsely told Sony's communications team that Jones was the leak. So that could hurt Jones work with being able to work with Sony on any further movies. That's so crazy. So then Jamie Heath emailed Steph Jones and Jennifer Abel and someone else, because at this point, Jamie Heath also believes that Steph Jones is the leak and she wasn't so it said, this message exchange is so messy. You guys. Jamie, he said, I'm hearing from Sony that, quote, someone named Stephanie Jones has responded out to Daily Mail saying that Blake is to blame. And now this has escalated it all. We were purposely not responding to anything as to not fuel this has fueled it. Everyone stand down. Unless I'm aware of any moves, I don't care who is supposed to do what. I'm more interested in that. I'm interested only in any strategy being run by me. I need all to understand that. So then Stephanie Jones replies to this email and says that her intent to contact Sony to correct this misimpression. So then he. So Steph Jones says, to clarify again, I've not spoken to Daily Mail. The above isn't true. I also don't believe Danny or Kim at Sony are saying that above quote also has spaces as if it was just being drafted. And then I'm. Steph Jones says, I'm not contacting press but is concerning if Danny or Kim are saying, I've escalated this as I haven't even touched this, I'm going to contact them. So she was trying to clear her name with Sony being like, I'm not the person who did that. Like. And then Jamie Heath replies. Jamie Heath replies. And he goes, this is also all happening two days after the movie comes out. Jamie Heath says, stephanie also, other people are cc'd on this email. As your client and the one who pays for your services, I am stating to not contact anyone regarding Wayfair or Sony at this time. If you do after this text, it will be a major problem. This needs to be respected now. And then I said in all caps, holy cow, this is messy. It then says Heath went a step further, threatened Jones directly that he would issue a public press release stating that Baldonian Wayfarer had terminated Jones work if she took any steps to contact Sony, menacingly reminding her that she didn't need that kind of negative publicity for herself or her business. On August 9, the Daily Mail published another article, this time reporting on Baldoni's abusive onset behavior, citing insiders on information and belief Abel and Nathan conspired to plant this story in further pursuit of their goal to cement Baldonian Wayfarers needs for Nathan services. Wow. So then Jamie Heath said to Jennifer Abel, best decision of this whole trip. 20 rows separated from the leak. This client, with whom Jones had worked closely for years bringing her from obscurity to prominence, terminated her contract with Jones as a direct result of Abel's encouragement and Deliberate interference. So this is referring to clients now dropping Stephanie Jones after the Business Insider article began to come out. And then Jennifer Abel messaged Jamie Heath in August and said, just thought about something. Should I try to get Justin's letter removed from Business Insider because he had put out a letter earlier supporting Jones. And then she said I would need to tell her on background that both Justin and Wayfarer have severed ties. And then so not sure if your lawyers would recommend that, as she would need to print that and not sure if that would cause any issues. It doesn't look like Jamie Heath replied or they included it. And then immediately before the article was published, Nathan texted Abel that she just got a text from my source to say the article is going live. When Abel asked this, asked which article Nathan was referencing, Nathan responded, I just shook my head at your response. The only article. And then Abel responded, oh, that article. So crazy. Like if they hadn't gotten caught. They're like kind of good at this and it's scary and that's why I'm low key scared of them too.
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Kokomoko
No.
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Unknown Co-Host
Okay. Warren then texted Abel the minute the article was published to alert her that it had gone live. And this is August 15th, so a week after the movie comes out. And then Warren texted Abel and said, story is up. Thanks again for your help. And then she sent her the link to the direct article they're referencing. So this is really making the case that Abel was directly connected to this hit piece article that came out on Stephanie Jones as she was preparing to leave the company and take clients. Immediately after the article was published, Abel texted Nathan a link to it. Abel also sent the article directly to numerous industry contacts, including many of Joan's clients and employees. Yikes. Then they say how just days later on August 25th. So this is a few days after Abel was fired from Jones work. Business Insider turned the media storm surrounding Baldoni and Jones more pointedly to Nathan's advantage, publishing a second article that favorably touted Baldoni's hiring of Nathan to shepherd him through this crisis. And then it says that it goes back to July. So all the while, Abel had been making arrangements to leave Jones Work with CONF information and clients in tow. On July 19, 2024, while still employed by Jones Work, Abel filed paperwork to create RWA Communications llc, a competing public relations agency. She instant she intended to start. Upon her departure from Jones work, Abel also created a website and social media accounts for her new competing firm, all while still employed and under contract with Jones Work. Then it says at least as early as July 22, Abel had created a new email account, Jennifer wacommunications.com to which she forwarded dozens of proprietary messages from Jones Work. And I said in all caps, yikes. Including client information, Jones Works Work product, and information specifically regarding Jones Works Work for Wayfair and Baldoni. And then they said Abel successfully hid her theft of confidential documents and information. Abel continued stealing documents and client information while also secretly contacting Jones Works clients to pave the way for her departure. So then it says that as her planned departure neared, Abel boasted to Nathan about the damage she was doing to Joan's work. And this is brought up earlier as well. But on August 13, she said, we're going to war. I feel so alive. Wow. Now they get into how the text messages were found out. Indeed, when Jones Works information technology personnel disabled Abel's access to Jones Work servers after discovering her unauthorized downloading activity, Abel boasted that she was still able to steal all of the documents and information that she needed for her competing firm. And that was on August 20, a day before she was fired. And someone messaged Jennifer and said, oof. Did you get everything you needed before she did all of that? So let me break this down for you, because it took me a little bit, like, reading this to understand what happened. So it seems from what I'm interpreting, is that what ended up happening wasn't the Baldoni case. While there was obviously a lot of issues there, what happened is an IT person at Jones Work notice that Abel was downloading unauthorized documents on her work computer. And so by default, they had to disable her computer. And so when they did that, that is the smoking gun. So then Jennifer Abel, the day before she gets fired, says, yes, pretty much. I have my way around that, because I feel like hundreds of different emails because I have, like, sorry, guys, dyslexia. I have, like, hundreds of different emails for each domain that I own, so she can suck it. Abel further coordinated with Nathan and Baldoni to ensure that Wayfair and Baldoni would leave Jones Work on or about August 21st, Jones learned about Abel's ongoing efforts to steal dozens and dozens of Jones Work proprietary documents, including sensitive client and business info, including for major brand and clients that Abel had never worked on. Abel went so far to download and copy the Jones Work client contract form, except that she replaced the Jones Work logo with the logo for her own newly formed business. Jones Work immediately terminated Abel. So she's doing this on her work computer. An IT person was flagged in the system that she was Downloading these docs and then adding a new logo. That's insane, you guys. So that was the smoking gun. As part of her termination paperwork, Abel falsely signed a statement purporting to confirm that she had not removed any electronic confidential information from Jones work. But of course she had. In this signed statement was untrue. The damage was done. Yikes. And then it says that Abel proudly admitted to Nathan that she was shaking Jones down to extract as much as she could from company before her departure. So on the day that she was fired, she said, by the way, I'm having my off boarding meeting this morning with our chief of staff. Quotes a joke because Steph won't face me and you should see the list of things I made to bring up. And then Melissa said, I need the list. And then Jennifer Abel said, holding them hostage. It's wild. And then Melissa Nathan said, exactly how business should be done. So I'm almost feeling like Jennifer Abel was saying, like, she's not going to give over the documents that she had downloaded. Like, and they might ask her for it. And she's like, no. So then it says, nor was able content only to steal documents and clients. On August 14, Abel also attempted to encourage Nathan to poach a valuable Jones work employee. So Jennifer Abel said, so this is a week before she's fired. Blank wants 200k. He will come work for you. And then told you he's pricey. And then Melissa Nathan said, do you think he's serious? And he would do it. As a direct result of these actions, two of these employees ended their contracts with Jones work and left four competitors. And then Abel had falsely stated to other participants in the PR industry that Jones was attempting to distribute doctored text messages purporting to be from Abel as retaliation for her departure. So this is right after she was fired. And it sounds like Abel had turned over her phone, knew that these texts would potentially be discovered, and was starting to plant seeds of doubt by being like, oh, there's going to be Photoshop texts that come out. And as has become glaringly apparent, the text messages are themselves enough to condemn Abel and Nathan without any need for doctoring. Yikes. So if you guys want to read more of this doc, it's goes into also just the breach of contract that Baldonian Wayfair did with Jones where they kind of say that like they were paying her $25,000 per month. It's so interesting to see how much these firms charge. Melissa Nathan, I believe, was charging a same amount when they hired her for that three month period to smear Blake Lively. So it would make sense. It's a lot of money. And if they really wanted to freak out Baldoni enough that he would pay that much through his production company, then them planting these negative stories about him would up that urgency. Oh, wow. And then it says honor. About August 30, a representative of Wayfair informed Jones that Wayfair and Baldoni would no longer require Jones services and therefore refused to pay all amounts owed. Yet their contract was supposed to be extended until May of 2025. So they haven't paid since then. And they owe almost a year or about nine months of payments, which puts them at like over 200, 000 owed to Jones Work, allegedly. So you guys can read this if you're really interested, like, more. There's more screenshots and stuff. But I am now going to get into. I really want to talk about what I personally think that they're gonna do next, like what Jennifer Abel does, what Melissa Nathan does, what Justin Baldoni does. Because they are all like being aired out to dry right now. They all look so freaking bad right now. But I have some thoughts on what they might do. As someone who works in the industry, but like I say, I work in the industry, but I've never seen this type of conduct. I've never seen this, like, I've never done any of this before. It's so crazy to see, like, in action. So. So we'll cover that. And then I'm gonna get into the connection between Melissa Nathan and her sister Sarah Nathan and other clients that she works with and people that have been disparaged on Page six. And then I'm going to get into kind of just like my thoughts on what this means for the future of celebrity priority. I really do feel like this is one of the biggest stories to come out of Hollywood this decade. It's going to define a lot. We're going to think about this Blake Lively lawsuit for decades to come. Because it's so. I think people thought these kind of things happen, but no one really understood the depth of it. And until you can put a face to a name, you don't really think that deeply about it. So this is why I'm so interested in this story. Because I feel like people reporting on it are doing a really surface level reporting. They're not even reading the full articles, let alone the full filings that have a trove of information and receipts. And I've not been contacted by Lively, have not been contacted by Baldoni. I'm not talking on behalf of anyone other than the facts that have been presented that I'm interested in and what it means. And I'm, I'm shook. I'm, like, actually really freaked out by some of the stuff that has come out and what they were able to do. And if you really think about it, Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan and Justin Baldoni, they would have got away with one of the most organized smear campaigns of the decade had Jennifer Abel not turned over her work phone. It's crazy to think about. Okay, so I will be getting into that in the extended version of the episode. So if you are not already a paying coconut but you want to hear me blabber for a little bit more, you can go over to cocomoco.substack.com to become a subscriber of the substack and you'll not only unlock this extended episode, but every extended episode I've ever done. So you can, like binge the episodes. Thank you guys so much. And paying members. I'll see you on.