Now, the people hired to do crisis PR for Baldoni are doing crisis PR for themselves.
Abel has said Lively’s lawyers “cherry picked” messages to include in their case without crucial context, and 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 any scenario.
“But we didn’t have to implement anything because the internet was doing the work for us.”
The backlash against Lively occurred naturally and didn’t need their help, Abel said.
Lawyer Bryan Freedman, representing Baldoni and his studio as well as Abel and Nathan, echoed that.
He said Baldoni hired a crisis manager due to “multiple demands and threats” allegedly made by Lively, including “threatening to not [show] up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met”.
He said the plan drawn up by Nathan’s firm “proved unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful, and responded organically to that, which the media themselves picked up on”.
Overall, Freedman called Lively’s complaint “shameful” and full of “categorically false accusations”.