Los Angeles, Mar 1: The dramatic battle between Hollywood actress Blake Lively and actor-director Justin Baldoni is is turning into a tornado.

It is revealed that Blake Lively has hired a PR crisis manager with deep government ties as her legal battle with Justin, reports 'Variety'.

The actress, who is suing and being counter sued by her 'It Ends With Us' director and co-star, is quietly working with Nick Shapiro, the CIA’s former deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to former director John Brennan.

“The litigation team for Ms. Lively retained Mr. Shapiro to advise on the legal communications strategy for the ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit occurring in the Southern District of New York”, said a member of the actress’ legal team at Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

As per 'Variety', in December, Lively filed a letter with the California Civil Rights Department in which she claimed that Baldoni sexually harassed her during the film’s production in 2023. The CRD letter, which also included allegations of Baldoni waging a 2024 smear campaign against Lively, became the basis of a New York Times report, kicking off a legal back and forth involving a group of more than a dozen people and companies.

On New Year’s Eve, Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs, including his crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, sued the New York Times for $250 million for libel. Blake Lively then sued Baldoni and the group for violating federal and California state law “by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns”.

The director then sued the actress and her husband Ryan Reynolds for $400 million for civil extortion, defamation and other actions.

In a related suit, Baldoni’s former publicist Stephanie Jones is suing Baldoni and Nathan for breach of contract among other claims. Jones provided the text messages to Lively’s legal team sometime after parting ways with Abel in August 2024 in a move that raised eyebrows. Lively’s lawyers say they received the text messages via a subpoena to Jones’ PR firm Jonesworks. It remains unclear on what grounds Jones would have been required to turn over correspondence involving former client Baldoni or former employee Abel given that no lawsuit had been filed at the time.

In yet another lawsuit, Texas-based digital entrepreneur Jed Wallace filed a multi-million dollar suit against Blake Lively in federal court for defamation. He claims that he has suffered millions of dollars in reputational harm after the actress alleged he unleashed a “digital army” to malign her back in August.

(IANS)

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