Justin Bardoni’s PR officer file counterclaim against former boss… calling for “bitter revenge” tricks
Published on March 21, 2025 at 11:12 AM PDT
Justin Bardoni’s PR president Jennifer Abel is firing fire on her former boss Stephanie Jones in her own lawsuit after being sued by SJ in December.
Abel hired Brian Friedman, a lawyer for the Bardoni powerhouse. He accuses Justin and Blake of causing an entire legal drama between their film “It Ends With Us” and Blake Lively.
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Friedman filed a counterclaim against Jones on Abel’s behalf. Jones is the CEO of Jonesworks, a PR company that represents Jonsin.
“It cannot be denied that Stephanie Jones has launched this devastating series of events by violating the most basic rights of privacy and the rest of her trust held by her clients,” Friedman told TMZ in a statement.
Friedman says Stephanie is “used to stirring up crisis scenarios to leave clients,” and says she accidentally accused her of taking over from her partner to Cohort Leslie Sloan from her partner shortly after Jones was fired for causes by a wayfarer for her own illegal behavior. Of course, Leslie is Blake’s PR officer, and he is also sued by Bardoni.
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Friedman goes on to say, “At the expense of my long-term client, I quickly walked into Jones’ bitter revenge ployment against my most trusted employees.”
The lawyer said: “We won’t stop until our clients are exempt from all wrongdoing and compensated for the significant damages they suffered.”
In new court documents filed Thursday, Abel responds to Jones’ lawsuit against her, Bardoni, and Bardoni’s PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan… Abel makes many counterclaims, including the intentional induction of privacy, false light and emotional distress.
As you know…Bardoni has filed several major lawsuits in recent months. It includes a massive $400 million lawsuit filed by him and his production company Wayfarer Studios against Blake, Ryan Reynolds and Leslie Sloan.
In the lawsuit, Bardoni alleges that the three have launched a smear campaign against him to control the film “It Ends With Us.”
In December, Lively filed the first lawsuit against Baldoni, claiming that she sexually harassed her on the set of a movie and later launched a targeted smear campaign against her in the media.
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Christine Taller, partner at Quinn Emmanuel, who represents Jones, told TMZ, “Jones’ lawsuit is entirely based on facts and concrete evidence. It clearly shows that Jen Abel will conspire with others like Melissa Nathan to steal secret documents, clients and staff and destroy Mass Jones.
She continues, “Abel, Nathan, Bardoni and their co-defendants have sought to achieve these results through bullying distortions and complete disparities. These facts are supported by the numerous messages provided in the lawsuits we filed on the month and cannot be credibly contested.
Tarah said… “There’s no fact or evidence, so you can see the familiar playbook. It culminates in a fictional work that smears clients and spoofs counterclaim filed yesterday.”