Dropped by Agency, Sued Again, Podcast Cohost Quits

In the lawsuit, which was filed on Friday and was obtained by TMZ on Saturday, Lively detailed allegations of sexual harassment along with claims that Baldoni — her costar and director on the film — and his team participated in a smear campaign to destroy her reputation.

Baldoni’s team denies the allegations.

The alleged smear campaign was documented via emails and text messages reportedly obtained via subpoena — allegedly between Baldoni, his publicist, Jennifer Abel, and his crisis management team, including Melissa Nathan — and was detailed in the lawsuit and by The New York Times.

While many stars have spoken out in support of Lively — including It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover, her Sisterhood with the Traveling Pants costars, and Amber Heard — Baldoni’s reputation and career have been affected in the wake of the allegations.

Here’s everything that’s happened since the bombshell allegations.

Less than 24 hours after Lively filed her lawsuit against Baldoni, talent agency William Morris Endeavor dropped the actor as a client, sources confirmed to TMZ on Saturday.

According to Deadline, which first reported the news, WME leadership made the decision on Saturday morning, with sources telling the outlet that the lawsuit was a part of the reason why it decided to cut ties with Baldoni.

Lively, meanwhile, remains a client of WME.

Following Lively’s complaint, journalist and author, Liz Plank, who hosted The Man Enough podcast alongside Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath, announced that she was exiting the mental health podcast.

“I’m writing to you today to let you know that I have had my representatives inform Wayfarer that I will no longer be co-hosting The Man Enough podcast,” Plank, 37, began in a statement, which she shared on Instagram. “Thank you for trusting me with your hearts and stories, for holding space for mine, and for making this show what it was. I will miss you, the listeners, so much. I love what this community created together with every fiber of my being, and that’s because of you.”

“As this chapter closes for me, I remain committed to the values we’ve built together. Thank you for being here, for trusting me, and for being by my side for the last four years. We all deserve better, and I know that together, we can create it.”

While Plank did not mention the lawsuit or Lively directly, she appeared to allude to the news at the end of her statement.

“I will have more to share soon as I continue to process everything that has happened,” she wrote. “I will continue to support everyone who calls out injustice and holds the people standing in their way accountable.”

“i will miss you, i will be sharing more soon, i appreciate your compassion and patience. i hope this comment section can be a place of support, respect and kindness, a reflection of the community we’ve built together. ❤️,” she added in the post’s caption.

The Man Enough podcast — which debuted in 2021 with Plank, Baldoni and Heath — “explores what it means to be a man today and how rigid gender roles have affected all people,” according to its website. Baldoni also released a book of the same name, Man Enough: Undefining My Masculinity in April 2021.

Heath, meanwhile, is the CEO of Wayfarer Studios, which Baldoni co-founded. Along with Baldoni, Lively also sued Heath and the production company.

Baldoni had an award he just recently won rescinded in the wake of Lively’s lawsuit

On Monday, Vital Voices — a non-profit women’s organization that supports female entrepreneurs and leaders worldwide — issued a statement announcing that it had rescinded Baldoni’s Voices of Solidarity Award following Lively’s complaint. Baldoni accepted the honor earlier this month in New York City.

“The Voices of Solidarity Award honors remarkable men who have shown courage and compassion in advocating on behalf of women and girls,” the organization began in the statement, which was shared on its website and Instagram account. “On December 9, 2024, we recognized Justin Baldoni with this award. On Saturday, December 21, we learned through news reports about a lawsuit brought by Blake Lively against Mr. Baldoni, his publicists, and others that is disturbing and alleges abhorrent conduct.”

“The communications among Mr. Baldoni and his publicists included in the lawsuit — and the PR effort they indicate — are, alone, contrary to the values of Vital Voices and the spirit of the Award,” Vital Voices added. “We have notified Mr. Baldoni that we have rescinded this award.”

After he received the award on December 9, Baldoni took to Instagram to reflect on the honor.

“My hope is that we can teach our boys, while they are still young, that vulnerability is strength, sensitivity is a superpower, and empathy makes them powerful,” he wrote, per USA Today. “Being a boy and a man is amazing and nothing to apologize for. And to value all the beautiful and complicated parts of them that make them human.”

“I believe with all my heart that once our boys learn to be safe spaces for themselves, our world will finally be a safe space for everyone,” Baldoni added.

According to the outlet, the actor had taken down the post by Tuesday.

Just a few days after Lively filed her complaint, Baldoni was sued again — with his former publicist, Stephanie Jones, accusing her ex-employee Jennifer Abel and Melissa Nathan of using their alleged “aggressive media smear campaign” against Lively to “publicly and privately attack” her and her PR firm, Jonesworks, according to docs obtained by TMZ.

In the lawsuit, Jones claims Abel and Nathan, a crisis management expert, “secretly conspired” for months, accusing them of “tearing down [her] reputation to take her clients and enrich themselves upon Abel’s planned departure from Jonesworks.”

She alleges Abel and Nathan’s alleged campaign against Lively as an “opportunity to drive a wedge between Jones and Baldoni and to publicly pin blame on Jones.”

“To this day, Abel and Nathan continue to point the finger falsely at Jones now that their own misconduct is coming to light, and to defame and attack Jones in the industry,” the lawsuit states.

The documents feature a handful of alleged text messages between Abel and Nathan, including those in which the two spoke about Abel leaving Jones’ firm and taking Baldoni and Wayfarer with her.

Despite this, in another text, Abel voices her apparent dislike for Baldoni. “I can’t stand him. He’s so pompous,” she texted Nathan in another alleged text. “You’re not that important and nobody gives a s–tt how hard your life is.”

Abel also wrote in another alleged message: “[Baldoni] needs to be humbled. When this movie flops, he’s going to try to blame every person around him for it.”

Jones also claims in the lawsuit that she fired Abel in August after she allegedly discovered that Abel had stolen and downloaded confidential company documents for her own business. According to the docs, Jones discovered the text messages and emails between Abel and Nathan after they “were forensically extracted directly from [Abel’s] company phone.”

Jones alleges that Abel has “continued attacking” after her termination.

Jones is suing Abel, Baldoni, and Wayfarer Studios for breach of contract, over his $25,000 a month, multi-year deal with her. She’s also suing Abel for defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, and more. According to the lawsuit, Jones is asking for monetary damages she claims she and Jonesworks deserve.

Although Jones alleges in her lawsuit that she fired Abel, Abel claimed she voluntarily resigned from Jonesworks due to Jones’ allegedly “bullying” of colleagues at the time of the online smear campaign against Lively, according to text messages and a July resignation letter obtained by TheWrap.