Now the people hired to do crisis PR for Baldoni are doing crisis PR for themselves.
Abel said Lively’s attorneys were “selecting” messages to include in their case without important context, and that “there was no ‘smack’ going on.
“No negative press was ever promoted, no social plan to fight, although we were ready for it, because our job is to be ready for any scenario.
“But we didn’t have to implement anything because the Internet did the work for us.”
The backlash against Lively happened naturally and didn’t need their help, Abel said.
Attorney Brian Friedman, who represents Baldoni and his studio, as well as Abel and Nathan, echoed that.
He said Baldoni hired a crisis manager because of the “numerous demands and threats” Lively allegedly made, including “threats not to (show up) on set, threats to stop promoting the film, which would ultimately lead to its termination during the rental if her requirements were not met.”
He said the plan devised by Nathan’s firm “turned out to be unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful and organically reacted to it, which the media themselves picked up on.”
Overall, Friedman called Lively’s complaint “disgraceful” and full of “categorically false allegations.”
