Justin Baldoni dragged Hailey Bieber controversy into alleged plan to smear BlakeLively online
Hailey Bieber was mentioned in Justin Baldoni’s alleged plot to take down his “It Ends With Us” co-star Blake Lively.On Friday, Lively, 37, filed a legal complaint against Baldoni, 40, and accused him of sexual harassment and creating a smear campaign meant to “destroy” her reputation.The legal filing included a series of private text messages as evidence of Lively’s claims against Baldoni.One message from August 4 showed that Baldoni allegedly texted a screenshot of a post on X (formerly Twitter) titled “Hailey Bieber’s history of bullying many women.”“This is what we would need,” Baldoni wrote in the text about Hailey, 28.
He allegedly sent the message to PR executive Jennifer Abel, who responded, “Yes I literally just spoke to Melissa [Nathan] about this on the break about what we discussed last night for social and digital.Focus on Reddit, TikTok, IG [Instagram].”Melissa Nathan is a crisis PR manager who was hired by Baldoni over the summer when the movie came out.
At the time, rumors swirled of a feud between Lively and Baldoni, who refused to appear together to promote the flick.Nathan previously worked with Johnny Depp after he was accused of abuse by Amber Heard.Lively’s legal papers claimed that Baldoni’s use of the social media post about Hailey was an example of his and his allies’ “astroturfing” plan against the “Gossip Girl” alum.Astroturfing is defined as ”the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc.
that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.”For years, Hailey and her husband Justin Bieber’s ex, Selena Gomez, have been pitted against each other on social media.The drama reached new heights last year when Gomez, 32, revealed that Hailey reached out to her about receiving death threats.
In response, Gomez asked her fans to stop the online hate.The Post has reached out to Hailey’s rep for ...