I read this in The Dailies email this morning:
Hollywood's image managers are suddenly the ones needing image management. A nasty feud between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni over their film ‘It Ends With Us’ has erupted into uncharted territory: publicists getting sued for doing what used to be considered their everyday job.
The backstory: During production of their upcoming film ‘It Ends With Us,’ tensions between Lively and Baldoni escalated into matching lawsuits. But instead of just suing each other, they're targeting each other's publicity teams—turning standard PR tactics into potential legal liabilities.
The text drama: It started with a simple damage control move. When a Daily Mail reporter was about to publish that Lively was "difficult" on set, her publicist Leslie Sloane sent what would normally be a routine text, suggesting the cast actually had issues with Baldoni instead. The reporter changed the story—and now Baldoni is suing Sloane for damaging his reputation. Meanwhile, Lively's team discovered private messages from Baldoni's publicity team calling him "pompous"—leading to her countersuit. These cases are the first time such standard PR moves have become legal ammunition.
“This will change the personal publicist game forever, 100 percent. When a client says, ‘I want you to protect my reputation and get ahead of this story,’ or, ‘I don’t like that headline, can you call reporter?’ No way. If what you’re doing has ramifications for another [celebrity], you’re now going to think that you could get sued.” — A veteran personal publicist tells The Hollywood Reporter
The Ripple Effects: Hollywood PR has always been a two-tier system. Big agencies charge A-listers around $10,000 monthly and include legal protection in their contracts. But independent publicists, who typically charge half that, work without any legal protection for themselves. And it's these boutique PR firms that will likely take the brunt of the fallout from the Baldoni-Lively battle:
– Boutique firms can't maintain their current rate without legal protection—they'd be sitting ducks for lawsuits. But adding legal coverage would force them to double prices and lose clients.
– Hungry new publicists are making it worse, offering deep discounts and working without protection just to build their client lists
– Meanwhile, big PR firms with built-in legal protection keep cruising along
– Some stars are now avoiding publicists entirely—worried it makes them look like they're hiding something
The result? The industry is splitting into two lanes: legally bulletproof PR for the wealthy, and risky, unprotected PR for everyone else. It's the boutique firms caught in the middle that are feeling the most pain.
END OF EMAIL
Edited: What are your thoughts on PR in Hollywood changing?
The email says, “Some stars are now avoiding publicists entirely—worried it makes them look like they're hiding something.” Do you plan on doing that or keeping your publicist/getting a publicist?
This is all Justin's fault for hiring Blake Lively in the first place.From what I've heard, she tried to take over and acted like the whole project was her idea in the first place.and having Ryan Reynolds visiting the set to intimidate Justin as well. Blake Lively is no big thing. She has a habit of leeching onto big movies and thinking they are successful because of her. Justin would have been better off finding someone who's more in love with the craft of acting than themselves.
Sorry, Philip David Lee. I should've been clearer. What do you think about PR in Hollywood changing?
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Maurice Vaughan It's all PR, Maurice no matter what stage one is at in the production process. There is no amount of PR that is going to help actors like Robert De Niro or Rachel Zegler once you've turned the general public against you. All Rosanne did was sing a bad version of the National Anthem and it took her decades to recover and then, it was one off color comment that turned Hollywood against her. Blake Lively's job was show up and act. That's it. After hearing what I've heard about her behavior, why would anyone want to hire her. You send your husband onto my set to try and intimidate me and his next visit is to a proctologist to get my boot out of his ass and he's paying for the cleaning.
Otherwise, who are PR companies protecting? It's called Public Relations for a reason and while some of the public can display lemming like qualities, they do have the sense to see lies from fact. What they choose to follow is entirely up to the individual's character, but if they are sick and tired of privileged actors and celebrities mouthing off as if their thoughts are gold. If Joy Reid had a publicist, there was nothing they could have done to raise her ratings or save her job.
Public Relations should be more concerned about the public. It's in their job title! Do you think anyone on the Epstien client list will find vindication from anything a PR does? Maybe they charge $10,000.00/month but it didn't help Diddy any. PR didn't help the Ford Pinto either. PR can be a force for change for their clients or they can lose all credibility because of everyone has a voice now due to social media. PR better get with the times or they'll be another service that has no function in society.
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You’re right, Philip David Lee. It's all PR no matter what stage someone is at in the production process. I think that’s why it pays for creatives to think about what they’re going to say, do, or post online. It could not only ruin a project, it could ruin a career(s). I like to take a short pause to think about what I’m going to say, do, or post online, and sometimes I take a really long pause to think hard about it. And I agree. There’s a point where no amount of PR can help.
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Maurice Vaughan I think the most important thing is to be honest and if you have an unpopular opinion, state why it makes sense to you and ask those that disagree with you to try and use logic and common sense to help you find a compromise. T o say something controversial without the slightest reason why you came to that conclusion is a losing battle.
Should the Philadelphia Eagles refuse to visit the White House, half of America will feel insulted. Here's the thing. Every team member of the Eagles is a college graduate and so if you had a problem with the policies of this administration, wouldn't the logical course of action be to write a paper outlining your disagreement and proposing a solution that you can personally hand to the President yourself, make a news story out of it and put pressure on the President or his staff to read your paper and maybe devise a plan of action to address your concerns? This is a missed opportunity made by other teams in the past because you're not going to get another chance to meet the President again. Frankly, it's idiotic beyond reason and now you made yourselves out to be public morons. PR is about opportunity but if you use it to alienate people with your stubborn approach without even offering a solution of compromise, you won't help your cause and no PR will be able to fix it.
I post a lot of stuff on X and though no one has called me out on any of it, I can defend any position I have taken in both the present and the past. We have seen instances where posts from the past have come back to bite someone in the ass. You have to wear kevlar underwear and come from a place of sincerity.
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Great points, Philip David Lee. Saying something controversial just to be saying it is something I've noticed on social media. And saying it just for likes, views, etc.
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I think it is the end of Blake Lively...
What do you think about PR in the film industry changing, Mark Deuce? Or PR in general.
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Maurice Vaughan, The idea that routine reputation management could now carry serious legal consequences is a game-changer. It seems like this could push the industry toward a more cautious, legally fortified PR model. One that might be out of reach for many rising actors, filmmakers, and creatives who rely on boutique firms.
I think the biggest takeaway here is that the role of a publicist is evolving. It may no longer just be about damage control or narrative shaping, but also about managing legal risks. For those just starting out, it makes me wonder- will PR services become more exclusive to A-listers while independent creatives lean even more into personal branding and direct audience engagement?
I think it's a game-changer too, Ashley Renee Smith. "PR services become more exclusive to A-listers while independent creatives lean even more into personal branding and direct audience engagement?" I can see that happening. And/or I can see PR services doing some kind of training with creatives that'll prepare the creatives to avoid these kinds of situations/PR nightmares.
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Ai is also ushering in a big change as well.
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You're right, Mark Deuce. I wish it wasn't though.
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I would hope it does change. A quote from this case "Our PR company can bury anyone"
But why? Why are you "burying" people and this brings a question, how many people have your companies buried because somebody paid for it, not because they should've been buried?
Being cutthroat brings negative energy back to you.
Also, with social media, people can't hide shit now. These PR people think sending a bunch of fake twitter bots with the same opinion will convince people the beef is real, but people see right through it lol
The funny thing is...these companies KNOW most people see right through PR, and how artificial it is, yet they just keep doing it!!! lol that's kind of hilarious.
You can't even tell who the bad guy in the case is because they're using all this shit and making it clearly fake.
That's very sad for whoever actually didn't do anything wrong.
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"Our PR company can bury anyone." That's a scary thought, Danny Range. And you're right about people being able to see right through PR. I've seen some and thought "fake" right away. Have you ever had a publicist?
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Maurice Vaughan nope, no publicist for me because nobody knows who I am. If I ever blow up and get accused of something insane, I'll be sure to hire one. Maybe I'll even pay some of those Twitter bots to hype up how good of a guy I am. I'm being a smartass but no, and it's a subject I have a lot to learn about.
Just going by what's plain to see, which is that nothing in the media or PR is what it seems.