Posted on 02/28/2025 4:15:31 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
Blake Lively has hired a PR crisis manager with deep government ties as her legal battle with Justin Baldoni escalates. The actress, who is suing and being sued by her “It Ends With Us” director and co-star, is quietly working with Nick Shapiro, the CIA’s former deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to former director John Brennan.
Shapiro is not without controversy. He was one of a group of 51 former senior intelligence officials who signed the widely cited and subsequently criticized 2020 open letter stating that the Hunter Biden laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Shapiro, who launched crisis PR firm 10th Avenue Consulting in 2015 after his lengthy tenure in the federal government, would seem an unconventional choice for Lively given that the spiraling legal morass has no obvious political ties. According to his bio, Shapiro “helped lead the Obama Administration’s response to the H1N1 Pandemic, the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, the Gulf Oil Spill, the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, as well as numerous cyber attacks, data breaches, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes.”
“The litigation team for Ms. Lively retained Mr. Shapiro to advise on the legal communications strategy for the ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit occurring in the Southern District of New York,” says a member of the actress’ legal team at Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
(Excerpt) Read more at variety.com ...
Bryan Freeman is Justin Baldoni’s lawyer. Freeman has repped Perez Hilton and Megyn Kelly in the past. Megyn got hooked to the story upon Freeman’s hiring and had him on her show as a guest. He could only share so much.
Perez talked about being repped by Freeman but doesn’t seem to be in communication with him even on an acquaintance level. All his coverage is based on stories pre-released by other news outlets.
Any cursory overview of the timeline between film’s release and the organic build-up of bad press for Blake would preclude Candace. She was kind of late to the story.
Freedman*
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