Lively Vs. Baldoni Has Already “Changed Hollywood Publicity Forever”

“WHEN THEY START TO WACK The LAWYERS, THAT’S WHEN I DRAW The LINE,” FRETTED ATTORNYY Saul Goodman in an Episode of Breaking Bad After One His Colleagues was murdered.

A similear anxiety hos Now Gripped Hollywood’s Publicity Class Amid the Justin Baldoni – Blake Lively Legal Battle in WhoVer Several Top Pr Names Have Become Majoled Players in A War. Account to Several Personal and Studio Publicists Interviewed by The Hollywood ReporterThe Scandal Has Already Changed How Representatives Who Are Not Involved with the Case Operate – Perhaps Permanently.

“This Will Change The Personal Publicist Game Forever, 100 Percent,“ Declares One Veteran Personal Publicist. “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 have ramifications for another [celebrity]you’re now going to think that you could get sured. ”

Take, for Example, One of the Claims in Baldoni’s Lawsuit: That Lively’s Publicist Leslie Sloane Lobbied a Daily Mail Reporter Back in August to Change A Story. The reporter planned to writ that an internal Power struggle beetween Liveely and Baldoni on Their Film It ends with us have resulted in the actress being “labeled as figicult.” SLOONE INSITED VIA Text Messages to The Reporter: “You have it All Wrong… The Whole Cast Hates [Baldoni]. ”

SLOONE’S EFFORTS TO CHANGE The Story Were Allegedly Successful. But As Any Reporter Can Attest, A PUBLICIST GIVING ADDDATIONAL INFORMATION ON BACKGROUND TO TRY AND MAKE A S STORY More Friendly to Their Client Isn’t Some Rare Event, But Extremely. Now Sloane Is Among Those Being Sused by Baldoni, While Lively Is Suing Baldoni’s Crisis Manager Melissa Nathan, Along with Publicist Jennifer Abel.

“I Feel Bad for Them Because [some of the things they] were asked to do ups that just just about [publicist] would have done with quest, ”adds the veteran publicist. “But not now.”

One Longtime Studio Publicist Notes, “I Think Good Comms Execs Will Always have Plans in Plans to Help Protect Their Clients, But NOW they have to ask themeselves: if their strateg It? Protecting a client and playing defense is one Thing; Targeting Other Proactiely Is Completely Another. ”

In addition to the reptational harm and humanity that might come with a lawsuit, Personal Publicists are also concerned about racking up financially Ruinous Legal Fees. Studio Publicists are typically Protected from Being Sused by the Companies. But Independent Personal Publicists, or TOSE WHO WORK AT SMALL FIRMS, USUALLY DON’T HAVE SUCH PROTHETION. Their clients are offen multimillionaires with expression resources, Yet they pay as Little as $ 5,000 A month and don ‘inDemnify their representatites in Case. “The Whole Relationship is Based on Trust,“ The Veteran Rep notes.

“There Is Zero Legal Protection for Us and [the Baldoni case] Does Make Me More Afraid, ”Says Another Longtime Personal Publicist Who Segued from Working at A Majoor Agency to Launcing Their Own Company. This Publicist Admits He’s Not Proud of Things they’ve to Hide Client Behavior in the Past. “A Lot of the Times, We Are at the Mercy of the People Who Pay Our Bills,“ The Publicist Says. “WHEN I WORKED AT [a major PR agency]we were instruced that client camera First, and their Money Came First. SO if the client told US to do something, and they wre paying for it, that you do do it. Now We Are All Being Cautious. ”

Multiple publicists say they’re Considering Adding Legal Indemnification Into Future Contracts So that Clients Are Obliged to Protect Them. “This is someting publicists are talking about, but it’s not actualally a things,“ One Says. The Obvioses Is That Such A Move Could Result in A Loss of Business, As There are Always Pentin Without Being Too Picky About Contract Terms.

The boutique agency own notes that Baldoni Case have also Impacted His Business in an Entirely Urdated Way. “I HAD A PROSPECTIVE CLIENT SAY TO ME, ‘BECAUSE OF THIS, I DON’T KNOW IF I WANT TO A PUBLICIST RIGHT NOW. I DON’T WANT PEOPLE THINKING I HAVE CEMETING TO HIDE. ”

This publicist isn’n a crisis manager – a branch of publicity Known for aggressive and secretic tactics – But Notes Such Distinctions Are Not Widely Understood. “Clients Don’t See the Differents [between a crisis manager and a publicist]”He Says, Adding with A Laugh:“ They Think That’s What We All Do – Sit In Our Ivory Towers and Look for Who We Can Take Down to Get Our Clients Ahead. ”

All of this isn’n to say that publicists Believ the Representatives Involved in the Lively Vs. Baldoni Case Are Entirely blameless for their Fates. Nathan and Abel Infamously Traded Text Messages that Sounded Like they gleefully platting to Smear Liveeli Were Joking).

“From the Very Start of the Lively-Baldoni Shitsshow, It Was Pr of Who Kind of Made The Sity of the Sity,” Notes a Third Veteran Publicist, Who Believes That Case Is “Chanking The Face of Pr.

The Fiasco, Notes A Veteran Studio Publicist, Brings to Mind Something that Publicists are Taught at the Very Start of Their Careers. “All Comms Folks Are Taught from Day: Never Put Anything in Writing You Wuldn’t Want on the Front Page of The New York Times”She says. “This has been a reminder of that all-important ru.”

One Seeming Point of Agreement Among Publicists is that Scandal Has Embarrased the Profession as A Whole. For Instance, The Agency Owner Says that in the Wake of Leaked Texts Showing Baldoni’s Repps Dissing Their Client Behind His Back Literally Saying, ‘Please Don’t Talk Bad about me to Other Publicists.’ Because Clients Now Think We Tell Other People How Schitty they are. ”

Or, as the veteran personal rep’s: “What was an Industry of Helping and Protection and Elevating People Is Going to Change. The Whole Sheen Has Been Tarnished in A Way that’s Not Justified, Because there are a Lot of Great Publicists Doing A Lot of Great Work Out there. ”

– Aaron Couch Contributed to this Report.