How is Blake Lively Vs. Justin Baldoni changed Hollywood publicity

“When they start to hit the lawyers, then I draw a line,” Saul Goodman’s lawyer handed over to the episode Breaking Bad After one colleague, they were killed.

Similar anxiety has now caught the Hollywood class of publicity in the middle of Justin Baldonia – Blake lively legal battles in which several of the best PR names have become the main players in the war that has flooded the city. According to several personal and study publicists who interviewed Hollywood reporterThe scandal has already changed the mode of work of representatives not involved in the case – perhaps permanently.

“It will change personal publicity games forever, 100 percent,” one veteran publicist states. “When the client says,” I want you to protect my reputation and make this story progress “or:” I don’t like that title, can you call a journalist? “No way. If what you do has consequences for another (celebrity), you will now think that you might sue.”

Take, for example, one of the claims in Baldoni’s lawsuit: this Lively publicist Leslie Sloane Lobbied a Daily post office Reporter in August to change the story. The journalist planned to write that the internal struggle for power was between lively and Baldonia to their film Ends with us resulted in the actress “labeled as heavy”. Sloane insisted on a journalist via text messages: “You’re all wrong … The whole cast hates (Baldoni).”

Sloane’s efforts to change the story were reportedly successful. But as any journalist can confirm, a publicist who gives additional background information to try to make a friendly story to his client is not a rare event, but extremely common. Now Sloane is among those sued by Baldoni, while Lively sues Baldonia’s leader of Melissa Nathan crisis, along with his publicist Jennifer Abel.

“I feel bad about them, because (some things they) asked to do things that only any (publicist) would do without a question,” adds a veteran publicist. “But not now.”

One longtime study publicist notes: “I think good chamber enforcers will always have plans to protect their clients, but now they have to wonder: if their strategy is leaking, would they still stand? Customer protection and playing defense is one thing; Proactive targeting on others is completely different. ”

In addition to inflicting reputation and humiliations that could come with a lawsuit, personal publicists are also concerned about collecting financially destroyed legal fees. Study publicists are usually protected from lawsuits by their companies. But independent personal publicists or those who work in small businesses usually do not have such protection. Their clients are often multimillion with extensive resources, but they only pay $ 5,000 a month and do not disrupt their representatives in case something goes wrong. “The whole relationship is based on trust,” the veteran notes.

“For us, there is a zero legal protection and (Baldoni case) I am more afraid of me,” says another longtime personal publicist who has made work at a large agency to start his own company. This publicist admits that he is not proud of the things they have done to hide the client’s behavior in the past. “A lot of time, we are at the grace of people who pay our accounts,” says the publicist. “When I worked at (the main PR agency), we were sent to us that the client came first and their money came first. So if the client told us to do something and paid for it, then you do it. Now we are all careful .

More publicists say they are considering adding legal compensation to future contracts in order for clients to protect them. “It’s something the publicists talk about, but that’s not really a matter,” says one. It is obvious concern that such a move could result in a loss of business, because there are always a lot of young publicists who strive to build their brands and eager to add a known name to their clients list without being too picky about the contracts.

The owner of the boutique agency notes that the Baldoni case also influenced his job in a completely unexpected way. “I had a potential client telling me, ‘Because of this, I don’t know if I want to get a publicist right away. I don’t want people to think I have something to hide. “

This publicist is not a crisis manager – a branch of publicity known for aggressive and secret tactics – but notes that such differences do not understand. “Clients do not see the difference (between a crisis manager and a publicist),” he says, adding with a laugh, “They think we all do it – they sit in our ivory towers and look for whom we can lower our clients.”

All this does not mean that publicists believe that representatives are involved in the case of a vibrant against Baldonia is completely guilty of their destinies. Nathan and Abel shamefully traded with text messages that sounded as if they were cheerfully planning to smear vibrant (Baldoni’s suit insists that the ideas of the two have never been successfully implemented or, in some cases, to joke).

“From the very beginning of the vibrant Baldonia shit, PR was even worse the situation,” notes the third veteran publicist, who believes that the case is “changing the PR face.”

Fiasko, notes the publicist veterans, brings in mind something that the publicists teach to the very beginning of their career. “All people who teach from day one: never write anything you wouldn’t want on the front page New York Times“She says.” This is a reminder of that all important rules. ”

One seemingly point of agreement among publicists is that the scandal has embarrassed the profession as a whole. For example, the owner of the agency says that after the leaked texts of the Baldonia’s repetitions shown that distracts their client behind his back (calling him “pompous” and “unusual”), “one of my publicist friends said that their clients literally say,” Please Don’t talk badly about me with other publicists. ‘Because clients now think we tell others how many shit. ”

Or, as the Personal MP of the Veterans says: “What was the industry of helping and protecting and rising people will change. The whole glow is stunned in a way that is not justified, because there are many great publicists who do a lot of great job. ”

– Aaron Couch contributed to this report.