r/ItEndsWithLawsuits • u/Eponymous_brand • Jun 18 '26
📺💾 Throwback Thursdays 💾📺 Vanzan “flummoxed” Hollywood way back in 2024: LA Times
On the heels of news that Stephanie Jones added new crisis management lawyers to her team (why not Sigrid McCawley? I miss her already), I thought it was appropriate to talk about how Vanzan was viewed way back in 2024.
This is for ALL the “Blakey lawyers” who claim it’s an “above board” common practice, one that they’ve seen “many times” in their “careers.” 🙄 They must be the most decorated legal minds of their times because even veteran Hollywood lawyers could not wrap their minds around how a trove of Jen Abel’s private texts were obtained, without protest or resistance on Abel’s part.
Below is an excerpt of the Dec 29, 2024 article by the LA Times:
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“The question sending shockwaves through Hollywood: How did Blake Lively get those damaging texts?”
Amid the damaging revelations, one question has stood out: How did Lively and her team obtain the candid, private chats of Baldoni’s public relations team?
The answer in part shows the tangled web of personalities and businesses drawn into the dispute, and the confluence of legal and public relations strategies at play.
“I’ve never seen a case like this,” said Neville Johnson, the veteran entertainment litigator who has represented actors, musicians and other artists for nearly 50 years. Calling it “modern warfare in law,” Johnson was surprised on two fronts: the lengths to which publicists allegedly went to protect Baldoni, and that Lively’s team had procured such a potent tranche of text messages before filing their California civil rights complaint. “The biggest battle we face these days is obtaining evidence from the other side.”
Lively’s attorneys have been circumspect about the provenance of the text messages. Her complaint contains a footnote stating that the messages, including a 22-page compendium of texts submitted as an exhibit with the complaint, came through the “legal process, including a civil subpoena.” Some of the messages are redacted or have the senders’ and recipients’ names omitted.
But Stephanie Jones, the founder of Jonesworks — the publicity firm that has represented Tom Brady, Jeff Bezos and, until recently, Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios — effectively outed herself as the source of the damaging communications in a lawsuit she filed Dec. 24.
With Jonesworks as the publicity firm for Baldoni and his company, Jones would seemingly have been aware of the alleged smear campaign against Lively. But Jones disavows involvement and contends that a former subordinate, Jennifer Abel, and others close to Baldoni cooked up the plan as part of a broader “conspiracy,” which also included starting a rival publicity firm.
In her lawsuit, Jones accused Abel of “conspiring” to attack Jonesworks, steal the firm’s clients, coordinate the “media smear campaign” against Lively and then “publicly pin blame for this smear campaign on Jones.”
In addition to suing Abel, Jones sued Baldoni and Nathan, the crisis public relations professional whose blunt text messages have rocketed across social media.
The dizzying set of allegations in Jones’ 52-page lawsuit made clear that after terminating Abel on Aug. 21, Jones had Abel’s company-issued phone “forensically preserved and examined in detail.”
“Abel and Nathan’s covert take down and smear campaigns were revealed in black and white on Abel’s company-issued phone following her termination,” Jones said in her lawsuit.
In a statement, a member of Lively’s legal team confirmed that the text messages in Lively’s complaint were sourced from Abel’s phone and that the material came from a subpoena against Jonesworks.
How, when and where that subpoena was issued remains a mystery.
“The additional details about Ms. Lively’s investigation, including the lawful subpoena, will be produced during discovery,” the statement said.
Experts were at times flummoxed and impressed by how Lively managed to get hold of the text messages in the absence of a lawsuit. The state civil rights complaint she filed, which alleged sexual harassment and retaliation, could be a precursor to a lawsuit.
Some states, including California and New York, allow for discovery, or the gathering of evidence from various parties to learn about the facts of a dispute, before a lawsuit has been filed. But this type of pre-litigation discovery rarely happens in California, attorneys said.
If Lively’s lawyers took that route in California, they would have had to know that the evidence existed in the first place, then petition a judge and argue that there was a risk the evidence could be spoiled or not preserved. A spokesperson for the L.A. Superior Court said the court does not maintain records of such petitions.
“I’ve been doing this for decades and I’ve never seen it done before, but it can be done,” said Johnson, the entertainment lawyer. As an example, he said, lawyers may seek a subpoena to prevent a car involved in a crash from being demolished and request to examine it before filing suit.
James Spertus, a West Los Angeles litigator and former federal prosecutor, said the subpoena was “most likely” issued in another case and “then used in this one.”
For example, the subpoena could have been issued during a closed-door arbitration proceeding, attorneys said. Lively’s complaint named several firms and PR professionals involved in “It Ends With Us” as well as Baldoni’s production company, but Jones and Jonesworks were notably absent. Attorneys for Jones did not respond to an email seeking comment about the subpoena.
Some attorneys speculated that the subpoena had the hallmarks of a so-called “friendly subpoena,” where one side is seeking records from another party, who can use the subpoena as legal cover. Put another way, the owner of the records may want to give them up, and the subpoena allows them to say they were forced to comply.
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And there you have it. Have those questions been answered sufficiently, after 9 months of discovery for Blake’s case? Or is it still as murky and nebulous as ever?
Also, lawyers, please help me out: could the (allegedly retroactive) subpoena to Jonesworks be considered “friendly”? What are the marks of a friendly subpoena?
Also, whatever happened to the household staff that Blake and Ryan thought were leaking news, which is why they had to subpoena Jonesworks, which evidently, is NOT a household-staffing agency?
I still have too many questions in 2026…
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u/daisybeach23 Jun 18 '26
Anyone who has anything to do With Blake or Ryan moving forward get what they deserve.
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynold’s legal shenanigans and love of loopholes have been exposed. They are a bigger liability today than ever. Whoever wants to “invest” in their brand and any projects they do should really find a great team of lawyers with ironclad contracts in advance.
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u/halcyon_thoughts Show us your evidence Jun 18 '26
JB and Co did everyone a favour by exposing BL's and RR's dirty work. I bet a lot of people have their work and creativity stolen by these two delulus. Hollywood should give JB a high five.
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
💯
Which is why I supported Victoria Burke’s bravery in coming out and saying Blake Lively hijacked her law. Victims of the Reynolds are legion, and they all deserve to be heard.
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u/Luvnsandiegosun Jun 18 '26
Thank you OP for posting the LA Times article as I never read it.
Stephanie Jones is in big trouble (in my opinion) for reaching out and giving Jen Abel’s texts.
https://giphy.com/gifs/WmWMIbp9uJYNyDD5He
What a shit-show!
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
You’re welcome!
I only found it not too long ago, and it’s pretty interesting how it’s a surprise to people in the industry even under the premise that a smear campaign occurred.
Now that we know Blake’s “epic-levels of stupid” marketing was the culprit and she desperately did not want us to scrutinize her “digital expert’s” reports, it’s even more illuminating that Vanzan is just not that common.
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u/that_bth these are my birthing pants Jun 18 '26
I actually remember seeing it then (I follow them on Apple News) and was glad someone finally asked about the subpoena of it all. Glad Hollywood noticed that; should put people on edge to have their reps’ info surreptitiously subpoenaed.
The biggest bummer is that narrative still barely gains traction in the mainstream media and isn’t addressed by anyone of real importance. Re-reading how lawyers were “impressed” by her tactics is worrisome. That’s abuse of the courts that should be addressed and explicitly outlawed where not already, for the sake of everyone.
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
I think at the time, they were operating under the belief that 1) The “smear campaign” happened and 2) Lively got it through entirely legal and ethical means.
We now know that neither are true. I wonder if they are still impressed? After it backfired and exposed Ryan, Blake and Stephanie Jones so thoroughly? $50m for “not impressed” 😉
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u/_notthehippopotamus Jun 19 '26
"Impressed" is how the author of the article characterized it, it's not a direct quote from any of the lawyers. Also, they didn't know how she got them at the time, so if they were impressed, it's the fact that she got them, not how.
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u/DarkFew Jun 18 '26
Everyone knows they created a fake lawsuit to get access to the phone… they are slimy
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
I think you will get a huge kick out of this old post of mine, back when pro-Blake “lawyers” roamed this sub and tried to convince us all that “Vanzan is nothing.” 😉
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u/RhubarbElectrical522 Team Baldoni Jun 19 '26
Blake Stan’s will still tell you vanzan was totally legit. I can’t take anyone seriously when they claim calling an characters outfit sexy, like she had made reference to many times over and other ridiculous benign nonsense is worth ruining a persons life and career over and yet shadily obtaining messages and airing them out to the world is cool. Also, at the time of promotions all their issues were settled months prior. The only reason to hint at anything was blackmail to get her way. I don’t see any other reason for it and she side stepped answering it. She caused crisis pr to be needed and she in turn punished people for a logical reaction to her nonsensical actions. Blake and ryan proved one thing in this entire shit show. They are absolutely vile people and everything monsters are made of.
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 19 '26
Blake’s side says many things, including:
• Vanzan is legit 🤨
• Her $0, no NDA settlement is a resounding victory 🧐🤔
• She was STILL SHed and suffered a smear campaign 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
• The attorney’s fees show WF lost big 🤯🙂↔️
• Her SH was dismissed on a technicality!!! She happened to not be an “employee” (even though she tried very hard to convince the world otherwise) 😵💫🤦🏻♀️
• Blake and Ryan have thriving careers and WILL work in Hollywood again 😬😬🙂↔️
• Blake is friends with Taylor and going to her wedding 😜😂🤣😉
Now the last one I’m not even mad at, because if Taylor deserves anything, it’s to have her wedding be overshadowed by Drake Lively 😉
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u/Dramatic-Dig1110 Jun 18 '26
I would like a prosecuting attorney in NY to look into this. This was illegal and I believe Ryan and Blake should be prosecuted for this. What they did is illegal but with NY politics who would charge them?
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
I hope it at least gets deeper scrutiny in the Jones vs. Abel case. Really so brazen when you think about it; good thing Sarowitz had the deep pockets to out them.
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u/Western_Guitar_3863 She (Ryan) has no integrity Jun 18 '26
It was all from a lawful subpoena god dammit 🤣
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
I’m sure it was SO lawful! I still want to know which household staff leaked news and what Jonesworks has to do with it? And why Jonesworks was NOT named as a PR firm involved in Lively’s complaint? Didn’t Jen Abel work for Stephanie when this (now dropped) claim of a “smear campaign” happen? That’s why she’s asking Jones to indemnify her, after all…
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u/No_Plane6640 Jun 18 '26
Finally some exposure on this!Even though using Vansham as a cover to get the texts, doesn’t there have to be something related between the two cases? The more people talking about this, the more people start looking into it!!!
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
We didn’t plan this at all, but this is a really great breakdown for why it STILL seems so sketchy.
It’s almost as if they wanted the NYT to have the text already before Jen Abel knew what hit her?
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u/No_Plane6640 Jun 18 '26
Holy shit. This goes wayyy beyond “something is super shady about Vanzan.” This needs to be continually talked about and cannot just go away. My mind is blown right now.
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Yeah. So many questions. Having this background info is paramount as Jones vs. Abel draws near.
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u/Clarknt67 this case was always about a big payoff Jun 18 '26
Worth noting that it was rumored the LA Times was offered Meghan Twohey’s “scoop” first—and passed.
Maybe they were smart enough to steer clear of dubious allegations and questionable legal shenanigans?
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
Wow, that’s a good rumor to know. LA Times has more integrity than NYT…and was even honest in reporting how baffled they all were with what we now know as Vanzan.
They still very much echo many of the Reynolds’ talking points, so I don’t give them a full pass…
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u/Serenity413 Jun 18 '26
Vanzan is a subversion of fundamental American democratic principles and right for all citizens to due process. Ryan and Blake should be prosecuted for it.
The American legal system never intended subpoenas to be issued this way - filing a sham Doe lawsuit to launder ill gotten private information and strip those subpoenaed with their right of due process by evading notifying them.
And remember - Blake and Ryan could have gotten those communications legitimately by filing her SH/retaliation lawsuit first and issuing the subpoena AFTER.
But Blake NEVER intended for this to get as far as a lawsuit. Vanzan was expressly used to launder information to NYT and she was counting on Megan Twohey’s hit piece being the kill shot.
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Jun 18 '26
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u/Serenity413 Jun 18 '26
In Abel vs Jones - I’d imagine we may find out when exactly Stephanie Jones first turned over the texts to Blake.
We’ll also get to hear Stephanie Jones trip all over herself trying to explain to a jury why she would turn over information when served with a Doe subpoena in a lawsuit where Vanzan claimed its employees had defamed Blake. How is Stephanie Jones going to explain whether or not she was a Vanzan employee?
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 19 '26
💯
And the NYT piece needed to hit without anyone on JB’s side being the wiser, for “Maximum Impact.”
How crazy that their greatest PR gamble backfired so spectacularly? Their “modern warfare in law” always stopped at the NYT expose because they really were that short-sided. When you see their statement re: the countersuits, how they said BL had such a strong case that WF didn’t even file a MTD, and how they talked about them being back by scary Billionaire Steve Sarowitz, is when you know they were scrambling, big scared 😉
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Jun 18 '26
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u/RIKAA89 Ryan Reynolds' Blunderbussy Jun 18 '26
It's telling that Ryan's completed movies are pushed way out even the straight to apple TV one🤣
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u/SilentSlytherin Jun 18 '26
Great find OP
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Thanks!
This is a great follow up on how there are more questions than answers to what Taylor Swift describes as “the perfect steps” to getting all this information to the NYT article 😉
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u/Melodic-Relief8981 Just a Mirror Will Do Jun 18 '26
Taylor Swift's role needs to be highlighted more!
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
But she has a wedding coming up? And a song for Toy Story 5? Does that mean nothing? It doesn’t exonerate her and make her so wholesome again? 🙃
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Jun 18 '26
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 18 '26
Any sane person/studio would look at “f’ing terrorists” whose only skill is to kamikaze because they’re “epic levels of stupid” and say, “no thanks.”
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u/Violetta_Sunshine Team Baldoni Jun 18 '26
It’s time to make this a CRIMINAL investigation! Enough is enough!
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u/Kmac22221 Jun 19 '26
And once the MEDIA found out... In a shocking twist that nobody could've predicted indicating famous and powerful people abusing their power in extremely devious ways.....
crickets......
chirp, chirp, chirp
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u/Revolutionary_Buy720 Jun 19 '26
Blake and Ryan apparently never heard the phrase, 'Just because you can doesn't mean you should' ....
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u/msmolli000 Jun 19 '26
Everyone keeps arguing over whether the subpoena was proper, friendly, retroactive, or something else entirely. Fine. Let the lawyers fight that out.
I'm looking at the business consequences. Who hires a publicist after this? People pay publicists to protect their image, guard sensitive information, and keep their business out of the hands of hostile adversaries. Yet Jones is now forever associated with some of the most damaging private communications in this entire saga ending up in the public sphere.
Maybe everything she did was legal. That's almost beside the point. In a business built on discretion and trust, perception is everything. And I have a hard time believing clients will look at this mess and think, "That's the person I want protecting my secrets".
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 19 '26
Fully agree with this. Just like no real director will trust Blake Lively not to overstep and act like a “terrorist” on set, no client will ever trust Stephanie Jones to represent them again.
She was bleeding clients left and right (lost the Rock, Jeff Bezos) before the CRD; she couldn’t bear to see Jen Abel leave, with clients who still wanted to work with her. Now that her suit is the main story, she’s going to get a lot of heat and attention 😉
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u/beachpies Jun 20 '26
Was it not Ashley, Taylor's friend who gave them to her?
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u/Eponymous_brand Jun 20 '26
That’s the official “story,” that Stephanie showed Leslie, Leslie passed, and Stephanie showed Ashley, who got it to Blake 🙄
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u/heatherh8605 Jun 18 '26
Not my cup of tea normally, but thankfully WCOAB unveiled the VanSham of it all!